Remember when "Direct dialing" was a big thing. What happened to "Ma Bell"?

[fuzzybuddy]

Remember when "Direct dialing" was the most up-to-date feature of the phone company. And what happened to the "phone company"- "Ma Bell"? When I lived in NYC, the 'phone company' was this massive building, with a huge marble walled lobby. When you talked to the clerk, there was an echo. What happened to Ma Bell?

 

[That Lady in PA]

Breakup of the Bell System - Wikipedia

 

[Aunt Bea]

Several men and women in my family had great careers with the phone company that didn’t require a college degree.

 

[dilettante]

The breakup had pros and cons. But since that point complexity has grown, prices risen where they should have fallen as R&D costs were recovered, and getting service outages fixed can be a nightmare of circular web pages and voice jails.

No doubt NYC and Wall Street gained the most. Building Babylon ever higher sucks the rest of us dry.