Bell System - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T

AT&T Corporation

AT&T Corp., originally American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies. AT&T is the oldest telecommunications company...

led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly

Monopoly

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...

. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a U.S. Justice Department mandate

Bell System divestiture

The Bell System divestiture, or the breakup of AT&T, was initiated by the filing in 1974 by the U.S. Department of Justice of an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T. The case, United States v...

.

The colloquial term Ma Bell (as in "Mother Bell") was often used by the general public in the United States to refer to any aspect of this conglomerate, as it held a near complete monopoly

Monopoly

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...

over all telephone service in most areas of the country, and is still used by many to refer to any telephone company. Ma Bell is also used to refer to the various female voices behind recordings for the Bell System: Mary Moore

Mary Moore (Time Lady)

In the United States of America, Mary Moore was the first national voice of the Bell System's standardized speaking clock and also provided the voice behind many telephone company recordings on equipment manufactured by Audichron....

, Jane Barbe

Jane Barbe

Jane Barbe was an American voice actress known as the "Time Lady" for the recordings she made for the Bell System and other phone companies. The ubiquity of her recordings eventually made her a pop-culture figure whose death drew national attention....

, and Pat Fleet

Pat Fleet

Pat Fleet is a working American voice actress known as the registered voice of AT&T.Widely recognized for the tens of thousands of recordings she has made for US telephone companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, the former Bell System companies, and others since 1981, she is still most recognized...

(the current voice of AT&T).

History

In 1877, the American Bell Telephone Company, named after Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....

, opened the first telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut. Within a few years local exchange

Telephone exchange

In the field of telecommunications, a telephone exchange or telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects telephone calls...

companies were established in every major city in the United States. Use of the Bell System name initially referred to those early telephone franchises

Franchising

Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....

and eventually comprised all telephone companies owned by American Telephone & Telegraph

American Telephone & Telegraph

, referred to internally as Bell Operating Companies, or "BOCs".

In 1899, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) acquired the assets of its parent, the American Bell Telephone Company. Originally American Bell had created AT&T to provide long distance calls between New York and Chicago and beyond. AT&T became the parent of American Bell, and thus the head of the Bell System, because regulatory and tax rules were leaner in New York than in Boston, where American Bell was headquartered. Later, the Bell System and its moniker "Ma Bell" became a term that referred generally to all AT&T companies of which there were four major divisions:

AT&T Long Lines, providing long lines to interconnect local exchanges and long distance calling services.
Western Electric Company, Bell's equipment manufacturing arm,
Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...

, conducting research and development for AT&T.
Bell operating companies
Regional Bell Operating Company
The Regional Bell Operating Companies are the result of United States v. AT&T, the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against the former American Telephone & Telegraph Company . On January 8, 1982, AT&T Corp. settled the suit and agreed to divest its local exchange service operating...

, providing local exchange telephone services.

In 1913, under AT&T ownership, the Bell System became a government sanctioned monopoly

Monopoly

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...

following a government anti-trust suit and the Kingsbury Commitment. After 1934, AT&T was regulated by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Proliferation of the telephone allowed the company to become the largest corporation in the world until its dismantling

Bell System divestiture

The Bell System divestiture, or the breakup of AT&T, was initiated by the filing in 1974 by the U.S. Department of Justice of an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T. The case, United States v...

by the United States Department of Justice

United States Department of Justice

The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

in 1984, at which time the Bell System ceased to exist.

Formation under Bell patent

Receiving a U.S. patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

for the invention of the telephone

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

on March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell formed the Bell Telephone Company in 1877, which in 1885 became AT&T
When Bell's original patent expired 15 years later in 1894, the telephone market opened to competition and 6,000 new telephone carriers started while the Bell Telephone company took a significant financial downturn.

On April 30, 1907, Theodore Newton Vail

Theodore Newton Vail

Theodore Newton Vail was a U.S. telephone industrialist. His philosophy of using closed systems, centralized power, and as much network control as possible, in order to maintain monopoly power, has been called Vailism...

returned as President of AT&T. Vail believed in the superiority of one phone system and AT&T adopted the slogan "One Policy, One System, Universal Service." This would be the company's philosophy for the next 70 years.

Under Vail, AT&T began buying up many of the smaller telephone companies including Western Union telegraph

Western Union

The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. Its North American headquarters is in Englewood, Colorado. Up until 2006, Western Union was the best-known U.S...

. Anxious to avoid action from government antitrust

Antitrust

The United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...

suits, AT&T and the federal government entered into an agreement known as the Kingsbury Commitment

Kingsbury Commitment

The Kingsbury Commitment of 1913 established AT&T as a government-sanctioned monopoly, as an out-of-court settlement of the government's antitrust challenge...

Kingsbury Commitment

Following a government antitrust suit in 1913, AT&T agreed to the Kingsbury Commitment in which AT&T would sell their $30 million in Western Union stock, allow competitors to interconnect with their system, and not acquire other independent companies without permission from the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission

Interstate Commerce Commission

The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...

