Jon Henke on the Secret History of the Telephone

Since the early days of the telegraph, North
America has seen titanic struggles to define the government’s role
in telecommunications. The major players in these battles have been
policy makers, progressives, and corporations, and the results, for
the most part, have been a sort of mutually beneficial collusion.
Progressives got universal service and regulation, corporations got
government-backed monopolies and other privileges, and policy
makers got another lever of power to pull. From Reason’s
August/September issue, Jon Henke reveals the secret history of the
telephone.

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