In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, Bell System local telephone operating companies had $12.8 million in uncollectible revenue. That was 1.3% of total operating revenue, up from about 0.4% of total operating revenue in the early 1920s. Perhaps new measures addressing uncollectibles were instituted about 1934. In any case, in 1934 uncollectibles fell to 0.34% of operating revenues. From 1934 to 1952, uncollectibles varied about this level, with a low of 0.18% in 1945 and a high of 0.49% in 1938.
Relative to 1932, and even relative to today, 2005 was a year of halcyon prosperity. In that year, U.S. telecommunications corporations’ income statement deductions for bad debt amounted to 1.45% of their total receipts.
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Data: Bell System income statement items, as reported in AT&T Annual Reports from 1920 to 1952. U.S. telecommunications corporations’ data from Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income, Table 6: Returns of Active Corporations, 2005, column 64.