Quote:
Originally posted by Ironhorse
Are you kidding me? What was Lucent? An entire R&D corporation with huge budget and profit (ehm last I checked). I really don't see how breaking up a monopoly stops technological advance, it's the other way around actually. That's why they break them up.
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Well... in the late 60's I saw the AT&T phones of the future. My Step-Dad was a big wheel at C&P and I got to see a lot of that stuff. I saw the phones - real TV screens (about 5 inch), not LCD - and talked on one they had set up.
This was the 60's - there was no Lucent in the 60's - Lucent was almost 20 years away.
What kept these phones from being done was losing their monopoly - they saw the billions they'd spent in R&D literally given away by the Government that helped to build it, and standards went out the window.
Thier priorities shifted to making a profit - because they lost their monopoly - for example -
We were able to buy a $10. phone made in China at Kmart instead of leasing those one's from the phone company - but we paid for it in advancements.
I'm not for monopolies in any way what-so-ever.
But that's why we don't all have picture phones today.