AT&T Archives: What is the Bell System?

For more from the AT&T Archives, see http://techchannel.att.com/showpage.cfm?ATT-Archives

The Bell System, being a 'controlled monopoly' in 1976 and employing almost a million people at 27,000 locations worldwide, sometimes needed some explaining as to how the whole system fit together. This explanation is from a blue-collar POV, from a 'telephone man'. He divides the Bell businesses into 5 segments, and explains what each of them do. It's faux-folksy, but it does the job.
Here are the company segments:

1. AT&T
2. Large local telephone companies (23 of them, like Mountain Bell, Pacific Bell, 3. Ohio Bell, etc)
4. Long Lines
5. Bell Laboratories
6. Western Electric

Most people at the time knew of the Bell system as who rented you your phone, serviced the lines and provided basic and long distance telephone service. But the company extended far beyond that into military support operations, a number of much smaller subcompanies, and international telephony infrastructure projects.

When AT&T's regulated monopoly was broken up in 1982, this is what happened to the different sections, which was finally enacted in 1984:

1. AT&T kept the name/business.
2. Most of the local phone companies-the baby Bells-became independent and now are part of companies like Qwest and Verizon.
3. Long Lines remained part of AT&T
4. Bell Laboratories remained part of AT&T (until 1995)
5. Western Electric ceased to exist and was folded into different manufacturing companies under the AT&T banner

Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• AT&T history
• Bell System
• Bell Labs
• Western Electric

[Mainsail76]

This was a very informative film. It was made the year I was born. Seeing those people building the equipment and components is bitter sweet, because that was back when America was strong and built it's own technology. That doesn't exist know. Instead, we have our technology built by slaves in communist China.  It's sad. The narrator was strong and confident, but not cocky and stupid like men are today. He was a man, not a hipster stooge like you'd see in a similar film today.

[49jubilee]

I think if they didnt divest, we wouldnt have had cellphones and txt msgs; but life was simpler without them

[dan2kxyz]

Great video. Thanks for posting this.