Maybe because the system worked... I could get a repairman out to my house in less than 10 minutes and the bill was very, very small. They were broken up by the left.
Their system was hopelessly outdated. If they were still around you could have what you had back then, a home land line telephone with perhaps two outlets installed by an AT&T employee, and nothing more.
This means as 56k baud modem, no cell phones, etc. But by now, your home phone might have a still image picture of the person you were talking to, that would refresh every half minute or so. Something they promised for 30 years but never delivered.
Face it, when that monster was killed, the future could begin.