American Airlines sues a travel site to crack down on consumers who use this trick to save money

[Ursus Rex]

75. Digital vs analog makes a HUGE difference

I worked for telcos for ~15 years. This is tremendously over-generalized, but "Analog" (i.e., POTS, copper landlines, etc) are regulated as utilities, whereas "digital" (i.e., VOIP, fiber, etc) are not regulated to the same extent. AT&T still has a monopoly on certain types of phone infrastructure but they must maintain a certain level of service, and because it's physical, it requires more workers with very specific skills (who are also unionized), field service, etc. I grew up with storms, etc., that would take out power and I kept an actual old-fashioned (copper-based) landline but AT&T more and more frequently raised prices until it was like $150/month for basic service (which, true, these days includes caller ID and stuff that didn't exist in 1975 for the vast majority of customers). The margins on that are far lower than with cell phones/VOIP, so AT&T uses price pressure to drive people to the cell/digital solution.

Just my slightly-jaundiced take.