(ICC).

The Bell trademark pictured here was used from 1921 through 1939 by both the AT&T corporation and the regional operating corporations to co-brand themselves under a single Bell System trademark. The regional operating corporation's name was placed where "name of associated company" appears in this template version of the trademark. Bell system telephones and related equipment were made by Western Electric

Western Electric

Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...

, a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. Member telephone companies paid a fixed fraction of their revenues as a license fee to Bell Labs

Bell Labs

Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...

Government sanctioned monopolization

In 1934, the government set AT&T up as a regulated monopoly

Natural monopoly

A monopoly describes a situation where all sales in a market are undertaken by a single firm. A natural monopoly by contrast is a condition on the cost-technology of an industry whereby it is most efficient for production to be concentrated in a single form...

under the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission

Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

, in the Communications Act of 1934

Communications Act of 1934

The Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal law, enacted as Public Law Number 416, Act of June 19, 1934, ch. 652, 48 Stat. 1064, by the 73rd Congress, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, et seq. The Act replaced the...

.

As a result, by 1940 the Bell System effectively owned most telephone service in the United States, from local and long-distance service to the telephones themselves. This allowed Bell to prohibit their customers from connecting phones not made or sold by Bell to the system without paying fees. For example, if a customer desired a type of phone not leased by the local Bell monopoly, he or she had to purchase the phone at cost, give it to the phone company, then pay a 're-wiring' charge and a monthly lease fee in order to use it.

In 1949, the United States Department of Justice

United States Department of Justice

alleged in an antitrust

Antitrust

lawsuit

Lawsuit

A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...

that AT&T and the Bell System operating companies were using their near-monopoly in telecommunications to attempt to establish unfair advantage in related technologies, especially the fledgling computer industry. The outcome was a 1956 consent decree

Consent decree

A consent decree is a final, binding judicial decree or judgment memorializing a voluntary agreement between parties to a suit in return for withdrawal of a criminal charge or an end to a civil litigation...

limiting AT&T to 85% of the United States' national telephone network and certain government contracts, and precluding the Bell System from extending its reach into the fledgling computer industry and from continuing to hold interests in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

and the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

. The Bell System's Canadian operations included the Bell Canada

Bell Canada

Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...

regional operating company and the Northern Electric manufacturing subsidiary of the Bell System's Western Electric

Western Electric

equipment manufacturer. Northern Electric and Bell Canada were spun off in 1956, as separate companies outside of the Bell System proper. The Bell System's Caribbean regional operating companies were sold to the ITT Corporation

ITT Corporation

ITT Corporation is a global diversified manufacturing company based in the United States. ITT participates in global markets including water and fluids management, defense and security, and motion and flow control...

, known at the time as International Telephone & Telegraph Co.

The Bell System also owned various Caribbean regional operating companies, as well as 54% of NEC and a post-World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

reconstruction relationship with NTT

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone

, commonly known as NTT, is a Japanese telecommunications company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Ranked the 31st in Fortune Global 500, NTT is the largest telecommunications company in Asia, and the second-largest in the world in terms of revenue....

before the 1956 boundaries were emplaced. Before 1956, the Bell System's reach was truly gargantuan. Even during the period from 1956 to 1984, the Bell System's dominant reach into all forms of communications was pervasive within the United States and influential in telecommunication standardization throughout the industrialized world.

The 1984 Bell System divestiture

Bell System divestiture

The Bell System divestiture, or the breakup of AT&T, was initiated by the filing in 1974 by the U.S. Department of Justice of an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T. The case, United States v...

brought an end to the affiliation branded as the Bell System. It resulted from another antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1974, alleging illegal practices by the Bell System companies to stifle competition

Competition (economics)

Competition in economics is a term that encompasses the notion of individuals and firms striving for a greater share of a market to sell or buy goods and services...

in the telecommunications industry. The suit was settled on 8 January 1982, superseding the former restrictions that AT&T and the DOJ had agreed in 1956.

Present-day usage of the Bell name

The Bell System service marks (i.e., the circled-bell logo and the words Bell System in text) were used before January 1, 1984, when the AT&T divestiture of its regional operating companies took effect. Currently, the Bell word mark, logo, and other related trademarks, are held concurrently by each of the remaining Bell companies – namely AT&T, Verizon, Qwest

Qwest

Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a large United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.On April...

, and Cincinnati Bell

Cincinnati Bell

Cincinnati Bell is the dominant telephone company for Cincinnati, Ohio, and its nearby suburbs in the U.S. states of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The parent company is named Cincinnati Bell Inc. Its incumbent local exchange carrier subsidiary uses the name Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company LLC,...

. International rights to the marks, except for Canada

Canada

, are held by a joint venture of these companies, Bell IP Holdings

Bell IP Holdings

Bell IP Holdings is a joint venture of AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, and Cincinnati Bell which owns the rights to the former Bell System logos and trademarks outside of the U.S. and Canada...

