My networking professor who worked for AT&T for years, before and after it was sold and up into the internet age. His explanation was that the phone companies (more like phone company) had existed since the late 1800's before computers, and even when they built and bought the first computers and computer networks bytes were not a unit of measurement. So the phone companies network the phone companies rules.
Edit: I'd like to add that the first networks were with dumb devices on the periphery, aka your phones, and smart devices in the core, aka AT&T computer controlled routers. There was no concept of Bytes in that network.
Edit: I'd like to add that the first networks were with dumb devices on the periphery, aka your phones, and smart devices in the core, aka AT&T computer controlled routers. There was no concept of Bytes in that network.