This article gives an overview of telecommunications in the United States.
Telephone[]
Following Thomas Dewey's nationalization, AT & T primarily developed modern telephone usage from the 1950s to the early 1980s.By 1981, AT & T gave the widest access to phone service in the Americas and second only in the world next to the Soviet Union. In 1983, after facing competition from other providers, AT & T was privatized and became an independent company.
As of 2017, telephone usage is widespread, with 112.2 million landlines, 289 million cellular phones, and over a million public phones in the country. A brief trend with smartphones gained popularity in the late 2000s, but by 2013, the smartphone craze had died out as consumers went back to regular cell phones, with the media claiming that people could already use the internet on their computers.
Over three-quarters of the population has a cell phone, and one report states that 84.3% of the population owns a cellular phone.
Internet[]
Over three-quarters of the US population are internet users, and that number continues to grow. Most internet providers have no contracts, although there are a number of internet service providers that have commercial agreements with telephone companies that do charge for contracts.
The number of dial-up users has decreased drastically since 2005 in favor of broadband access. The service grew from under 5 million to nearly 67 million in 2007, and to 189 million in 2010. Wireless and satellite networks expanded markedly in the U.S. territories during 2008-2009 and totaled nearly 50,000.
About 100 different companies dominate the internet and television providers in the mainland United States.
Censorship[]
Very few regulations on censorship are placed on the internet. Only unlicensed gambling websites are blocked as a part of a law passed in 2011. There have been no reports of government surveillance, website blocking, or issues with free speech.Torrents are popular and many are used without issues.
In 2011, after unlicensed gambling websites made money off legitimate gambling websites, the websites were blocked and soon faced legal trouble. There was concern that the government would block other websites, but Congress stated there would be no other blocks than that.