From the inglorious year 1913 until 1984 the United States had a
government sanctioned telephone monopoly, in some form or
another, with very heavy government involvement in the industry.
During that time many homes in America even had the same
telephone. It was the Western Electric model 500 rotary phone.
The U.S. Government limited what telephone company could be used
and the Bell System (AT&T) limited what telephones could be
used. That anti-competitive system created by government likely
slowed development in residential telecommunications. In 1984
those Model 500 rotary phones, very similar to the model that
had first been developed in the late 1940s was still in use. It
was said that telephone service was a “natural monopoly” so many
people considered all of this an appropriate relationship
between government and business. 1984 – Lots of telephones
looked the same I was 5 then. I remember that on the bottom of
my family’s telephone was a sticker that said our phone was
property of Illinois Bell. I had i