The bell system just reformed under Ed Whitacre of Southwestern Bell (who bought the AT&T name). It was dumb to break it up, all the manufacturing went over seas and SAIC sold the intellectual property of Bell Labs for pennies a page to foreign competition (china). Then, in less than 10 years, the offshoring started in conjunction to to some Harvard asshole that created "right sizing" and Hay studies. BOHICA baby.