To change the way we think about competition, universal service, and interconnection in
telecommunications, this book revisits
a critical period in the development of American
telecommunications: the period of unbridled competition between the Bell System and independent telephone companies early in this century. Mr. Mueller is an assistant professor of
communication at the Rutgers University School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies. A summary of the book follows.
Universal service as both term and concept originated during the early 1900s. Since then, it has been one of the touchstones of U.S. telecommunications policy. Although the meaning of the term has changed, its essential connotation is not hard to grasp: universal service means a telephone network that covers all of a country, is technologically integrated, and connects as many citizens as possible. We can scarcely overstate the importance of rapid, widespread telecommunications to government, business, and society. Because communications infrastructure coordinates and unifies a country in countless ways, the universal service concept spans the realms of economic and social policy.