Quote:
Originally Posted by lumpynose
I don't at that time recall ever hearing anyone say that it was a government enforced monopoly, simply that it was a monopoly and as such stifled competition as well as the other usual problems we get with monopolies.
As for only hooking up Bell Telephone equipment, when I was in high school we had an Ericofone, made by Ericsson Company of Sweden. Later, at work we had modems connected to the phone lines that weren't made by Bell Telephone. The main thing I remember is that when you connected something not made by BT you had to let them know and tell them its Ringer Equivalency.
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil:Ericofon_1956_1.jpg |
It was a government regulated monopoly. The power company and gas company worked pretty much the same way at that time. There might have been some small mom and pop telephone companies around in rural locations, but there was only one set of wires into each residents. For something like 95% of the country, it was the Bell Systems.
I worked for BellSouth for about 13 years. The regulated part of the company was Southern Bell. Each state had it's own regulation body, so rules were different from state to state. In general, prior to the 1982 breakup, if you wanted to hook non Bell equipment up to the Bell network, you had to get it certified by Bell, then pay a monthly fee.