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The Rape of Ma Bell: The Criminal Wrecking of the Best Telephone System in the World
Looks at the past, present, and future of U.S. communications, argues that the breakup of AT&T was a costly mistake, and suggests ways to improve the system
270 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1988
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December 28, 2013
Kind of was a love/hate relationship with this book.
Lot of the points made were true at the time, but obviously the author had no way of seeing the (re)consolidation of the industry even if he seemed to have a good idea of the consolidation of technologies (telephone, television, computer), much like The Cable Guy movie a decade later. In one of the final chapters (quite a delayed payoff) he talked about ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network; once had a computer networking instructor describe the technology as "too little too late" for why it failed to live up to its promise) and mentioned T1 (one of the hugely expensive technologies of accessing the Internet well into the nineties), though interesting he never mentioned the "Internet" specifically. (Perhaps term was not in such wide use. Another guess on some of his talk in that chapter is he figured the audience was familiar with telephone and television and perhaps chose to avoid sounding more "technical" by using a lot of the terminology we would come to associate with computers and the Internet.) Also curious on topics of computer systems made at that later point in the book is that there was no mention of the UNIX operating system, created at AT&T's Bell Labs beginning in the early 1970s (along with the C Programming language which is still the 800 pound gorilla and still pretty much a _MUST_ for a fast operating system), the concepts of which would help inspire Linux in the 1990s and make the Internet as we know it possible.
As for the talk of course in the book's subtitle, it really seemed spot on how the government was an ingrate for what American Telephone & Telegraph had done back in the day, especially as they forced them into costly redundant systems (especially in the break-up) that cost untold hundreds of billions of waste in the end, combined with regulators restricting them from offering much more than a "bare bones" telephone service which likely retarded growth of wireless/cellular technologies which even today Japan and Europe likely have nicer technologies. (Even if the recent smart phone wars might be as close as the US has ever come to dominance, but seems more in the sense of "must-have" fashion accessories.) Much like the transistor and UNIX, a lot of crown jewels AT&T had been unable to commercialize on their own before the breakup, were at least for a time given away either for a small nominal fee or almost freely. (Especially Berkeley UNIX in academia.)
Seemed AT&T Corp's demise at the time really came down to bad luck on the judge it ended up with in MCI's antitrust suit, whereas Sprint's similar one at the time was dismissed. We can of course only speculate on what an alternative history might have looked like had AT&T remained intact, but there definitely was quite a lot of waste in the breakup and government forcing costly redundant systems to stick to the letter of the regulations when it made no sense on technological or economic grounds. (Other than risk being sued by the government to enforce such regulations.)
Maybe it was better over this 30 years since that the breakup happened, but seems funny that most of the companies (and companies not formerly part of the Bell System) recombined to form AT&T Inc (from SBC Communication's acquisition binge) and Verizon (from Bell Atlantic's own aggressive buying), along with AT&T having various failed entries into computers (NCR) and cable television (TCI), wasting further billions of shareholder wealth. (Argument typically being the climate had changed.)
Overall maybe this book is best now as a kind of time capsule and for nostalgia seekers of "the good old days."
Lot of the points made were true at the time, but obviously the author had no way of seeing the (re)consolidation of the industry even if he seemed to have a good idea of the consolidation of technologies (telephone, television, computer), much like The Cable Guy movie a decade later. In one of the final chapters (quite a delayed payoff) he talked about ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network; once had a computer networking instructor describe the technology as "too little too late" for why it failed to live up to its promise) and mentioned T1 (one of the hugely expensive technologies of accessing the Internet well into the nineties), though interesting he never mentioned the "Internet" specifically. (Perhaps term was not in such wide use. Another guess on some of his talk in that chapter is he figured the audience was familiar with telephone and television and perhaps chose to avoid sounding more "technical" by using a lot of the terminology we would come to associate with computers and the Internet.) Also curious on topics of computer systems made at that later point in the book is that there was no mention of the UNIX operating system, created at AT&T's Bell Labs beginning in the early 1970s (along with the C Programming language which is still the 800 pound gorilla and still pretty much a _MUST_ for a fast operating system), the concepts of which would help inspire Linux in the 1990s and make the Internet as we know it possible.
As for the talk of course in the book's subtitle, it really seemed spot on how the government was an ingrate for what American Telephone & Telegraph had done back in the day, especially as they forced them into costly redundant systems (especially in the break-up) that cost untold hundreds of billions of waste in the end, combined with regulators restricting them from offering much more than a "bare bones" telephone service which likely retarded growth of wireless/cellular technologies which even today Japan and Europe likely have nicer technologies. (Even if the recent smart phone wars might be as close as the US has ever come to dominance, but seems more in the sense of "must-have" fashion accessories.) Much like the transistor and UNIX, a lot of crown jewels AT&T had been unable to commercialize on their own before the breakup, were at least for a time given away either for a small nominal fee or almost freely. (Especially Berkeley UNIX in academia.)
Seemed AT&T Corp's demise at the time really came down to bad luck on the judge it ended up with in MCI's antitrust suit, whereas Sprint's similar one at the time was dismissed. We can of course only speculate on what an alternative history might have looked like had AT&T remained intact, but there definitely was quite a lot of waste in the breakup and government forcing costly redundant systems to stick to the letter of the regulations when it made no sense on technological or economic grounds. (Other than risk being sued by the government to enforce such regulations.)
Maybe it was better over this 30 years since that the breakup happened, but seems funny that most of the companies (and companies not formerly part of the Bell System) recombined to form AT&T Inc (from SBC Communication's acquisition binge) and Verizon (from Bell Atlantic's own aggressive buying), along with AT&T having various failed entries into computers (NCR) and cable television (TCI), wasting further billions of shareholder wealth. (Argument typically being the climate had changed.)
Overall maybe this book is best now as a kind of time capsule and for nostalgia seekers of "the good old days."
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