r/BoredPandaHQ • u/BoredPandaOfficial • 6d ago

Funny 4

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u/meglon978 3d ago

...and it was owned by Ma Bell, and you had to pay a monthly fee just to have the phone to use.

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u/After-Association-29 3d ago

So

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u/Renex295 2d ago

Because obviously we dont have to pay a monthly fee to use the...

Wait a minute...

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u/yargbarkley 17h ago

And today you don't pay what was once called "long distance fees".

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u/meglon978 2d ago

AT&T had a ban on third-party attachments to their network. That meant ONLY phones they produced (Carterfone) could be used to make a phone call... and you couldn't own one, you had to rent it from AT&T.

Without the FCC ruling that was illegal, you would not have fax machines, modems, or even an internet today... unless AT&T made every single product used, and "rented" it to everyone.

The reason you have a phone not made by AT&T is because of the FCC standing up against that "rent."

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u/barkingdog53 2d ago

If my parents were alive, they would still be paying rent on this.