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Wonderly.

The Wondry! It's the middle of 1982 at AT&T's headquarters in New York City.

Half a dozen suited men review documents laid out across every spare surface and 60-year-old chairman Charlie Brown's executive suite.

It's late and everyone is exhausted.

For the last few months, AT&T bosses have been working on a settlement deal that might end the federal antitrust lawsuit.

They have an agreement in principle, but working through the fine details is taking time.

Charlie looks over to a table covered in Chinese takeout boxes.

Hey, is there any low main left? I'm going to need something else if I'm going to get through the night.

AT&T attorney John Zeglis grabs a box and hands it to Charlie.

Now, you think we can return to the question of how many regional operating companies we should have after the breakup?

Well, why not 22 like there are now?

Well, the existing 22 are vastly different in scale.

We could consolidate the smaller ones and get about seven that are roughly the same size.

And how big would these seven be exactly?

Well, about 15 to 20 billion in assets each?

You think that's big enough to survive? Well, they'll have a tough time at the start, no doubt.

Rates will probably have to go up, and customers won't like that, of course. But frankly,

that won't be our problem. This is what the DOJ wanted after all. Well, I guess that makes

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