Of the various resulting 1984 spinoffs, only BellSouth

BellSouth

BellSouth Corporation is an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S...

actively used and promoted the Bell name and logo for its entire history, from the 1984 break up to its merger with the new AT&T in 2006. Similarly, cessation of using either the Bell name or logo occurred for many of the other companies more than a decade after the 1984 break up as part of an acquisition-related rebranding. The others have only used the marks on rare occasions to maintain their trademark rights, even less now that they have adopted names conceived long after divestiture. Examples include Verizon, which still uses the Bell logo on its trucks and payphones, and Qwest, formerly US West

US West

U S WEST, Inc. was one of seven Regional Bell Operating Companies , created in 1983 under the Modification of Final Judgement , a case related to the antitrust breakup of AT&T...

, which licenses the Northwestern Bell

Northwestern Bell

Northwestern Bell Telephone Company served the states just north of the Southwestern Bell area, including: Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska.- Early beginnings :Northwestern Bell's earliest roots begin in Deadwood, South Dakota...

and Mountain Bell names to Unical Enterprises, who makes telephones under the Northwestern Bell name.

Cincinnati Bell

Cincinnati Bell

, a local franchise of the Bell System that was never wholly owned by AT&T and existed separately prior to 1984, also continues to use the Bell name. It stopped using the Bell logo in the summer of 2006, though it is still seen on some bills, vehicles, and other literature.

In 1984, each regional Bell operating company was assigned a set list of names they were allowed to use in combination with the Bell marks. Again, aside from Cincinnati Bell, none of these Bell System names are currently in use in the United States. For example, Southwestern Bell

Southwestern Bell

Southwestern Bell Telephone Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. It does business as AT&T Southwest and other d/b/a names in its operating region.The company is currently headquartered in Dallas, Texas at One AT&T Plaza.-History:...

used both the Bell name and the circled-bell trademark until SBC opted for all of its companies to do business under the "SBC" name in 2002. Bell Atlantic used the Bell name and circled-bell trademark until renaming itself Verizon in 2000.

Telephone Companies outside of the Bell System that use "Bell" in their names include a PBX telephone dealer near Lake of the Ozarks

Lake of the Ozarks

The Lake of the Ozarks is a large reservoir created by impounding the Osage River in the northern part of the Ozarks in central Missouri. Extents of three smaller tributaries to the Osage, the Niangua River, Grandglaize Creek, and Gravois Creek, are included in the impoundment...

, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, called Missouri Bell Telecom which was established during 1991, and Liberty Bell Telephone.

Of the various resulting 1984 spinoffs, only Bell Canada

Bell Canada

continues to use the Bell name, although cessation of using either the Bell name and circled-bell trademark occurred for some of these companies multiple decades later. For example, for the multiple decades that Nortel

Nortel

Nortel Networks Corporation, formerly known as Northern Telecom Limited and sometimes known simply as Nortel, was a multinational telecommunications equipment manufacturer headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada...

was named Northern Telecom, their research and development arm was Bell Northern Research. Bell Canada and its holding-company parent, Bell Canada Enterprises, still use the Bell name and used variations of the circled-bell logo until 1977, which until 1976 strongly resembled the 1921 to 1939 Bell System trademark shown above.

Subsidiaries and Bell operating companies today

Before the 1984 break-up, the Bell System consisted of the following corporate structure:

American Telephone and Telegraph Company, a holding company and long-distance carrier
Bell Operating Companies:
- Illinois Bell
  Illinois Bell
  Illinois Bell is the name of the Bell Operating Company serving Illinois. It is wholly owned by AT&T.Their headquarters are at 225 West Randolph St., Chicago, IL. After the 1984 Bell System Divestiture, Illinois Bell became a part of Ameritech, one of the 7 original Regional Bell Operating Companies...
  
  Telephone Company
- Indiana Bell
  Indiana Bell
  Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Inc., is the Bell Operating Company serving Indiana. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc.After the 1984 Bell System Divestiture, Indiana Bell became a part of Ameritech, one of the 7 original Regional Bell Operating Companies...
  
  Telephone Company, Incorporated
- Michigan Bell
  Michigan Bell
  Michigan Bell is the subsidiary of AT&T serving the state of Michigan. Following the Bell System divestiture on January 8, 1982, the company became a subsidiary of Ameritech, the Regional Bell operating company that served the midwestern United States...
  
  Telephone Company
- New Jersey Bell
  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...
  
  Telephone Company
- Northwestern Bell
  Northwestern Bell
  Northwestern Bell Telephone Company served the states just north of the Southwestern Bell area, including: Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska.- Early beginnings :Northwestern Bell's earliest roots begin in Deadwood, South Dakota...
  
