22nd-century scholars are going to find the history of AT&T around the turn of the 21st century absolutely baffling, on par with British schoolchildren having to keep track of Henry VIII’s wives. I’m reading a paper from 2001, and I did a double-take when it talked about AT&T and Time Warner as the major players in the cable industry. Then I remembered that this was the post-breakup, pre-spinoff, pre-merger AT&T–the one that was in the cable and long-distance markets. Which is basically a completely different company from the AT&T that’s now in the local telephone, DSL, and rent-seeking markets. I’m sure in another 20 years there will be a totally different company called AT&T that will be in charge of issuing me my REAL ID card and operating the terrorist surveillance cameras on every street corner.
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