From loading coils to microwaves: The rise and fall of Bell

Dean Gillette

Telecommunications Policy, 1989, vol. 13, issue 4, 309-312

Abstract: AT & T's 60-year monopoly on intercity service in the USA was founded on its sole ownership of patents on the loading coil and the electronic amplifiers that made long-distance telephony possible. The monopoly lasted in spite of social, economic and political pressures for a free market only as long as there was no technical alternative to wireline systems for large capacity telecommunications. When microwave radio relay was developed, it proved to be less expensive than wireline, and AT & T did not control the patents on it. The technical foundation of the monopoly vanished and the structure crumbled.

Date: 1989
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