hange, Johnson says,
had long rural lines providing service in the area squarely between the big city and the small town. It was an area which Bell [metropolitan telephone company] had refused to serve because of the small number of customers. However, as Dallas developed toward Garland, Bell moved in and at times removed Texas Telephone Company telephones, leaving the instruments on the front porch after putting in Bell equipment. . . . Some subscribers wanted to keep both telephones in order to avoid a toll call between Garland and Dallas, but that was apparently not going to be permitted by Bell.
It appears that technological standardization and franchise-area regulation was an important feature of telephone service between 1950 and 1960.
In particular, access to the telephone app
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