[dennisw]

The breakup of Ma Bell led directly (in less than 10 years) to the rise of the cell phone and the internet, and the ability of everyone to communicate with anyone the world over for a tiny fraction of what it cost only a few years ago.

I have read that the old Bell Telephone monopoly delayed cell phones and the necessary research and development by 10-20 years. Land lines made them the most money and they had invested zillions in laying them out. Poor third world nations that could not bear the expense of decent landline networks graduated straight to cell phone networks which are 100x easier to set up.

I used to read about Uruguay wealth level nations where it would take you three years to get a land line put in.

[Disestablishmentarian]

The Bell System also sought to delay fiber optics for a few decades, until the end of the expected life of their microwave systems.

Without fiber (originally triggered by SPRINT, following the Divestiture in 1984), there would be no Internet as we know it—not even remotely enough bandwidth to handle the data.