TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: The Day the Bell System Died

Re: The Day the Bell System Died

Justin Time (a_user2000@yahoo.com)
10 Jan 2005 06:49:49 -0800

Fred wrote:

Divestiture was the result of a case brought against Western Electric
in 1949 and revived, years after the 1956 Final Judgment, over three
decades later. The original case sought divestiture of Western
Electric, which would have opened up telecom-equipment manufacturing;
instead, it was settled by closing off Western Electric from
participating in competitive markets. The revived case came in an era
when the "natural monopoly" in long distance had cracked.

Actually I thought the case against Western Electric's monopoly
manufacturing arrangement was cracked with the Carterphone decision.
This allowed the manufacture and installation of equipment on the PSTN
"as long as the network was protected from harm." (At least that was
my understanding of the ramification of the decision.) In all
actuality, being forced to install a 'registered protective device'
provided more protection for my equipment against the phone company
than it protected the phone network.

Rodgers Platt

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