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I’m not as familiar with the Baby Bells, so this is a surprising comparison to me. Bell Labs was famously so productive while it had the monopoly money hose, an

by gradys 2y ago

I’m not as familiar with the Baby Bells, so this is a surprising comparison to me. Bell Labs was famously so productive while it had the monopoly money hose, and not as much came from it after Bell was broken up. What are the most noteworthy accomplishments of the Baby Bells?

jiqiren 2y ago
Calling people became cheap. Think about making a cross-country phone call in the pre-broken up AT&T era. It was like 25¢/min. Now I pay $35/month and can literally call most countries for up to 500min before I get metered (Visible+).
- birdman3131 2y ago
  Cross country? You mean a 15 minute drive away. Many places local was only that town and maybe another town under 5 miles away.
  - axus 2y ago
    Really limited the range of those free BBS calls
- glimshe 2y ago
  I'll just say one thing: BlueBeep. If you know what that is, nothing else needs to be said. :)
linguae 2y ago
While I lament the decline of Bell Labs and unfettered research in general (unfettered research labs need protection from market forces that only a monopoly, government, academia, or the very wealthy can provide), I also believe that the breakup of the Bell System was overall a good thing for society. For example, there was a time when AT&T customers had to rent their phones; they couldn’t own them (https://memorial.bellsystem.com/bell_system_property.html https://memorial.bellsystem.com/bell_system_property.html). Customers were finally allowed to purchase their own phones once the divestiture was underway. In addition, I’m not sure if we’d have a competitive cell phone market in America today had the Bell System remained in place, not to mention how I haven’t heard anything about long-distance calling charges in about 15 years due to how many modern cell phone plans work.
- delfinom 2y ago
  I just don't see any positives here though. Apple will be given 100% free-reign to take complete monopolistic control of the smartphone market without Google.
- freedomben 2y ago
  Ironically, we're nearly back at the "renting" phone stage. Sure the companies selling the phones don't use that terminology, and it's a one-time payment for the life of the device, but full control of the device is never transferred to the user. The company holds the keys and will only allow you to do what they want you to do. This certainly describes iPhones and most Android phones to date, and it's getting worse on the Android side as root becomes harder and harder.
DowagerDave 2y ago
it's hard to compare without a control, but a few key points: * none of the Baby Bells failed * because they segmented regionally, integration was super important and you could argue paved the way for the modern internet * consumer services under Bell was incredibly expensive and tightly controlled In hindsight maybe they should have split up horizontally, nationalizing the natural monopoly components/infrastructure (ex: the physical lines)? It's interesting to see what looks like a reconsolidation of wireless now, I wonder what the future will look like.
mikel205 2y ago
My opinion is that Bell Labs created great technology, but had no real incentive to make products and bring them to the public. The Baby Bells needed to compete however, and so they did.
Eddy_Viscosity2 2y ago
I think even with firehose monopoly money that Bell Labs would have eventually succumbed to cuts and general enshittification as the CEOs and shareholders wanted ever increasing pay and dividends. "Do more with less guys! You're smart you can figure it out! The Board really needs this 10,000% pay raise, they have families you know."

by gradys 2y ago

jiqiren 2y ago

Calling people became cheap. Think about making a cross-country phone call in the pre-broken up AT&T era. It was like 25¢/min. Now I pay $35/month and can literally call most countries for up to 500min before I get metered (Visible+).

birdman3131 2y ago
Cross country? You mean a 15 minute drive away. Many places local was only that town and maybe another town under 5 miles away.
- axus 2y ago
  Really limited the range of those free BBS calls
glimshe 2y ago
I'll just say one thing: BlueBeep. If you know what that is, nothing else needs to be said. :)

linguae 2y ago

While I lament the decline of Bell Labs and unfettered research in general (unfettered research labs need protection from market forces that only a monopoly, government, academia, or the very wealthy can provide), I also believe that the breakup of the Bell System was overall a good thing for society. For example, there was a time when AT&T customers had to rent their phones; they couldn’t own them (https://memorial.bellsystem.com/bell_system_property.html https://memorial.bellsystem.com/bell_system_property.html). Customers were finally allowed to purchase their own phones once the divestiture was underway. In addition, I’m not sure if we’d have a competitive cell phone market in America today had the Bell System remained in place, not to mention how I haven’t heard anything about long-distance calling charges in about 15 years due to how many modern cell phone plans work.

delfinom 2y ago
I just don't see any positives here though. Apple will be given 100% free-reign to take complete monopolistic control of the smartphone market without Google.
freedomben 2y ago
Ironically, we're nearly back at the "renting" phone stage. Sure the companies selling the phones don't use that terminology, and it's a one-time payment for the life of the device, but full control of the device is never transferred to the user. The company holds the keys and will only allow you to do what they want you to do. This certainly describes iPhones and most Android phones to date, and it's getting worse on the Android side as root becomes harder and harder.

DowagerDave 2y ago

it's hard to compare without a control, but a few key points: * none of the Baby Bells failed * because they segmented regionally, integration was super important and you could argue paved the way for the modern internet * consumer services under Bell was incredibly expensive and tightly controlled In hindsight maybe they should have split up horizontally, nationalizing the natural monopoly components/infrastructure (ex: the physical lines)? It's interesting to see what looks like a reconsolidation of wireless now, I wonder what the future will look like.

mikel205 2y ago

My opinion is that Bell Labs created great technology, but had no real incentive to make products and bring them to the public. The Baby Bells needed to compete however, and so they did.

Eddy_Viscosity2 2y ago

I think even with firehose monopoly money that Bell Labs would have eventually succumbed to cuts and general enshittification as the CEOs and shareholders wanted ever increasing pay and dividends. "Do more with less guys! You're smart you can figure it out! The Board really needs this 10,000% pay raise, they have families you know."