[mdlug-discuss] Ethanol vs gasoline economy [Was: [mdlug] Automotive technical info ...]

[Robert Meier]

Robert,

> It doesn't address the point that we had a telecommunications technology
> explosion because [AT&T] was dismantled.

I disagree.

AT&T was the first to launch communications satellites in the 1960s.
AT&T sponsored volunteers to train millions, for their radio license
  (cell phone service for life for one-time costs less than a TV set,
  instead of monthly fees that equal a TV set each quarter)
Asian Indian coworkers spoke of how they had no practical long distance phone
  until the early 80s, when America gave India their first telecom satellite,
  INSAT-2B (Palapois?).
With AT&T obligated to publish the (thereby open) standards, yet owning
a minority of the system (obligated to provide service where others
wouldn't), a phone was considered an inexpensive necessity in nearly
every American household.



Since MCI used the government to legalize community-sole-supplier
agreements (i.e. breakup AT&T):

Japanese and German visitors in the 00s report to me disappointment at
  the high price, less availability, and smaller bandwidth of
  American internet to what they're used to.
European and Asian visitors in the 00s report to me disappointment at
  the high price, and lack of features of American cell service.



I believe the telecommunications explosion was triggered by the
application of photolithography to electronics interconnection, a
direct spinoff from the Apollo program seeking lightweight control systems.

The telecommunications explosion started in America in the 70s,
but since AT&T's breakup, the unregulated oligarchy (Cisco, Comcast,
...) that evolved, has pushed the mass population profits and benefits
out of America.

My $0.02,
-- 
Dr. Robert J. Meier