  Telephone Company
- Pacific Northwest Bell
  Pacific Northwest Bell
  Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company was an AT&T majority-owned Bell System company that provided local telecommunications services in Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho. Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company was formed on July 1, 1961 when it was spun off from the Pacific Telephone and...
  
  Telephone Company
- South Central Bell
  South Central Bell
  South Central Bell Telephone Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, was the name of the Bell System's operations in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee...
  
  Telephone Company
- Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company
- Southwestern Bell
  Southwestern Bell
  Southwestern Bell Telephone Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. It does business as AT&T Southwest and other d/b/a names in its operating region.The company is currently headquartered in Dallas, Texas at One AT&T Plaza.-History:...
  
  Telephone Company
- The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania
- The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company
- The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland
- The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia
  Frontier West Virginia
  Frontier West Virginia, Inc. is one of the original Bell Operating Companies and provides local telephone service in West Virginia.-History:...
- The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia
- The Diamond State Telephone Company
- The Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company
  - Malheur Home Telephone Company
    Malheur Bell
    Malheur Home Telephone Company, commonly known as Malheur Bell, was a rural telephone company operating in Oregon. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Qwest Corporation, the Bell Operating Company of Qwest Communications International....
- The New York Telephone
  New York Telephone
  The New York Telephone Company was organized in 1896, taking over the New York City operations of the American Bell Telephone Company.-Predecessor companies:...
  
  Company
- The New England Telephone
  New England Telephone
  The New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, more commonly known as New England Telephone, was a Bell Operating Company that served most of the New England area of the United States as a part of the original AT&T for seven decades, from the creation of the national monopoly in 1907 until...
  
  & Telegraph Company
- The Ohio Bell
  Ohio Bell
  The Ohio Bell Telephone Company is the Bell Operating Company serving most of Ohio. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T.Its headquarters is the Ohio Bell Building at 750 Huron Road, Cleveland, Ohio...
  
  Telephone Company
- The Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company
  Pacific Bell
  The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company was the name of the Bell System's telephone operations in California. It gained in size by acquiring smaller telephone companies along the Pacific coast, such as Sunset Telephone & Telegraph in 1917...
  - Bell Telephone Company of Nevada
- Wisconsin Telephone Company
Other subsidiaries:
- Western Electric Co., Inc.
  Western Electric
  Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...
  
  (equipment manufacturing)
- Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.
  Bell Labs
  Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
  
  (R&D)
- Cincinnati Bell, Inc.
  Cincinnati Bell
  Cincinnati Bell is the dominant telephone company for Cincinnati, Ohio, and its nearby suburbs in the U.S. states of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The parent company is named Cincinnati Bell Inc. Its incumbent local exchange carrier subsidiary uses the name Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company LLC,...
  
  (22.7% owned)
- The Southern New England Telephone Company (16.8% owned)

The 22 Bell Operating Companies were divested from AT&T in 1984, except as noted. The former companies of the Bell System listed below are organized according to the current owners of the companies (or their successors):

Regional Bell Operating Companies:

AT&T Inc.
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...

, a currently existing holding company
- AT&T
  American Telephone & Telegraph
  AT&T Corp., originally American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies. AT&T is the oldest telecommunications company...
  
  Corp., a current subsidiary
- AT&T Teleholdings, Inc.
  Ameritech
  AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly known as Ameritech Corporation , was a U.S. telecommunications company that arose out of the 1984 AT&T divestiture. Ameritech was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies that was created following the breakup of the Bell System...
  
  (formerly Ameritech Corporation), a current subsidiary, also includes now defunct SNET
  Southern New England Telecommunications
  Southern New England Telecommunications Corporation started operations in 1986 as the holding company for The Southern New England Telephone Company. Prior to 1986, The Southern New England Telephone Company had been a minority holding of AT&T until February 1986, when AT&T withdrew its 23% holding...
  
  and Pacific Telesis
  Pacific Telesis
  Pacific Telesis Group was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies, sometimes also referred to as "RBOCs" or "Baby Bells", created in 1983 in preparation of the breakup of AT&T as a holding company for Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell, Pacific Telesis International and several other...
  - Illinois Bell
    Illinois Bell
    Illinois Bell is the name of the Bell Operating Company serving Illinois. It is wholly owned by AT&T.Their headquarters are at 225 West Randolph St., Chicago, IL. After the 1984 Bell System Divestiture, Illinois Bell became a part of Ameritech, one of the 7 original Regional Bell Operating Companies...
    
    Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
  - Indiana Bell
    Indiana Bell
    Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Inc., is the Bell Operating Company serving Indiana. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc.After the 1984 Bell System Divestiture, Indiana Bell became a part of Ameritech, one of the 7 original Regional Bell Operating Companies...
    
    Telephone Company, Incorporated, a currently existing regional LEC
  - Michigan Bell
    Michigan Bell
    Michigan Bell is the subsidiary of AT&T serving the state of Michigan. Following the Bell System divestiture on January 8, 1982, the company became a subsidiary of Ameritech, the Regional Bell operating company that served the midwestern United States...
    
    Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
  - Pacific Bell
    Pacific Bell
    The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company was the name of the Bell System's telephone operations in California. It gained in size by acquiring smaller telephone companies along the Pacific coast, such as Sunset Telephone & Telegraph in 1917...
    
    Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
    - Nevada Bell
      Nevada Bell
      Nevada Bell Telephone Company, originally Bell Telephone Company of Nevada, was the Bell System's telephone provider in Nevada. It only provides telephone services to 30% of the state, not including Las Vegas, where service is provided by CenturyLink...
      
      Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC, omitted from the MFJ
      Modification of Final Judgment
      In United States telecommunication law, Modification of Final Judgment is the August 1982 agreement approved by the court settling United States v. AT&T, a landmark antitrust suit, originally filed on January, 14, 1949 and modifying the previous Final Judgment of January 24, 1956...
  - The Ohio Bell
    Ohio Bell
    The Ohio Bell Telephone Company is the Bell Operating Company serving most of Ohio. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T.Its headquarters is the Ohio Bell Building at 750 Huron Road, Cleveland, Ohio...
    
    Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
  - The Southern New England Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC that AT&T owned 16.8% of before 1984 and thus was left separate by the 1984 break-up
  - Wisconsin Bell
    Wisconsin Bell
    Wisconsin Bell, Inc. is the name of the Bell Operating Company serving Wisconsin. They were a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc.....
    
    , Inc., a currently existing regional LEC
- BellSouth
  BellSouth
  BellSouth Corporation is an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S...
  
  Corporation, a current subsidiary. Its two operating companies merged into one:
  - BellSouth Telecommunications
    BellSouth Telecommunications
    BellSouth Telecommunications, LLC is the Bell Operating Company of AT&T that serves the southeastern United States. It absorbed the operations of South Central Bell in 1992....
    
    , a currently existing regional LEC, includes Southern Bell & South Central Bell
- Southwestern Bell
  Southwestern Bell
  Southwestern Bell Telephone Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. It does business as AT&T Southwest and other d/b/a names in its operating region.The company is currently headquartered in Dallas, Texas at One AT&T Plaza.-History:...
  
  Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
Verizon Communications, Inc.
Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average...

, formerly Bell Atlantic Corporation, a currently existing holding company
- Verizon Delaware LLC, a currently existing regional LEC
- Verizon Maryland, Inc., a currently existing regional LEC
- Verizon New Jersey, Inc., a currently existing regional LEC
- Verizon Pennsylvania, Inc., a currently existing regional LEC
- Verizon Washington, D.C., Inc., a currently existing regional LEC
- Verizon Virginia, Inc., a currently existing regional LEC
- NYNEX
  NYNEX
  NYNEX Corporation was a telephone company that served five New England states as well as most of New York state, except the Rochester area, from 1984 through 1997....
  
  Corporation, a former RBOC holding company
  - Verizon New England, Inc., a currently existing regional LEC
  - Verizon New York, Inc., a currently existing regional LEC

The following companies are considered independent of the Baby Bells:

CenturyLink, Inc.
CenturyLink
CenturyLink, Inc. is a United States telecommunications firm, headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana. The company, founded as Central Telephone & Electronics Corporation in 1968, later changed its name to Century Telephone Enterprises, Inc. in 1971, and then was called CenturyTel, Inc. from 1999 to 2010...

, a currently existing independent LEC holding company
- Qwest Communications International, Inc.
  Qwest
  Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a large United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.On April...
  
  , a holding company acquired in 2011; originally a non-Bell company, it acquired and merged U S WEST, Inc.
  US West
  U S WEST, Inc. was one of seven Regional Bell Operating Companies , created in 1983 under the Modification of Final Judgement , a case related to the antitrust breakup of AT&T...
  
  in 2000.
  - Qwest Corporation
    Qwest Corporation
    Qwest Corporation is a Bell Operating Company owned by CenturyLink. It was formerly named U S WEST Communications, Inc. from 1991 to 2000, and also formerly named The Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company from 1911 to 1991...
    
    , a currently existing regional LEC
Cincinnati Bell, Inc.
Cincinnati Bell
Cincinnati Bell is the dominant telephone company for Cincinnati, Ohio, and its nearby suburbs in the U.S. states of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The parent company is named Cincinnati Bell Inc. Its incumbent local exchange carrier subsidiary uses the name Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company LLC,...

, a currently existing regional operating company of which AT&T owned 27.8% before 1984 and thus was left separate in the 1984 break-up
FairPoint Communications, Inc.
FairPoint Communications
FairPoint Communications, Inc. is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and operates communication services in 32 markets in 18 states, mostly in rural areas....

, a currently existing independent LEC holding company
- Northern New England Spinco, Inc.
  Northern New England Spinco
  Northern New England Spinco, Inc. was a Verizon Communications subsidiary created in 2007. Its sole purpose of existence is to act as a reverse Morris trust holding company for Verizon's assets owned by Bell Atlantic Communications, NYNEX Long Distance, and Verizon New England located within Maine,...
  
