U.S. Congress Reforms Law Regulating Telecommunications.

Because the United States left its telecommunications development to private industry, rather than nationalizing it as European countries had done, creating a balance between market forces and public interest has always been challenging. This conflict became apparent in the nineteenth century with the establishment of nationwide telephone service. At the end of the century, the Bell Company’s monopoly-producing patents lapsed, just as phone service was rapidly expanding throughout the country. The competition between Bell and some six thousand new independent telephone companies served as a catalyst for expansion but also threatened the effectiveness of the system. People using different telephone companies frequently could not call each other, because Bell, wanting to maintain its monopoly, refused to allow independents to interconnect with its lines. Rural and poor areas were not getting service because they did not have the potential to generate enough profits to cover the large capital investment required to bring lines to them.