Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site psuvax1.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!rochester!cmu-cs-pt!cadre!psuvax1!berman From: berman@psuvax1.UUCP (Piotr Berman) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Supposed monopolies: AT&T (article 4 of 4) Message-ID: <1683@psuvax1.UUCP> Date: Tue, 6-Aug-85 22:32:07 EDT Article-I.D.: psuvax1.1683 Posted: Tue Aug 6 22:32:07 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 9-Aug-85 02:46:15 EDT References: <974@umcp-cs.UUCP> <7800361@inmet.UUCP> <1038@umcp-cs.UUCP> <9563@ucbvax.ARPA> Organization: Pennsylvania State Univ. Lines: 37 > Regarding Charley Wingate's conjecture that Ma Bell was (is?) > monopolistic: > > True enough, from 1877 to 1894, Ma Bell did indeed exercise a virtual > monopoly over the telephone industry. But once its patents expired > (most libertarians, by the way, are in favor of time limitations on patents), > independent companies multiplied like rabbits, with the result that Bell > initiated twenty-seven patent infringement lawsuits against them in > 1894 and 1895. This policy of litigation failed ... > > These independent companies, no fools they, reliazed that mutual > cooperation was crucial if any were to survive, and organized a national > association in 1897 to establish long distance serivce between THEIR > CITIES. (Note that this is exactly the sort of thing that supposedly > can't happen without coercion)... > > What halted this trend was the passage of the Mann-Elkins Act of 1910, > lobbied for by AT&T (and, in all fairness, by others as well)... > > This makes the breakup of AT&T so ironic. I personally think it was a > good idea, but what would our phone system have been like if we > had just left it alone? > > --Barry > -- > Barry Fagin @ University of California, Berkeley Not only Ma Bell was monopolistic, all local companies are. Therefore I stressed "THEIR CITIES". Each local telephone network is a local monopoly, as such subject of (local) goverment regulation. The "market process" there is a bargaining between company and representatives of population. The breakup of AT&T merely split the representation of the consumer in the process, what resulted in continuus rate hikes. For each of the companies local network is a "cash cow" to produce funds to develop new services. Piotr Berman