The telecommunications industry underwent two large-scale transformations in the 20th century, the first having to do with the structure of service delivery and the second having to do with technological innovation and the structure of business models. Both instances of transformation carried implications for management practices. That is the subject of this research.
Although the telephone and the whole range of telecommunications equipment are undoubtedly instrumental in cross-industry business operations, telecommunications is also an industry unto itself, and with the exceptions of space travel and computers, perhaps no other single industry was as affected by scientific innovation in the 20th century as it was. Yet even from its earliest entry into the marketplace, telephone technology was conceptualized in product terms, not in terms of its multiple implicit instrumental uses of telephone communications as a service. Additionally, the product was conceptualized in sharply local terms. Accordingly, industry actors, who were often local-area business operators, labored mightily to exert control over the technology, its use, its dispersal, and its operation. In other words, the industry sought standing as a monopoly, not a public utility. This was operationalized in various ways.
For example, a telephone directory published in Clarendon, Texas, in 1920 declared that telephones "are for SUBSCRIBERS ONLY and MUST NOT BE USED BY NEIGHBORS. Non-subscribers impose on their neighbors and the telephone company, and delay good service by using our time and instruments" (Johnson, 1990, p. 78). The localized service and product emphasis can be seen evidence that, in the years of suburban expansion between 1950 and 1960, "telephone availability was rarely, if ever considered" by land developers. Telephone service companies were highly localized, and it was often unclear which existing community's exchange would have the capacity or desir...