Bell Breakup
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Bell Breakup
The Bell System held a virtual monopoly over telephony infrastructure in the United States since the early 20th century until January 8, 1982. This divestiture of the Bell Operating Companies was initiated in 1974 when the United States Department of Justice filed ''United States v. AT&T (1982), United States v. AT&T'', an United States antitrust law, antitrust lawsuit against AT&T. At the time, AT&T had substantial control over the United States' communications infrastructure. Not only was it the sole telephone provider throughout most of the country, its subsidiary Western Electric produced much of its equipment. Relinquishing ownership of Western Electric was one of the Justice Department’s primary demands. AT&T Corporation proposed in a consent decree to relinquish control of the Bell Operating Companies, which had provided local telephone service in the United States. AT&T would continue to be a provider of Long-distance calling, long-distance service, while the now-indepe ...
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Baby Bells
A Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) was a corporate entity created as result of the antitrust lawsuit by the United States Department of Justice against the Western Electric Company and American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1949 and a suit in 1974 against AT&T (''United States v. AT&T (1982), United States v. AT&T''). The suits were settled in the Modification of Final Judgment in August 1982. AT&T agreed to divest its local exchange service operating companies, effective January 1, 1984. The group of local operating companies were split into seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies, which became known as the Baby Bells. Three companies still exist that have an RBOC as a predecessor: AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies (formerly CenturyTel and CenturyLink). Some other companies are holding onto smaller segments of the companies. Baby Bells A "Baby Bell" is a local telephone company in the United States that was in existence at the time of the bre ...
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Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of newspapers in the United States, sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the largest in the Western United States with a print circulation of 118,760. It has 500,000 online subscribers, the fifth-largest among U.S. newspapers. Owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by California Times, the paper has won over 40 Pulitzer Prizes since its founding. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to Trade union, labor unions, the latter of which led to the Los Angeles Times bombing, bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. As with other regional newspapers in California and the United Sta ...
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BellSouth
BellSouth, LLC (stylized as ''BELLSOUTH'' and formerly known as BellSouth Corporation) was an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S. Department of Justice forced the American Telephone & Telegraph Company to divest itself of its regional telephone companies on January 1, 1984. In a merger announced on March 5, 2006, and executed on December 29, 2006, AT&T Inc. (originally SBC Communications) acquired BellSouth for approximately $86 billion (1.325 shares of AT&T for each share of BellSouth). The merger also consolidated ownership of Cingular Wireless and Yellowpages.com, both of which were joint ventures between BellSouth and AT&T. With the merger completed, wireless services previously offered by Cingular Wireless were then offered under the AT&T name, and BellSouth Telecommunications (a subsidiary of a Bell Operating Company) began doing business as AT ...
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New Jersey Bell
Verizon New Jersey, Inc., formerly New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, is the Bell Operating Company serving the U.S. state of New Jersey. In 1984, the Bell System Divestiture split New Jersey Bell off into a Regional Bell Operating Company, along with the 21 other BOCs AT&T had a majority stake in. On January 1, 1984, New Jersey Bell became part of Bell Atlantic. New Jersey Bell was founded in 1904 as an AT&T company serving southern New Jersey, named Delaware and Atlantic Telegraph & Telephone Company. New York Telephone served northern New Jersey. In October 1927, D&A T&T changed its name to New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, and purchased the New Jersey properties of New York Telephone which had belonged to New York and New Jersey Telephone and Telegraph. Throughout the 1980s to the first half of the 1990s, New Jersey Bell kept its traditional identity. In 1994, Bell Atlantic started rebranding all its companies to Bell Atlantic-(state), so New Jersey Bell became Bell Atl ...
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Diamond State Telephone
The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over 100 years from its creation in 1877 until its antitrust breakup in 1983. The system of companies was often colloquially called Ma Bell (as in "Mother Bell"), as it held a vertical monopoly over telecommunication products and services in most areas of the United States and Canada. At the time of the breakup of the Bell System in the early 1980s, it had assets of $150 billion (equivalent to $ billion in ) and employed over one million people. Beginning in the 1910s, American antitrust regulators had been observing and accusing the Bell System of abusing its monopoly power, and had brought legal action multiple times over the decades. In 1974 the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice brought a lawsuit against Bell claiming violations of ...
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C&P Telephone
The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, usually known as C&P Telephone, is a former d/b/a name for four Bell Operating Companies providing service to Washington, D.C., Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. Today, three of the companies are owned by Verizon Communications: The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company (DC), The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland, and The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia. The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia is owned by Frontier Communications. History The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company (DC) The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company was founded in June 1883. C&P Telephone Co. provided telephone service to Washington, D.C. In July 1969, President Richard Nixon's telephone call to Apollo 11 astronauts originated from C&P Telephone Co. equipment. The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland The C&P Telephone Company of Maryland was founded in 1884 as The ...
