Constructing an Industrial Divide
Western Union, AT&T, and the Federal Government, 1876–1971
Dados Bibliográficos
| ID | 9624869 |
|---|---|
| Autores | David Hochfelder (0000-0003-4129-9363, Edge Hill University, autor correspondente) |
| Ano | 2002 |
| Volume | 76 |
| Fascículo | 4 |
| Páginas | 705-732 |
| Data de publicação | 2002-01-01 |
| Open Access | Sim |
| Tipo | ARTICLE |
| Periódico | The Business History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Identificadores do periódico | ISSN: 0007-6805 • E-ISSN: 2044-768X |
| Editora | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/4127707 |
| OpenAlex | W2140516556 |
| Idioma | EN |
| Citações recebidas | 10 |
| Referências citadas | 10 |
An 1879 contract between Western Union and Bell partitioned the electrical communications industry between the telegraph and telephone markets. Historians typically view this contract as the start of both Western Union's decline and Bell's rise, and they have treated these as largely separate processes. This article argues instead that these processes were linked by a porous and shifting boundary between the two industries. Legal, technical, and regulatory factors interacted to shape this boundary over the next century. The 1879 contract failed to keep Bell out of long-distance communications, as Bell used its market power, geographic reach, and technological superiority to penetrate this boundary. Throughout much of the twentieth century, federal regulators and Western Union executives attempted to strengthen this divide through regulatory means. The attempt failed because AT&T controlled key telegraph technologies and had considerable market power. While regulators propped up Western Union as the only competitor to AT&T, by the 1960s it was offering only token competition
Boundary (topology · Competition (biology · Economics · Government (linguistics · Market economy · Market power · Monopoly · Power (physics · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture
Communications Networks in the U nited S tates
Disbanding the Federal Communications Commission
Battle of Systems
Telecommunications
State, firms and technology. The rise of multinational telecommunications companies
Long Lines
Western Union's Failed Reinvention
Monopolist logic? Managing technology in the telecom sector during technological and regulatory change
Industrial research at the Eastern Telegraph Company, 1872–1929
Introducing the inverted Icarus paradox in business history – Evidence from David and Goliath in the Swedish telecommunications industry 1981–1990
A Comparison of the Postal Telegraph Movement in Great Britain and the United States, 1866–1900
Bell
The Life and Legend of Jay Gould
Public Versus Private Ownership and Operation of the Communication Utilities
Jay Gould
The Life and Legend of Jay Gould
The Switchboard Problem
The Emergence of Basic Research in the Bell Telephone System, 1875-1915
| Citações por ano | 0,5 |
|---|---|
| Intervalo de citações | 2006 - 2026 (21) |
| Altamente citado | Não |