  , an LEC holding company created by Verizon
  Verizon Communications
  Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average...
  
  and sold to FairPoint in 2008
  - Northern New England Telephone Operations
    Northern New England Telephone Operations
    Northern New England Telephone Operations LLC is a telephone operating company founded in 2007 to take over the land lines in Maine and New Hampshire formerly operated by Verizon New England, a Bell Operating Company...
    
    LLC, a regional LEC created when Verizon New England lines in Maine
    Maine
    Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
    
    and New Hampshire
    New Hampshire
    New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
    
    were sold to FairPoint in 2008
  - Telephone Operating Company of Vermont
    Telephone Operating Company of Vermont
    Telephone Operating Company of Vermont LLC is a telephone operating company owned by Northern New England Telephone Operations, a subsidiary of FairPoint....
    
    LLC, a regional LEC created when Verizon New England lines in Vermont
    Vermont
    Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
    
    were sold to FairPoint in 2008
Frontier Communications Corporation, a currently existing independent LEC holding company
- Frontier Communications ILEC Holdings, Inc.
  Frontier Communications ILEC Holdings
  Frontier Communications ILEC Holdings, Inc. is a company created by Verizon Communications in 2009. The company, sold to Frontier Communications on July 1, 2010, serves as a holding company for former Bell System, Contel, and GTE telephone operating companies that were owned by Verizon prior to...
  
  , an LEC holding company created by Verizon
  Verizon Communications
  Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average...
  
  and sold to Frontier in 2010
  - Frontier West Virginia
    Frontier West Virginia
    Frontier West Virginia, Inc. is one of the original Bell Operating Companies and provides local telephone service in West Virginia.-History:...
    
    , Inc., a currently existing regional LEC, formerly C&P Telephone of West Virginia
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...

, a currently existing equipment/research company
- Lucent Technologies, Inc., a research company spun off separately in 1995 and merged with Alcatel
  Alcatel
  Alcatel Mobile Phones is a brand of mobile handsets. It was established in 2004 as a joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent of France and TCL Communication of China....
  
  in 2006
  - Western Electric
    Western Electric
    Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...
    
    , a former telecommunications and recording equipment-manufacturing company that ceased to have that name as of the 1984 break-up
    - Alcatel-Lucent Bell, a present-day subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent
      Alcatel-Lucent
      Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...
      
      that was founded in Antwerp, Belgium
      Belgium
      Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
      
      in 1882, by Western Electric. It came into Alcatel-Lucent ownership via ITT
      ITT Corporation
      ITT Corporation is a global diversified manufacturing company based in the United States. ITT participates in global markets including water and fluids management, defense and security, and motion and flow control...
      
      and Alcatel
      Alcatel
      Alcatel Mobile Phones is a brand of mobile handsets. It was established in 2004 as a joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent of France and TCL Communication of China....
      
      .
  - Bell Labs
    Bell Labs
    Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
    
    , the former AT&T-corporate research unit
Avaya, Inc.
Avaya
Avaya Inc. is a privately held computer networking, information technology and telecommunications company that is a global provider of business communications systems. The international head quarters is in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States...

, a currently -existing equipment manufacturing company spun off from Lucent in 2000
LSI Corporation
LSI Corporation
LSI Corporation is an electronics company based in Milpitas, California that designs semiconductors and software that accelerate storage and networking in datacenters and mobile networks.-History:...

, a currently existing holding company
- Agere Systems, incorporated on August 1, 2000, the former Micro Electronics subsidiary of Lucent was then spun off in 2002 and acquired by LSI
  LSI
  LSI may mean* Lord Steel Industry, a manufacturer of stainless steel tubing and piping* Labour and Socialist International, a former socialist international* Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad, a railroad service in Michigan, U.S....
  
  in 2007
Systimax Solutions, the Western Electric
Western Electric
Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...

Structured Cabling unit, once known as AT&T Network Systems was spun off from Avaya
Avaya
Avaya Inc. is a privately held computer networking, information technology and telecommunications company that is a global provider of business communications systems. The international head quarters is in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States...

in 2002 and is now part of CommScope
CommScope
CommScope Inc. is a multinational telecommunications company based in Hickory, North Carolina since its founding in 1976. CommScope is a 1997 spin-off of General Instruments, and now has over 15,000 employees worldwide, with customers in over 130 countries....
Telcordia Technologies, Inc.
Telcordia Technologies
Telcordia Technologies, formerly Bell Communications Research, Inc. or Bellcore, is a telecommunications research and development company based in the United States created as part of the 1982 Modification of Final Judgment that broke up American Telephone & Telegraph...

