Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 20:28:07 -0500 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: jack <jack@germanium.xtalwind.net> Cc: <freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Why anti-trust law? Message-ID: <15219.14503.546639.574929@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <20010809211158.T46275-100000@germanium.xtalwind.net> References: <15219.2554.597252.164723@guru.mired.org> <20010809211158.T46275-100000@germanium.xtalwind.net>
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jack <jack@germanium.xtalwind.net> types: > Today Mike Meyer wrote: > > > As for AT&T - the government set it up as a monopoly because they > > decided universal, interoperable phone service would be a good > > idea. The government mandated price structure had long distance and > > business users subsidizing low-end residential users to achieve that > > goal. A lot of people complain that the breakup caused a lot of > > headaches - which it did - and was thus a bad thing. I doubt that we'd > > be able to buy long distance at 2 cents/minute today if we had to buy > > it from AT&T, which makes the breakup a good thing. > Before the breakup only devices provided by `the phone company' > could be connected to the PTN. Every month, year after year, you > paid for that same phone. For an individual their rates for an > answering machine were out of the question. That changed before the breakup, but was one of the critical steps along the path. > Remember acoustic modems? 150, or the luxurious 300, baud. :) Yes. I even owned one. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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