What was AT&T called before?
Before the business evolved into what it is now, AT&T had various other names in the past; it did not start under that moniker. Originally running as a telephone business in several of the main American metropolitan areas, its roots date back as far as the late 1800s.
To understand the early history of AT&T Internet, it is useful to go back to the Bell Telephone Company which was established in 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell. This company possessed patents for the telephone technology that Bell came up with, and began providing telephone services to the public. Many industries were involved in the development of the telephone including the Western Union, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and the Bell Telephone Company In the early days of telephony, the Bell Telephone Company could be described as a monopolist because they possessed rights to important patents and did not have strong competition from other firms who were offering this new means of communication.
A&T was formed in 1899 as a subsidiary of Bell Telephone Company sometime in 1899. Their purpose was to expand and operate long-distance telephone services in the country across wider areas. However, the Bell Telephone Company and A&T were still two independent companies at this stage or level.
While it was formed in 1877, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company did not formally acquire the assets of the Bell Telephone Company until 1907. So AT&T has a direct link back to Alexander Graham Bell’s initial company that brought telephone technology to the masses.
For a couple of decades, AT&T was a legal monopoly out there and there was no one to challenge it or compete with it. This is because they were freely permitted to monopolize the telephone industry in the United States provided that they developed necessary structures for the provision of services across the United States that included the rural areas despite such areas being economically unviable. AT&T marketed itself as “The Bell System,” and, in this age, most Americans subscribed to phone service through AT&T.
What transpired was that in the 1980s and 90s, the Bell System was dismantled following a significant anti-trust case instigated by the Department of Justice. AT&T continued to dominate the long-distance telephone service market as well as the equipment manufacturing market. The local telephone operations were unbundled into seven separate Regional Bell Operating Companies known as ‘Baby Bells’. Some of the Baby Bells were; Ameritech, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, and US West.
During the 1990s, many mergers and acquisitions happened which resulted in many of the Baby Bell companies rejoining AT&T or being acquired by other companies in the communication industry. For instance, the Southwestern Bell Corporation transformed into SBC Communications because it had expanded beyond its main geographical area. The original AT&T was bought by SBC in 2005 and assumed the more familiar name of AT&T Corporate.
Like most telecommunications giants, Verizon was the product of the Bell Atlantic NYNEX merger and GTE consolidation. Telephone and communications provider Verizon remains a key player in the provision of telephony and connectivity through wireless cellular networks and fiber-optic broadband networks.
Ultimately, Alexander Graham Bell's Bell Telephone Company is where the AT&T company originated; yet, this was only active for around thirty years until it was acquired by the subsidiary of the new American Telephone and Telegraph Company. From the 1980s until the present, AT&T officially controlled the telephone service market all around. It conveyed via the "Bell System" brand the integration of its infrastructure. The anti-trust case of the 1980s destroyed this structure; while AT&T kept long-distance service, local service developed the "Baby Bells." Although AT&T is still a participant in the market, several of the big firms in the contemporary telecoms sector have emerged over time from the Baby Bells some of which via mergers, acquisitions, and even name changes like SBC and Bell Atlantic becoming Verizon).
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