, a currently existing research company, formerly known as Bell Communications Research (Bellcore)

Beginning in 1991, the Baby Bells began to consolidate operations or legally rename their Bell Operating Companies according to the parent company name, such as "Bell Atlantic – Delaware, Inc." or "U S WEST Communications, Inc.", to "unify" the corporate image. To this day, the only remaining Baby Bell that has not renamed its operating companies is AT&T, formerly SBC Communications. Since 1995, there have only been 19 Bell Operating Companies, following the mergers of U S WEST's and BellSouth

BellSouth

BellSouth Corporation is an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S...

's operating companies. Only 9 of those 19 have retained their original corporate name since their incorporation before 1984.

Before the 1956 break-up, the Bell System also included the companies listed below. Bell Canada, Northern Electric, and the Caribbean regional operating companies were considered part of the Bell System proper before the 1956 break-up. Nippon Electric was considered a more distant affiliate of Western Electric than Northern Electric, where Nippon Electric via its own research and development adapted the designs of Western Electric's North American telecommunications equipment for use in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, which to this day gives much of Japan's telephone equipment and network a closer resemblance to North American ANSI

American National Standards Institute

The American National Standards Institute is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organization also coordinates U.S. standards with international...

and Telcordia

Telcordia Technologies

Telcordia Technologies, formerly Bell Communications Research, Inc. or Bellcore, is a telecommunications research and development company based in the United States created as part of the 1982 Modification of Final Judgment that broke up American Telephone & Telegraph...

standards than to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an-originated ITU-T

ITU-T

The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector is one of the three sectors of the International Telecommunication Union ; it coordinates standards for telecommunications....

standards. Before the 1956 break-up, Northern Electric was predominantly focused only on manufacturing without any significant amount of separate telecommunication-equipment research & development of its own. The post-World War II-occupation operation of NTT was considered an administrative adjunct to the North American Bell System.

BCE Inc.
Bell Canada
Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...

(Bell Canada Enterprises), a currently existing holding company
- Bell Canada
  Bell Canada
  Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...
  
  , a current LEC
Nortel Networks Corporation
Nortel
Nortel Networks Corporation, formerly known as Northern Telecom Limited and sometimes known simply as Nortel, was a multinational telecommunications equipment manufacturer headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada...

, formerly Northern Telecom, a currently existing equipment-manufacturing company
- Northern Electric, a former telecommunications equipment-manufacturing subsidiary of Western Electric
- Dominion Electric, a former recording equipment-manufacturing company
Various former Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

regional operating companies, sold to ITT
ITT Corporation
ITT Corporation is a global diversified manufacturing company based in the United States. ITT participates in global markets including water and fluids management, defense and security, and motion and flow control...
NEC, a currently existing equipment-manufacturing company in Japan
- Nippon Electric, a former telecommunications equipment-manufacturing company 54% owned by Western Electric
NTT
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
, commonly known as NTT, is a Japanese telecommunications company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Ranked the 31st in Fortune Global 500, NTT is the largest telecommunications company in Asia, and the second-largest in the world in terms of revenue....

, a currently existing telecommunications company in Japan that was administered by AT&T as part of General Douglas MacArthur's post-WWII reconstruction

In popular culture

From 1940 to 1968 the company sponsored The Bell Telephone Hour
The Bell Telephone Hour
The Bell Telephone Hour is a long-run concert series which began April 29, 1940 on NBC Radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone, it showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television...

on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

radio and (later) television. The program was devoted to concert performances by various singers and musicians.
In Ball of Fire
Ball of Fire
Ball of Fire is a 1941 American romantic comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The RKO Pictures film is about a group of professors laboring to write an encyclopedia and their encounter with a nightclub performer who provides her own unique knowledge...

, a 1941 movie, Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...

asks Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...

to "Give Her an 'Ameche, a reference to the recent hit movie "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell" which starred Don Ameche
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...

in the title role.
Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote...

includes a scene where the title character watches a television commercial for the Bell System, prompting the famous line, "E.T. phone home!" Later that same year the E.T. character appeared in one of Bell's "Reach out and touch someone" ads.
In the 1990 film Home Alone
Home Alone
Home Alone is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy, who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation...

, after a tree branch falls on the McCallisters' telephone lines, a repair man reports to Mrs. McCallister, "Excuse me, Ma'am, I wanted to let you know that your power is fixed but the phone lines are a mess. It's gonna take Ma Bell a couple of days to patch them up. Especially around the holidays." This led to the family being unable to call Kevin after they left him home alone.
Q-Tip
Q-Tip (rapper)
Kamaal Ibn John Fareed , better known by his stage name Q-Tip, is an American hip hop artist, producer, singer, and actor from St. Albans, Queens, New York, part of the critically acclaimed group A Tribe Called Quest...

and the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....

refer to the Bell System in identical lines from the songs "Get It Together
Get It Together (Beastie Boys song)
"Get It Together" is a song by American hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, released as the second single from their fourth studio album Ill Communication...

