I'm saying that to the end user, there wasn't. He had a telephone and he had to pay for that service. He couldn't put anything on his line unless AT&T was paid to provide it.
The real (explosive) revolution started when AT&T was in a position where they knew they had to change or be devoured by the competition.
But would he be looking at HDTV or other forms of video that were better?
I see you are still brainwashed from all of the propaganda that Bell put out when they were fighting competition. It is normal for businesses to pursue the most profitable markets. As time went by, MCI began to provide services to a lot more cities. They didn't have the advantage of 'Universal Telephone Service' to fund those markets that would otherwise become money losers, either.
The Bell System had to be heavily regulated because it was such a predator. It wanted to be able to dictate the way the PSTN developed and how it could be used. To that end, they would have full economic control of the market. That's not a healthy economic subsystem by any means.
MCI's entry into the long distance market was much like defeating a famous fighter by techniques that would overcome the opponent (anyone come to mind here?). As AT&T had never contemplated being in compe- tition, it designed business practices that did not work so well in competition. I lay that solely on bad business foresight on their part.
But they charge for such things today, don't they?
As I recall the ENFIA tarriff, I'd have to disagree.
It's a poor analogy at best. MCI provided their own parking slots at
19th Street as I recall. I parked there a number of times myself. And also at their Tyson's Corner and Pentagaon City locations as well. I've never seen any AT&T signs at those locations. Enough humor.But you can't seriously be suggesting that we'd be better off with a totalitarian PSTN.
But they charged considerably less. And you could call your account rep or customer service to find out what the rates were.
I remember dispatching to 14th Street at an ungodly hour of the night. I had to get a supervisor to intervene only because 14th Street was not somewhere it was safe for me to be (especially at that hour). And I was called in to fix customer problems at almost any time. Yes, it was when I worked for MCI.
Carterfone was about the liberation of the PSTN. Economics are always a driving force, of course. Like DPN was the beginning of the civil rights movement for the Deaf at Gallaudet University, Carterfone was the beginning of the civil rights movement on the PSTN.
You are really spouting the company propaganda, aren't you?
And I seem to remember the pricing differences of the equipment that they sold that got them into so much trouble with the Justice Department.
Universal Phone Service was a good thing. But you must remember that the utility it gave the customers it took the money from to subsidize these local services gave those who provided it the utility of calling their relatives in some small town in the middle of the desert (where they might have relatives or someone they are doing business with). It should still be practiced by the local phone companies. But with the customer base I think it would be even less of a demand on the users in the more dominant markets.
Or the economic control?
And why did they have to enter into such a consent decree?
It would be nice. But I suspect that they don't do it because they'd have the same treatment as I've gotten when they tried to arrange it with the local companies. Would any of the local companies treat them any different from the way I have been treated? Probably not.
The local companies are overlooking a way that could return them money for doing very little physical work. Give them sight so that they might see.
I'd really like to see a lawsuit that would smack one of the locals on the wrist about these practices. It would wake up the others. Regretfully, legal action and money are all those who run the major local companies seem to understand.
... at the price of having Bell dictate what we could and could not do on the PSTN.
Fred