3 ms·

So much of what we have today is due in some part to what ATT created. I'd say they're very much an example of what people imagine when they think of a well run

So much of what we have today is due in some part to what ATT created. I'd say they're very much an example of what people imagine when they think of a well run company. Anti trust concerns aside, what they created was incredibly reliable, at a time when few would have blamed it if it hadn't been. Old switching stations would take up entire buildings, when by the 80s and 90s it could be reduced to a single rack or less. The microwave tower system had requirements to have multiple backup generators available in case of power loss, and had to be built to withstand a blast (some distance away). And of course bell labs created a number of incredibly important technologies. This isn't as easy as just throwing money at the wall, someone had to be in charge of talent selection and what projects to invest in, but when you review what they were able to accomplish, it can really make you wonder what other labs were/are doing. >Between 1960 and 1973, NASA spent almost $26 billion on the Apollo Program ($311 billion in 2024 dollars), over 2% of U.S. GDP. Over that same period, AT&T spent almost $70 billion building new telephone infrastructure What a crazy statistic to pull, and the chart in the article also adds to it.

xattt 2y ago
The vertical integration between R&D and deployment is what’s impressive. Most tech companies seem to be focused on drop-in/turnkey solutions made by others that make it seem that any imagination for the future is dead.
- kqr 2y ago
  > The vertical integration between R&D and deployment is what’s impressive. For a surprisingly large fraction of the 1900s, a Bell Labs scientist's introductory training would include elements such as climbing telephone poles and operating exchanges!
Aloha 2y ago
At least I'm not the only now who sees it - I feel a tremendous sense of loss when I look at Divestiture - we lost untold jobs, manufacturing and engineering capacity - and the ability to respond quickly. For me, as someone who spent some portion of my career in wireline telephony, I feel these losses acutely, particularly as the copper wireline network dies - the fact that all of this infrastructure was built by one company was not lost on me, and was very obvious early in my career - but is less so now.

xattt 2y ago

The vertical integration between R&D and deployment is what’s impressive. Most tech companies seem to be focused on drop-in/turnkey solutions made by others that make it seem that any imagination for the future is dead.

kqr 2y ago
> The vertical integration between R&D and deployment is what’s impressive. For a surprisingly large fraction of the 1900s, a Bell Labs scientist's introductory training would include elements such as climbing telephone poles and operating exchanges!

Aloha 2y ago

At least I'm not the only now who sees it - I feel a tremendous sense of loss when I look at Divestiture - we lost untold jobs, manufacturing and engineering capacity - and the ability to respond quickly. For me, as someone who spent some portion of my career in wireline telephony, I feel these losses acutely, particularly as the copper wireline network dies - the fact that all of this infrastructure was built by one company was not lost on me, and was very obvious early in my career - but is less so now.