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In the US, wired phones were often leased from the phone company! If you shop for vintage phones from the 1960s, they will often have a decal to that effect. Examples:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/71gAAeSw1URp8QPF/s-l1600.webp

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/tPAAAeSw~RxqBiLR/s-l1600.webp

I think this started to change only in the 1980s and 1990s, thanks to cheaper electronics imported from overseas?

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It was because of anti-monopoly legislation, https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/att-breakup-spin... ; i.e. breaking up 'Ma Bell' into the baby bells, and the current oligopoly we have instead in the modern day. An older picture showing how they were broken up and then re-merged: https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurelings/comments/r24ed0/diagram... or https://legalclarity.org/what-happened-to-the-baby-bells-aft...

I had no idea people paid by the minute

Yeah, when I was a kid you had to go to the AT&T store to get a phone.

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