the.com/telecom companies
they sell you a dial tone to the future and bill you like it's still 1987.
means corporations that own the physical and wireless infrastructure connecting phones, internet, and data across the world.
from grew out of national phone monopolies (like AT&T's Bell System) that were broken up or privatized starting in the 1980s, splitting one giant wire into many competing giants.
early monopolyAT&T once controlled nearly all US phone service
breakup year1984 antitrust split created the baby bells
infrastructure costlaying fiber cheaper than maintaining old copper lines
global spectrumgovernments auction airwaves for billions per license