Abstract
Abstract Opposition to corporate control of US telecommunications expanded soon after the originating Bell telephone patents were filed in 1876. In one reform thrust, antimonopolists threw support to independent—that is, non-Bell, or AT&T—suppliers after Bell’s patents lapsed in 1894. Between the 1880s and the 1910s, loose coalitions of farmers, workers, businesses, and middle-class reformers also repeatedly mobilized in support of a Post Office takeover of telegraphs and telephones. Finally, political campaigns for municipal ownership of local telephone systems also gained traction during the 1910s. Relentlessly opposed by AT&T, however, the antimonopoly coalition eroded. Settlements were reached with the giant telephone company by, respectively, large business users and many independent telephone companies. These agreements subjected AT&T to government regulation and stripped away support for postalization; but they did not touch the interests of restive telecommunications workers. As World War I approached, therefore, the political economy of telecommunications remained unstable.
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