<p>And Bell Labs developed all those cool technologies when it was funded by the monopoly profits of AT&T, who could afford to spend money on basic research because they were making so much more money charging monopoly prices for telephone service. Since the breakup of AT&T and the introduction of competition in telephone service the telephone companies spend essentially zero on basic research. Not that this is necessarily bad - it means that we get telephone service much less expensively. But if we as a society want basic research it essentially has to happen at colleges and universities.</p>