" and "Sure Shot
Sure Shot
"Sure Shot" is a song by American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released as the third single from their 1994 album Ill Communication. The single was released a few days after the release of the album, on May 31, 1994.-Release:...

", on the Beastie Boys Ill Communication
Ill Communication
Ill Communication is the fourth studio album by the Beastie Boys. It was released on May 24, 1994 via Grand Royal Records. It was remastered and made available on the Beastie Boys' Web site on July 7, 2009....

album:

"Like Ma Bell, I got the ill communication"

The Beastie Boys again reference the Bell System in the song "Root Down", also off the Ill Communication album, with the line:

"MCA grab the mic' and Ma Bell will connect you"

Ray Stevens
Ray Stevens
Ray Stevens is an American country music, pop singer-songwriter who has become known for his novelty songs.-Early career:...

refers to the Bell System in the song "It's Me Again Margaret" on the "He Thinks He's Ray Stevens
He Thinks He's Ray Stevens
-Personnel:Musicians*Ray Stevens - lead vocals, background vocals , keyboards and synthesizers *Jerry Carrigan - drums *Mark Casstevens - banjo, rhythm guitar...

" album:

"Well, they called up Ma Bell and they traced him on down / to a funky old phone booth on the outskirts of town"

In the book The Outcasts of 19 Schulyer Place, by E.L. Konigsburg, there are many references to the Ma Bell phone company, because phone towers are one of the main topics of the book.
In the climax of the 1967 satirical film The President's Analyst
The President's Analyst
The President's Analyst is a 1967 satirical comedy film written and directed by Theodore J. Flicker, starring James Coburn. The widescreen cinematography was by William A. Fraker, and Lalo Schifrin provided the film's musical score...

, it is revealed that "The Phone Company" (TPC) - an obvious allusion to Bell Telephone - is planning a massive conspiracy to surgically implant communications devices into the brains of its customers. Also featured is a TPC-produced propaganda film that parodies The Bell Laboratory Science Series
The Bell Laboratory Science Series
The Bell Laboratory Science Series was a series of educational television specials made for Bell Labs by Frank Capra, Walt Disney, and others. Each special explored a single subject in detail. The host of seven of the eight films was Dr. Research, played by Frank C. Baxter...

that Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...

produced for Bell Laboratories in the 1950s.
In the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...

, a videophone
Videophone
A videophone is a telephone with a video screen, and is capable of full duplex video and audio transmissions for communication between people in real-time...

screen aboard a space station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...

in earth orbit displays the Bell System logo.
Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett
James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...

mentions Bell in his song "Life Is Just a Tire Swing":

"I fell asleep at the wheel / But was quickly wakened up by a Ma Bell telephone pole"

Jackie "The Jokeman" Martling makes several references to the phone company, specifically Ma Bell and AT&T, to which he is singing, in one of his early folk songs known as "The Road Song":

"Please Mama Bell ring it louder" and "I'll pay my fee to AT&T".

Hip Hop artist MF Doom
MF Doom
Daniel Dumile is a hip hop artist who has taken on several stage names in his career, most notably MF DOOM, where the "MF" stands for metal face, and for tracks he has produced, metal fingers...

refers to the Bell System in a verse of "Beef Rapp", his first track on MM..Food?. The verse goes as follows:

"Keep a cooker where the jar fell, And keep a cheap hooker that's off the hook like Ma Bell"

Kurtis Blow
Kurtis Blow
Kurt Walker , better known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapper and record producer. He is one of the first commercially successful rappers and the first to sign with a major record label...

refers to the Bell System in the song "The Breaks
The Breaks (song)
"The Breaks" is a critically acclaimed 1980 hit single by Kurtis Blow from his self-titled debut album. It was one of the earliest hip-hop hits, peaking at #87 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.-Remakes:...

":

"And Ma Bell sends you a whopping bill...With 18 phone calls to Brazil"

On Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris is an African American television period sitcom inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock , while growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York . The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years...

in the episode "Everybody Hates the Pilot" , Rochelle tells Chris

"I will slap your name out the phone book and call Ma Bell and tell her I did it"

In the Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo is an American animated television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network. The series stars a muscular beefcake young man named Johnny Bravo who dons a pompadour hairstyle and an Elvis Presley-like voice and has a forward, woman-chasing personality...

episode, "The Sensitive Male", a gentleman told Johnny to "call 800-ATT instead of just collect".
Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...

's most famous character, Ernestine Tomlin, is an operator for "the telephone company". Although the Bell System is not mentioned by name in her routines, the character constantly refers to the power and monopolistic control the telephone company could wield. Tomlin's first album, "This is a Recording" consisted entirely of Ernestine vignettes. It was recorded live at the Ice House in Pasadena, CA, and the performance was attended by several telephone company employees.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Formation under Bell patent

Kingsbury Commitment

Government sanctioned monopolization

Present-day usage of the Bell name

Subsidiaries and Bell operating companies today

In popular culture

See also

External links