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>post-breakup, prices rose for 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.

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It was actually an issue after the breakup because the successor companies started making much more money as a group than they did when they were together.

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.

Hmm. Maybe more overall minutes/calls due to the lower cost? I know for sure my phone bills got cut in half when I switched to MCI. I didn't call or talk more often, just paid less.

Maybe others paid more than before, but enjoyed the additional minutes.

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