AT&T was highly regulated, and had to justify its borrowing and prices to local authorities. I consulted extensively for AT&T in the 1960's and 1970's and testified on their behalf before the FCC. Things varied tremendously among the states. In the 1970's Louisiana froze rates at non-remunerative levels. Southwest Bell couldn't make a buck. As a result, telephone trucks had to be camouflaged or locals who couldn't get service installed would stone them. In Alabama, the company had to locate facilities where the politicians insisted. In some places, like Texas, individual telephone managers bribed officials, were convicted, and went to jail because (they claimed) they had to buy permission to install needed facilities.
Yet even so, no major telephone system had lower error rates, or provided service that got cheaper faster. The Old AT&T was a great company. It was beautifully managed, slow and majestic. It made money, but never charged what the traffic could bear. It was innovative, far sighted. Pure research, Nobel prizes -- invention of microelectronics (esp. the transistor). Invention of radio telescopy. Not to mention UNIX. On the whole, IMO, one of mankind's better developments.
|
