Comments by "Roger Dodger" (@rogerdodger8415) on "ATu0026T Archives: Genesis of the Transistor" video.

ATT held a monopoly on phones, and the phone system that stifled innovation for fifty years. If they still ruled, we'd be using black phones, hooked to landlines, calling the operator for information.
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Kevin Counihan No, you have it completely backwards. When AT&T enjoyed their monopoly, they had one phone to choose from. A black one. You paid an exorbitant amount of money for a long distant call, and the non-digital quality was poor at best. You had to buy a seperate box to record your calls, when not home, and for years there was no features that we take for granted now, like call forwarding, conference calls, call identifiers, and speed dial. It was only through the opening of competition that, the world of smart phones opened up, and gave us our features that we have now. If AT&T had their way, we'd still be using landlines. Here.. Educate yourself.... https://www.technologizer.com/2011/03/20/att-buys-t-mobile/
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Kevin Counihan I start to read your comment and in five seconds. I read "the original phone company had all those features you mentioned" that shows me right there, that you don't have a clue about what you are saying. It was only the DIGITAL revolution that brought all the features that we now have. I mean.. Are you a NUT? Do you think that AT&T brought you your current cellphone? "would have happened anyway" barahahaha. They went from Alexander Graham Bell all the way to the sixties with the same basic rotary phone, and you insist it would happen anyway?? When there's NO COMPETITION, there is no advance in equipment or service. That's why the smart phone didn't come from Russia or Cuba!! And guess what? It was SONY that brought the first transistor radio. ATT didn't know what to do with it!!
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Kevin Counihan Just Hillarious! Digital was MORSE CODE?? I guess we should go back a few thousand more years to credit the ancient Greeks!! SONY commercialized and sold MILLIONS of transistor radios! I guess you don't know about SPRINT and it's all digital network?? The telephone company did NOTHING but hinder any advances in telephony! It's not the "first use" of anything that brings the price down, and the discovery to the masses! It's the commercialization and the MASS PRODUCTION that brings costs down! ATT never had ANY desire to bring ANY costs down since they were a monopoly! A fact which you cannot deny. Motorola created the first mobile phone, Motorola DynaTac, in 1983. However, this device used ANALOG communication.... Now read the link that I sent you. Educate yourself. Here are the facts.. One year after the release of the TR-1 sales approached the 100,000 mark. The look and size of the TR-1 was well received, but the reviews of the TR-1's performance were typically adverse.[12] AND ON THE OTHER HAND.... With the visible success of the TR-63 Japanese competitors such as Toshiba and Sharp joined the market. By 1959, in the United States market, there were more than six million transistor radio sets produced by Japanese companies that represented $62 million in revenue. Now for the last time. READ THE FACTS.... http://www.aei.org/publication/lessons-att-break-30-years-later/
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Kevin Counihan A monopoly and its hindrance of progress is not about "its inventions". No one denies that att holds patents. It's the EXPLOSION of devices and services that came about AFTER they were broken up. Now, my ORIGINAL comment about them stifling innovation for fifty years still stands. History bears out the fact that all these dramatic improvements came about AFTER and BECAUSE of their dissolution. As long as they were getting wealthy charging exorbitant rates for long distant calls, there was NO REASON for them to change anything.
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