Nonetheless, the company was saddled with an unsympathetic judge and in 1984 agreed to break itself up into bite-sized pieces. As it happened, however, these morsels proved too appetizing, even to each other. A cannibalistic feeding frenzy erupted and the number of telecom providers was quickly reduced.
Two of those companies — Verizon and a reconstituted AT&T — are today so big and powerful that if they were countries they’d have snooty waiters who would be rude to American tourists. — Jeffrey Kanige
