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This was a fascinating read!

My biggest question is what happened around 1970? Did their analysts predict saturation or the rise of other networks? It's not exactly clear from the article.

They basically were spending money like it was free in the name of growth for a century, and stopped about that time, which led to all sorts of problems. Was it a prediction, or the onset of 'beancounter accounting'?

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1974 was officially the first year of the end of AT&T (conclusion of the antitrust case leading to divestment), and they probably already knew few years before that.

That would have been 1984, a full 14 years later.

Nope, you're talking about the full breakup. First antitrust court case described as "leading to divestment" ended in 1974. Look at wiki, that's where I verified it before I posted.

Do you have a link to that?

After reading more, it looks like the case and plan was filed in 74, then not decided until 82, then implemented in 84.

Still, I didn't realize it had started that early, so thanks for the trail.

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