Synopses & Reviews
A comprehensive examination of the events that led to the Bell System breakup. . . . Argues that divestiture was the culmination of a long process of change in telecommunications policy that began several decades ago. Associates new technologies, economic pressure, and social and political developments as the driving stimulus inducing a change that was a process of gradual evolution rather than programmed revolution in national telecommunications policies.
Journal of Economic LiteratureThis book presents, for the first time, a complete history of the events that led to the breakup of the Bell System on January 1, 1984. Henck and Strassburg, each of whom has a lifetime of experience in the telecommunications field, correct the popular misconception that the divestiture of AT&T was an isolated event which by itself brought about the confusion and occasional chaos besetting the average telephone user. Rather, they demonstrate, it was the culmination of a process of change in telecommunications policy that began several decades ago.
Synopsis
This book presents, for the first time, a complete history of the events that led to the breakup of the Bell System on January 1, 1984. Henck and Strassburg, each of whom has a lifetime of experience in the telecommunications field, correct the popular misconception that the divestiture of AT&T was an isolated event which by itself brought about the confusion and occasional chaos besetting the average telephone user. Rather, they demonstrate, it was the culmination of a process of change in telecommunications policy that began several decades ago.
Table of Contents
Preface
The Way It Was
Making It Through the War
The First Chinks in the Dike
The Courts Take a Hand
The Surveillance Continues
The Tariff Solution
Congress in Orbit
The Bigger They Come
"Cats and Dogs"
The FCC Goes Public
The End of End-to-End
Open Markets and Open Skies
The Philadelphia Story
By Any Other Name
From ENFIA to Access
Always the Defendant
The Bell Bill and Others
See You in Court
The World Changes
"Czar Harold"
Outlook: Strassburg
Epilogue: Henck