Monopolies aren't inherently bad - especially not ones like Bell, where they're beneficial to everyone.
Any citations for this? The rise of MCI cut my phone bills by more than half in the 80's. Bell was killing us with 3 figure/month residential phone bills. And, I pay 10x less now per month in non inflation adjusted dollars than I did in 1986.
Out of state calls back then were commonly double digit cents per minute. Now they are typically 1 cent per minute or even less.
They did all sorts of creative accounting to make it look like the breakup was a big success that led to lower profits, when in reality cutting bloated bureaucracy and the R&D budget led to really bumper profits.
Maybe others paid more than before, but enjoyed the additional minutes.
That is an interesting thought. What other examples are there for monopolies being inherently good for everyone?
Standard Oil did (minus the environment); under their monopoly prices were incredibly cheap. The person who benefited most from the split was Rockefeller, who you've probably heard of.
Prices for long-distance calls fell.