An important early impetus for research at AT&T was the immense labor component of contemporary switching technology. Hiring the number of qualified operators

An important early impetus for research at AT&T was the immense labor component of contemporary switching technology. Hiring the number of qualified operators needed to scale out to a fully national phone system wasn't clearly possible, let alone sound business. The scale of the challenge over time is described pretty well here: https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/econ_focus/2019/q4/economic_history https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/econ_focus... AT&T thus had both a clear long-term goal, national phone service, and multiple long-term research challenges needed to make that goal possible (amplification) and economically feasible (switching). For folks interested in delving further into Labs history, this recent paper has a wealth of relevant citations, while also clarifying some important corporate cultural framing that might otherwise be confusing: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365365963_BELL_LABS'_PORTRAYAL_OF_SWITCHING_AS_COMPUTING_OR_NOT https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365365963_BELL_LABS...