The fall of the Bell system

the long version

This book traces and analyzes the events that resulted in the breakup of AT & T, the largest corporate reorganization in history. As the author demonstrates, AT & T's status eroded over many years. That process of erosion began when the FCC allowed competition into small corners of the telecommunications system, while professing support for the overall status of AT & T. But as the FCC should have foreseen, the structure of regulatory prices provided a generous price umbrella for the new entrants into telecommunications. Each time the FCC allowed more entry, both the entrants' expected profits and the demand for still more entry rose.