2/1     Dear old farts. What was the consumer end of telecomm like before
        the 1983 divestiture of AT&T into 7 baby Bells, in terms of price
        for consumers, sound quality, reliability, and service?
        \_ Most of you youngin' were too young to remember this but back
           then long distance calls were prohibitively expensive. On the
           other hand, you didn't have tons of long distance carriers to
           choose from each with confusing plans, and you didn't have to
           worry about MCI or 1010220 or 1010-RIPOFF that exist today, each
           ripping you off one way or another because you didn't read the
           fine prints. The quality and reliability of service was CONSISTENT,
           meaning it wasn't all that great by today's standards but at least
           you knew that your line sucked as much as everyone elses. Nowadays
           the quality varies so much (cell, landline, voip) that it's hard
           to make an informed decision on choosing a good plan-- e.g. in
           one year Cingular's great, but next year it'll be oversaturated
           again. To sum up, I miss the accountability and consistency of
           service in the old days. I miss not having to read 10 different
           plans before choosing one. I miss the easy to read telephone
           bills-- you ever read today's bills and see how confusing it
           is?  I wish that today's companies would offer more
           accountability, more independent auditing of quality of service,
           and above all else making plans and fine prints much clearer for
           consumers to make informed decisions.                -old man
        \_ i thought it's just AT&T :p  the quality and reliability was
           pretty good in my experience.  During Chinese New Year time,
           however, I would have to keep dialing for hours at the time to
           get the international phone call through.  Long Distance phone
           call was expensive.  The most important thing, IMHO, is that there
           isn't much innovation when AT&T dominated the phone landscape.
           Call-waiting, call-forwarding, caller-ID, i think all these things
           cames up *AFTER* the break up of AT&T.
                - cant wait to see wave of innovation comes out after we
                  breaks up Microsoft
           \_ Let's see how many units M$ can break up to: OS, browser and web
              server, dev tools, games, office apps.  Browser and web server
              might need to break up further into two.
        \_ I remember standing in line with my dad so he could get a phone.
           You would rent your phone from AT&T, you didn't own it.  I read
           an article about little old ladies who have been paying the phone
           rental fees for 20+ years because the phone companies never bothered
           to tell them they can have their own phones for free now.  It's
           a not-insignificant revenue stream.
           \_ I might be wrong, but from what I recall you could own a
              phone or rent one. However, it was expensive to buy one
              and most people rented.
              \_ You could own a cheap one, but it voided out your AT&T service
                 agreement. If something happened, they would "check the line"
                 since your non-standard equipment might have caused the
                 problem. Since your agreement was now void, they could charge
                 you whatever and take care of it whenever they felt like.
                 Mmmm... Taste that monopoly goodness. Then AT&T figured they
                 could get around complaints and make money by selling AT&T
                 approved phones. Welcome Princess and Slimline phones!
        \_ Cost of long-distance calls (let alone international calls) was
           prohibitive. For a modern equivalent, cf. Japan's NTT five to
           ten years ago, complete with phone renting, no competition.
        \_ "So I feel like a real consumer fool about my money, and now
           I have to feel like a fool about my phone, too. I liked it
           better back when we all had to belong to the same Telephone
           Company, and phones were phones -- black, heavy objects
           that were routinely used in the movies as murder weapons
           (try that with today's phones!). Also, they were
           permanently attached to your house, and only highly trained
           Telephone Company personnel could "install" them. This
           involved attaching four wires, but the Telephone Company
           always made it sound like brain surgery. It was part of the
           mystique. When you called for your installation
           appointment, the Telephone Company would say: "We will have
           an installer in your area between the hours of 9
           A.M. October 3 and the following spring. Will someone be at
           home?" And you would say yes, if you wanted a phone. You
           would stay at home, the anxious hours ticking by, and you
           would wait for your Phone Man. It was as close as most
           people came to experiencing what heroin addicts go through,
           the difference being that heroin addicts have the option of
           going to another supplier. Phone customer's didn't. They
           feared the power of the Telephone Company.

           I remember when I was in college, and my roommate Rob
           somehow obtained a phone. It was a Hot Phone. Rob hooked it
           up to our legal, wall-mounted phone with a long wire, which
           gave us the capability of calling the pizza-delivery man
           without getting up off the floor. This capability was
           essential, many nights. But we lived in fear. Because we
           knew we were breaking the rule -- not a local, state, or
           federal rule, but a Telephone Company rule -- and that any
           moment, agents of the Telephone Company, accompanied by
           heavy black dogs, might burst through the door and seize
           the Hot Phone and write our names down and we would never
           be allowed to have phone service again. And the dogs would
           seize our pizza."   --Dave Barry