telcos

In 1934, the U.S. Communications Act established a class of common carriers subject to only a subset of common-carrier (Title II) regulation.  This class of common carriers, called “connecting carriers”, included: any carrier engaged in interstate or foreign communication solely through physical connection with the facilities of another carrier not directly or indirectly controlling or … Continue reading "connecting carrier" classification successfully limits regulation

The expiration of Bell telephone patents in 1894 and 1895 unleashed vigorous competition in the early U.S. telephone industry.  On Jan. 1, 1894, telephones in the U.S. numbered 266 thousand, and the Bell System operated 89% of them.  On Jan. 1, 1908, the number of telephones had increased to 6.1 million, and the Bell System … Continue reading early U.S. telephone competition

From 1988 to 2007, U.S. local wireline telephone companies went from strong growth to rapid decline in the number of telephone subscriber loops.  Loop counts peaked about 2000.  On both sides of this peak, small telephone companies had greater loop growth than large telephone companies. A constant across these twenty years was telephone company mergers … Continue reading U.S. local telephone industry, 1988-2007

The break-up of AT&T in 1984 is a well-recognized, major structural change in the U.S. telephone industry.  In the 1984 divestiture, AT&T’s local telephone business was separated into seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs).  By year-end 2006, recombinations of RBOCs had left as AT&T successor companies the new AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest.  AT&T, Verizon, … Continue reading structural change in the U.S. telephone industry