The Hill News

It’s unsurprising to watch foes of the free market calling on Congress and federal agencies to block or heavily regulate the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile. They point to the pre-1980s telephone monopoly era, claiming a lack of competition and stagnated innovation are poised to return. Yet, while they demand government block or lob conditions on the merger, they fail entirely to recall that it was government which caused those mid-20th century problems â€" not the free market.

Prior to Ronald Reagan’s presidency, a single company controlled virtually the entire nation’s telephone service under the protection and de facto authority of the federal government. Beginning in 1934, AT&T was a government-sanctioned and heavily regulated monopoly. The Federal Communications Commission didn’t just regulate service and prices, but actively took steps to prevent competition. And thanks to this level of government involvement, there was very little advancement of t! echnology.

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