Comment Re:Why is it even a discussion? (Score 3, Insightful) 441
> Damn near a century of being limited to voice-over-landline under government regulation, and once regulations were lifted look what happened - internet, smartphones, ubiquitous mobile devices.
No, not correct at all. Cell phones are just a natural progression of technology. They have nothing to do with phones or government regulation or lack of it. Someone, invented a phone that allowed you to make a phone call on the golf course and it sold to be people who had money and wanted to be reached when not in the office. They just got smaller and adding the Internet to it is just a progression of the technology.
If anything, regulating the phone markets made cell phones possible since it allowed companies other than AT&T to get their own switching stations.
> Long distance calls were an expensive, big deal where everyone gathered once a week to talk to relatives for a short time.
Yes, and the government broke up AT&T and then long distance calls got a lot cheaper. You think AT&T would have ever lowered their price? Nope, the government forced them by splitting them up. You know, Regulation. Oh ya, that happened on Ronald Reagan's watch too.