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Bell Of Pennsylvania
Verizon Pennsylvania LLC, formerly traded as Bell of Pennsylvania, is the Bell Operating Company serving most of Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1879 as Bell Telephone Company of Philadelphia, owned by National Bell Telephone Company, which later became American Bell. In 1899, the company became a subsidiary of American Telephone and Telegraph Company following its buyout of American Bell. The company is separate from Verizon North, which consists of former GTE-owned assets in rural Pennsylvania. History The company was founded in 1879 to serve Philadelphia. In 1907, the company changed its name to The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, a name under which it began to expand. In 1918, the company embarked on a series of acquisitions enlarging its coverage area from Philadelphia to statewide. In 1918, it acquired Central District Telephone. In 1924, it acquired Pittsburgh and Allegheny Telephone. In 1925, Bell of Pennsylvania made a $1.84 million acquisition o ...
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Bell Atlantic
A bell Help:IPA/English, /ˈbɛl/ () is a struck idiophone, directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an internal "clapper" or "uvula", an external hammer, or—in small bells—by a small loose sphere enclosed within the body of the bell (jingle bell). Bells are usually cast from bell metal (a type of bronze) for its resonant properties, but can also be made from other hard materials. This depends on the function. Some small bells such as ornamental bells or cowbells can be made from cast or pressed metal, glass or ceramic, but large bells such as a church, clock and tower bells are normally cast from bell metal. Bells intended to be heard over a wide area can range from a single bell hung in a turret or bell-gable, to a musical ensemble such as an English ring of bells, a carillon or a Russian Russ ...
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Wisconsin Bell
Wisconsin Bell, LLC, doing business as AT&T Wisconsin, is the incumbent local exchange carrier serving Wisconsin. A former unit of the historic Bell System, it primarily provides traditional landline phone services in the region It is currently owned by AT&T Inc. through AT&T Wireline Holdings, LLC. History Wisconsin Bell was founded in 1882 under the name Wisconsin Telephone Company by Charles Haskins as a successor to his earlier Milwaukee Telephone Exchange Co., the first telephone exchange in Milwaukee. Wisconsin Telephone, like most local telephone companies at this time, received a license from the Bell Telephone Company for core patents and technologies as well as access to Bell's long distance services. It therefore was from the beginning a member of the Bell System and dependent on Bell, but remained legally independent until 1899 when Bell's assets and licensees were consolidated under the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T). After the 1984 Break ...
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Ohio Bell
The Ohio Bell Telephone Company, now doing business as AT&T Ohio, is the Bell Operating Company serving most of Ohio and parts of West Virginia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. Its headquarters is the Ohio Bell Building at 750 Huron Road, Cleveland, Ohio, and formerly had a secondary headquarters at 150 East Gay Street, Columbus, Ohio, now the Continental Center. Ohio Bell is not affiliated with Cincinnati Bell, which serves Cincinnati, Ohio and other surrounding communities. After the 1984 Bell System Divestiture, Ohio Bell became a subsidiary of Ameritech AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly known as Ameritech Corporation (and, before that, American Information Technologies Corporation), was an American telecommunications company that arose out of the 1984 AT&T divestiture. Ameritech was one of the ..., one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies. The Ohio Bell name continued to be used until January 1993, when Ameritech dropped all of its indiv ...
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Michigan Bell
Michigan Bell is the subsidiary of AT&T serving the state of Michigan. Following the Bell System divestiture on January 8, 1984, the company became a subsidiary of Ameritech, the Regional Bell operating company that served the midwestern United States. Ameritech was subsequently acquired by SBC Communications, which later changed its name to AT&T. About Michigan Bell was one of the 22 Local Exchange Carriers that were part of the original AT&T Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the AT&T Corporation, American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America fo ... until the 1984 divestiture, after which Michigan Bell and four other Midwestern telephone companies became part of Ameritech, the midwestern Regional Holding Company. Ameritech was one of the seven original Bell Regional Holding Companies, or "Baby Bells". By the early 1990 ...
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Indiana Bell
Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Incorporated, is the Bell Operating Company serving Indiana. It is an indirect subsidiary of AT&T Inc., owned by AT&T Teleholdings. History Indiana Bell was founded in 1920 to function as the central Bell telephone company in the state of Indiana. It purchased the Indiana operations of the Central Union Telephone Company and also purchased the Indianapolis Telephone Company. It continued to expand throughout the 1920s through acquisitions. In 1930, Indiana Bell's headquarters building in Indianapolis was relocated to the south and west of its original location while employees continued working in it. The move was an engineering feat of its time. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s the company continued to expand by acquiring many smaller telephone companies throughout the state. After the 1984 Bell System Divestiture, Indiana Bell became a part of Ameritech, one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies. In 1990, the independent ...
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