AT&Ts role in the history of phone
AT&Ts role in the history of phone
Respond to two of your peers postsfirst student
Won
AT&Ts role in the history of phone goes all the way back to the time of the telephone invention. When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, he received two patents. With two financial backers he founded Bell Telephone company.
As a subsidiary of the Bell telephone, American Telephone and Telegraph company (AT&T), was created to build and operate long distance telephone network. Throughout the years AT&T has created and offered different communication related services. To mention some of the milestones the company achieved till it ceases to exist in 1984 include (AT&T, 2004):
In 1892 AT&T reaches its initial goal, opening a long-distance line connecting New York and Chicago. The circuit could handle only one call at a time.
1915 Using the first practical electrical amplifiers, developed by AT&T’s Harold Arnold, AT&T opens the first transcontinental telephone line. The new line connects the network that AT&T had been building out in every direction from New York since 1885 with a separate network that had been constructed by AT&T’s Pacific Telephone subsidiary on the West Coast. In effect, it connects telephones throughout the continental United States.
1927 AT&T begins transatlantic telephone service, initially between the US and London. The conversations crossed the Atlantic via radio.
1927 AT&T presents the first demonstration of television in the United States.
1934 AT&T inaugurates transpacific telephone service, initially between the US and Japan. As in transatlantic telephone service, the calls travel across the Pacific via radio.
1947 AT&T develops the concept of cellular telephony.
1958 AT&T introduces the first commercial modem.
1962 AT&T launches Telstar I, the first active communications satellite. Telstar transmits the first live television across the Atlantic.
1963 AT&T introduces touchtone service, with a keypad replacing the familiar telephone dial.
1964 AT&T opens TPC-1, the first submarine telephone cable across the Pacific. It went from Japan to Hawaii, where it connected to two cables linking Hawaii with the mainland. This brought the same improvements to trans-Pacific service that TAT-1 had brought to trans-Atlantic service in 1956.
1965 AT&T installs the world’s first electronic telephone switch (special purpose computer) in a local telephone exchange, Succasunna, NJ.
1968 AT&T introduces 911 as a nationwide emergency number.
1970 AT&T introduces customer dialing of international long-distance calls, initially between Manhattan and London.
1971 Researchers at Bell Telephone Laboratories create the Unix computer operating system, which is designed to be hardware independent. It eventually becomes the underlying language of the Internet.
1975-1976 Computerization of the network begins as AT&T installs the world’s first digital electronic toll switch, the 4ESS®, in Chicago. This switch could handle a much higher volume of calls (initially 350,000 per hour) with greater flexibility and speed than the electromechanical switch it replaced.
1977 AT&T opens its first Network Operations Center in Bedminster, New Jersey. With this center AT&T achieves real-time active management of its entire long-distance network from a single location.
1977 In Chicago, AT&T installs the first fiber optic cable in a commercial communications system.
While creating all these new innovations, the company also produced, seven Novel prize winners. Looking in to the innovations of technology and services it provided to the world, its clear that AT&T takes the leading role in the history of phones.
Even if AT&T breaks up in to multiple independent companies ending its monopoly after 1984, most have merged back throughout the years. In addition to that AT&T have acquired, the satellite television operator DirectTV, Time Warner, the home of HBO and CNN.
The deal was advertised as an attempt to tilt the balance of power with media companies as the market for broadband Internet and video shifts. But it looks like an attempt to create another media giant.
With government regulations and the capability of other competing companies’ existence, it has been hard for AT&T to maintain its place as a monopoly telecom giant.
Unless there is a very tight government regulation, with the way some of the giant technology companies acquire new startups and other tech companies, there is a chance that we see a 21st century telecom monopoly here in US. Currently there are multiple companies providing telecom services, specially VoIP services, but the parent companies are either its Facebook or google.
Rather than investing and supporting new startup companies, weather it is telecom or other technology related companies, the giant technology companies prefer to buy them. Most of the time the startup companies will be presented with a valuation they can not refuse, and they will hand over their companies.
Ethiopia is a country in east Africa which still has a telecom monopoly system which is in control by a government owned company, Ethio Telecom. There is no other company that provides telecommunication service other than the government owned, Ethio telecom in the country. They set the price as they want, they can disconnect service at any time and generally they do what ever they want in related to the service.
When it comes to being ethical or not, it`s hard to define it when there is only a single company and the government owns it. If there is no way that other companies are allowed to compete in the industry, defining unethical behavior will be invalid.
On the other hand, I see some of the regulations they are implementing as unethical. Using its monopoly power and association with government the company implement laws that restrict consumers from using any alternative and also the devices they use.
Since 2017, it is not possible to buy and use Ethio Tel SIM cards in mobile devices that haven’t been purchased in Ethiopia or registered with the authorities. Local advice suggests travelers should register their phone in the customs arrival hall at Bole airport on arrival if they intend to use a local SIM card. For travelers, local prepaid SIMs are available at small shops, Ethio Telecom Kiosks and hotels. Satellite phones may require letter of permission from the Ethio telecom prior to bringing such phones through customs (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, 2019).
In my opinion this kind of government led monopoly doesn`t work. It prevents growth, allows the government to control everything the consumer uses and also creates an easy way for the government to spy on the people.
References
AT&T. (2004). Milestones in AT&T history. Retrieved from At&T.com: https://www.thocp.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (2019, Sptember 17). Telecommunications in Ethiopia. Retrieved from Telecommunications in Ethiopia: https://en.
