Early in the twentieth century, telephone prevalence in some rural U.S. states far exceeded that in major cities around the world.  For example, Nebraska in 1914 averaged only 15 persons per mile of road.  More than 99% of its roads were dirt (unsurfaced) roads.  Yet across the rural, agricultural state of Nebraska in 1912 were [...]

About 1893, the country leading the world in telephones per 100 persons (teledensity) was Sweden.  Telephone service in Sweden developed through a variety of institutional forms: the International Bell Telephone Company (a U.S. multinational), town and village co-operatives, the General Telephone Company of Stockholm (a Swedish private company), and the Swedish Telegraph Department (part of [...]

From its beginnings, the U.S. telephone industry has included many small telephone companies.   Over time government programs have been established to subsidize small, high-cost telephone companies.[1]   Under the High-Cost Loop Support program, about $1 billion in subsidies were given in 2007 to incumbent local-exchange telephone companies (ILECs) that had relatively high-cost loops.[2]  The subsidy to [...]

While everyone appreciates the importance of family farms, few realize that the U.S. has a lot of small local telephone companies.  A specific count of companies depends on distinctions among legal entities, operating companies, and holding companies; incumbent local-exchange companies (ILECs) and competitive local-exchange companies (CLECs), both of which can be part of one holding [...]