Disabled Policy:America's Programs for the Handicapped|A Twentieth Century Fund Report
Author: Edward D. Berkowitz
List Price: $34.95
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ISBN: 0521340144
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (26 June, 1987)
Average Customer Rating: 4 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
Examining the AT&T divestiture from a pricing perspective
An excellent summary of the roles played by government, competitors, and the AT&T corporate culture in the 1982 break-up of the telecommunications giant. Many other books on this subject have taken a technological approach, claiming the impetus for government action was rapid technological change. Temin argues that a confusion over pricing structures between inter- and intra- state exchanges dating to the New Deal, combined with FCC decisions which allowed entrants into segments of the regulated monopolies businesses forced government action in the late 1970's. Temin's key is the misunderstanding of how to allocate the cost of long distance calls as a proportion of the service provided by local switching equipment. The FCC's confusion on this matter in the 1950's and 60's extended to the courts, congress, the executive branch, and especially the Anti-Trust Division failed to offer AT&T a clear picture of what it was expected to be; A regulated monopoly, employing national averaged prices, or a competitor which was free to compete with MCI and other entrants when the FCC allowed entrants in specific markets. When AT&T cut prices to compete, it was seen as a predatory pricer. When it stuck to its role as "the efficient operator of the national telephone network," (Temin, p.27) it was accused of denying access to competitors. This sympathetic treatment of AT&T's problems is an excellent narrative. The Fall of the Bell System contains numerous primary source documents provided by the company.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Must reading for students of U.S. telecommunications policy
The definitive history of the AT&T breakup by an MIT historian. Prepared with the full cooperation (and some sponsorship) of AT&T so thus it has all the inside scoop, although at times it's more sympathetic to AT&T than other academic treatments. But it has much less of an axe to grind than other books from the era, and also shows how divestiture became inevitable after earlier decisions by AT&T, rivals and the government.
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