Making connections: Understanding the convergence of phones, TV, cable, and computers [Video file]. (1999). Retrieved September 16, 2019, from https://fod.infobase.com/
second student
Tash
- AT&T’s role in the history of phones has been paramount. The inventor of the telephone in 1876 in the U.S., Alexander Bell, fused his company with others to create the American Telegraph and Telephone (AT&T) Company in 1885 (Elon, 2019). AT&T “dominated telephone communications for the next century” (Elon, 2019). In 1907, AT&T acquired Western Union, which caused a “near monopoly on phone and telegraph services,” and the government strongly discouraged this because of that (Elon, 2019). Therefore, AT&T had to let go of Western Union in order to lessen their power (Elon, 2019). However, AT&T retained its monopoly hold over the telephone industry, because as mentioned in the video, AT&T became known as “Ma Bell” or “Mother Bell,” with how “AT&T’s local operations” were “divided into seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies, known as the ‘Baby Bells’” by 1984 (Elon, 2019).
- It hasn’t been difficult for AT&T to maintain its place in the telecommunications industry after the break-up of the Bell monopoly, because lately, AT&T has largely stayed on top thanks to an exclusive iPhone five year contract. AT&T negotiated the first iPhone exclusive five year contract from 2007 until 2012, in which other carriers were allowed to finally offer the iPhone (Cohan, 2013). AT&T realized that the iPhone would garner millions of revenue for them, due to a computation of the “lifetime value” (LTV) that “consists of four components: average revenue per user (ARPU), customer churn [the loss of your clients to another carrier], customer acquisition costs or known as ‘cost per gross addition’ (CPGA), and data and voice cash cost per user (CCPU)” (Cohan, 2013). AT&T realized that the “average AT&T subscriber with an iPhone would boost ARPU by at least $5, an exclusive distribution deal would reduce churn by a few tenths of a percent, and Apple’s unsubsidized $500 iPhone price would reduce AT&T’s CPGA by $300” (Cohan, 2013). Currently, AT&T largely vies for customers against Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, in terms of data speeds, cost of contract, terms of the contracts regarding if unlimited data/text/voice is offered, coverage, customer service and phone availability/exclusives. It depends upon the customers to decide what features are most important to them. It will be interesting to see how AT&T fares after unveiling 5G capability supposedly sometime next year. AT&T’s “revenue for the twelve months ending June 30, 2019 was $183.516” billion dollars, which is “a 15.88% increase year-over-year” (Macrotrends, 2019).
3. There will never be a 21st century telecommunications monopoly in the U.S. again, because the government wouldn’t allow it. Recently, the Department of Justice approved the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, with specific caveats (Kelly, 2019). The government has stated its request to have four major carriers and now Dish Network has to take up the vacant space (Kelly, 2019). Dish Network will “acquire Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Sprint’s prepaid business, and ‘certain’ spectrum assets,” in addition to “at least 20,000 cell sites and hundreds of retail locations,” as well as access to their mobile network while Dish builds their own network for the next seven years (Kelly, 2019). Several states are already fighting this merger, as they suspect that it is a corrupted deal that won’t benefit the public, even though the carriers allege that it will help lower prices for consumers and further move them towards the development of 5G (Kelly, 2019). The Washington Post reported that T-Mobile “had spent over $150,000 at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. while lobbying for the merger” (Kelly, 2019). New York Attorney General Letitia James stated, “When it comes to corporate power, bigger isn’t always better.The T-Mobile and Sprint merger would not only cause irreparable harm to mobile subscribers nationwide by cutting access to affordable, reliable wireless service for millions of Americans” (Kelly, 2019). New York and California are fighting this merger, but Nebraska, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Dakota have already settled their lawsuits (Kelly, 2019).
4. A country that still has a telecommunications monopoly in place is Ethiopia with Ethio Telecom, but they are actively working to break it up. In February, the authorities stated that the company that is “the sole voice and data provider and caters to over 41 million customers” will be sold as a “30 to 40% stake in top-rated industry firms and will split the state-run company into two competing businesses to spur competition” (Dahir, 2019). A telecommunications monopoly isn’t ethical, because ultimately, it allows for the telecommunications company to make more money off its customers rather than if there was a competition in place. This model doesn’t work for consumers because of the lack of competition. Competing carriers allows for lower prices, better contracts/plans, and enhanced technology, because consumers can threaten to leave their own carrier to go to another carrier that offers them a better deal. If there are no other carriers, one would have to be stuck with the service they receive, rather than have no Internet/phone service.
Works Cited
Cohan, Peter. (2013, Sept 10). Project Vogue: Inside Apple’s iPhone Deal With ATT. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/
Dahir, Abdi Latif. (2019, Feb 14). Ethiopia’s plan to privatize and split up its mobile phone monopoly won’t be as easy as it looks. Retrieved from https://qz.com/africa/
Elon University. (2019). Imagining the Internet. Retrieved from https://www.elon.edu/e-
Kelly, Makena. (2019, Jul 26). T-Mobile and Sprint merger approved by Justice Department. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/
Macrotrends. (2019). AT&T Revenue 2006-2019. Retrieved from https://www.macrotrends.
Answer preview……………..
First Student
AT&T has been in the Telecommunication industry for many years; it is among the founder of the oldest communication devices. Consequently, the company operates in a very competitive environment as many companies have been coming up every day. In the nations where there is a monopoly in telecommunication, some of the ethical issues may come up following the fact that citizens may be denied a chance to choose whatever the services they like, and this may be perceived as a dictatorship. Therefore, any monopoly led by the government may hinder the effectiveness of the services offered by the government…………
APA 217 words