A Slippery Slope

A comprehensive examination of the events that led to the Bell System breakup. . . . Argues that divestiture was the culmination of a long process of change in telecommunications policy that began several decades ago. Associates new technologies economic pressure and social and political developments as the driving stimulus inducing a change that was a process of gradual evolution rather than programmed revolution in national telecommunications policies. Journal of Economic LiteratureThis book presents for the first time a complete history of the events that led to the breakup of the Bell System on January 1 1984. Henck and Strassburg each of whom has a lifetime of experience in the telecommunications field correct the popular misconception that the divestiture of AT&T was an isolated event which by itself brought about the confusion and occasional chaos besetting the average telephone user. Rather they demonstrate it was the culmination of a process of change in telecommunications policy that began several decades ago.