* Thomas F. Carter; Broke AT&T; Monopoly

Thomas F. Carter, 67, an entrepreneur whose landmark legal victory over American Telephone & Telegraph Co. ended the company’s monopoly on telephone equipment. In 1959, he patented the CarterFone, a device enabling phone contact with radio-dispatched vehicles. Soon after, AT&T; threatened to discontinue service to CarterFone users. Carter sued and in 1968 the Federal Communications Commission ruled in Carter’s favor. The next year, MCI became the first private company to hook its long-distance network into local phone service. On Saturday in Dallas of respiratory complications.