IRP

I find it interesting to learn about the origins of the telephone industry and how it has evolved into its current state. This article offers a detailed overlook of the history of the telephone industry. The article is divided in to five time periods. These periods include 1879, 1894-1900, 1900-1907, 1907-1932, and the modern day.

The method of transmitting speech electronically was first patented by Alexander Graham Bell on March 3, 1876. For a short time after, the bell systems main clientele was composed of businessmen, retailers, and professionals. Angus Hibbard developed a system for providing telephone service for more common people and came up with the Bell nickel phone, which is similar to a modern payphone.  By 1932, Bell controlled 79 percent of the national telecommunications market. As technology shifted, AT&T became more focused on wireless and long distance services. The company made some key economic decisions by merging with SBC and Bellsouth. Even now they are looking to buy out T-mobile.

The authors main question is: Will AT&T become a monopoly again? If this were to happen, the telephone industry would drastically change. Many argue that a competitive industry is an effective way to regulate the market, so a merger to between AT&T would be detrimental to telephone business. However, others welcome a growing company that will control the network. For those telephone users who are not customers of AT&T, their businesses may be closed out because large electronic companies like Apple who work firstly with AT&T.

 After a century dominated by one phone company, it’s difficult to imagine a world without one.  However, I feel that there are other phone companies, such as Verizon Wireless, with loyal customers, so I don’t think AT&T will become a monopoly again. There should always be competition in the telephone industry. Even when the telephone was invented, there was competition between Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray. I feel that competition is the nature of the industry.

 There is no sure way of telling how a merger this big would change the telephone industry. If AT&T conquered one century, who is to say they couldn’t do it again?

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/09/how-att-conquered-the-20th-century.ars/1