About the Company
The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by 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 $450 billion in 2024) 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 the Sherman Act. In 1982, anticipating that it could not win, AT&T agreed to a Justice Department-mandated consent decree that settled the lawsuit and ordered it to break itself up into seven "Regional Bell Operating Companies" (known as "The Baby Bells"). This ended the existence of the conglomerate in 1984. The Baby Bells became independent companies and several of them are large corporations today.
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Latest News on TELEPHONE & DATA SYSTEMS INC /DE/
Telephone and Data Systems’s Q2 Earnings Call: Our Top 5 Analyst Questions
Telephone and Data Systems’ second quarter was marked by significant portfolio transformation, with the closing of its ...
Severe storm hits Apopka, snapping telephone pole and disrupting power
A severe storm which passed through Apopka last night resulted in considerable damage, including the collapse of a telephone ...
Loud and Clear: When See-Through Telephones Ruled the ‘90s
These compact, push-button phones had translucent plastic cases so callers could see every component. They lit up in neon colors when the phone rang. And for a period in the 1980s and 1990s, they were ...
CT man dies after being ejected from Jeep that struck telephone pole
A man was killed when he was ejected from a Jeep that left the road in Somers on Sunday evening and struck a telephone pole.
Telephone and Data Systems Inc (TDS) Q2 2025 Earnings Report Preview: What To Look For
Telephone and Data Systems Inc (NYSE:TDS) is set to release its Q2 2025 earnings on Aug 11, 2025. The consensus estimate for ...
40-year-old man killed after vehicle strikes telephone pole in Somers
A man has died after his vehicle struck a telephone pole Sunday evening in Somers, state police said. The driver was identified as Gregory Issa, 40, of Somers, state police confirmed. At around 7 p.m.
Amid brewing controversy over Telephone Road project, Harrisburg TIRZ to host community info session
The local management organization for the Harrisburg area in east Houston will host an Aug. 19 information session about the ...
East End open house scheduled for Houston's controversial Telephone Road redesign
The Telephone Road Reconstruction Open House will take place on Monday, August 19 at 6 p.m. at KIPP Explore Academy, 5402 ...
Telephone assistance may reduce bias in patient-reported outcome follow-up, monitoring
Direct telephone assistance may help mitigate systemic bias in electronic patient-reported outcome measure follow-up and ...
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