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'{{pp-move-indef}} [[File:Bell System hires 1969 logo blue.svg|thumb|right|150px|The Bell System [[logo]] and [[trademark]] as it appeared in 1969]] The '''Bell System''' was the [[American Bell Telephone Company]] and then, subsequently, [[AT&T Corporation|AT&T]]–led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a [[monopoly]]. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a [[Bell System divestiture|U.S. Justice Department mandate]]. 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]] 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 (Time Lady)|Mary Moore]], [[Jane Barbe]], and [[Pat Fleet]] (the current voice of AT&T). == History == [[Image:Bell System hires 1889 logo.PNG||thumb|Logo used from 1889 to 1900]] In 1877, the American Bell Telephone Company, named after [[Alexander Graham Bell]], opened the first telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut. Within a few years [[Telephone exchange|local exchange]] companies were established in every major city in the United States. Use of the ''Bell System'' name initially referred to those early telephone [[Franchising|franchises]] and eventually comprised all telephone companies owned by [[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]], conducting research and development for AT&T. * [[Regional Bell Operating Company|Bell operating companies]], providing local exchange telephone services. In 1913, under AT&T ownership, the Bell System became a government sanctioned [[monopoly]] 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 [[Bell System divestiture|its dismantling]] by the [[United States Department of Justice]] in 1984, at which time the Bell System ceased to exist.<ref> {{cite web | url = http://www.att.com/history/history3.html | title = AT&T History: The Bell System | author = AT&T Corporation | accessdate = 2008-12-22}}</ref> === Formation under Bell patent === Receiving a U.S. [[patent]] for the invention of the [[telephone]] on March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell formed the Bell Telephone Company in 1877, which in 1885 became AT&T<ref name="cato"> {{cite web | url=http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cjv14n2-6.html | publisher=[[Cato Institute]] | title=Unnatural Monopoly: Critical Moments |accessdate=2008-09-17}}</ref><ref name="franklin">{{cite web | url=http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/inventor/bell.html | publisher=[[Franklin Institute]] | title=Bell's Telephone |accessdate=2008-09-17}}</ref><ref name="att milestones">{{cite web | url=http://www.corp.att.com/history/milestones.html | publisher=[[AT&T]] | title=AT&T Milestones in AT&T History |accessdate=2008-09-17}}</ref> 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.<ref name="cato"/><ref name="att milestones"/> On April 30, 1907, [[Theodore Newton Vail]] returned as President of AT&T.<ref name="cato"/><ref name="att milestones"/> Vail believed in the superiority of one phone system and AT&T adopted the slogan "One Policy, One System, Universal Service."<ref name="cato"/><ref name="att history3">{{cite web | url=http://www.corp.att.com/history/history3.html | publisher=[[AT&T]] | title=AT&T History: The Bell System |accessdate=2008-09-17}}</ref> This would be the company's philosophy for the next 70 years.<ref name="att milestones"/> Under Vail, AT&T began buying up many of the smaller telephone companies including [[Western Union|Western Union telegraph]].<ref name="cato"/><ref name="att milestones"/> Anxious to avoid action from government [[antitrust]] suits, AT&T and the federal government entered into an agreement known as the [[Kingsbury Commitment]].<ref name="cato"/><ref name="att history3"/> === Kingsbury Commitment === {{Main|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 [[Interstate Commerce Commission|U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission]] (ICC).<ref name="cato"/><ref name="att milestones"/><ref>Brooks, John. [http://books.google.com/books?ei=yZ-mS9_pPIOclgems-mZAg&ct=result&id=H4NjAAAAIAAJ Telephone: The First Hundred Years], Harper & Row, 1976, ISBN 060105402, ISBN 978-0-06-010540-2.</ref> [[File:Bell System hires 1921 logo.PNG|right|thumb|Bell System trademark used by AT&T and affiliated companies from 1921 to 1939]] [[File:195broadway.JPG|thumb|[[195 Broadway]], HQ for most of 20th century]] 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]], a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. Member telephone companies paid a fixed fraction of their revenues as a license fee to [[Bell Labs]]. === Government sanctioned monopolization === In 1934, the government set AT&T up as a regulated [[natural monopoly|monopoly]] under the jurisdiction of the [[Federal Communications Commission]], in the [[Communications Act of 1934]]. 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]] alleged in an [[antitrust]] [[lawsuit]] 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 {{Anchor|1956ConsentDecree}}a 1956 [[consent decree]] 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]] and the [[Caribbean]]. The Bell System's Canadian operations included the [[Bell Canada]] regional operating company and the [[Nortel Networks|Northern Electric]] manufacturing subsidiary of the Bell System's [[Western Electric]] equipment manufacturer. [[Northern Electric Company]] 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]], 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 Corporation|NEC]] and a post-[[World War II]] reconstruction relationship with [[Nippon Telegraph and Telephone|NTT]] before the 1956 boundaries were emplaced. Before 1956, the Bell System's reach was truly gargantuan. Even during the WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOperiod 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]] 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 (economics)|competition]] 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. WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO == Present-day usage of the Bell name == The Bell System service marks (i.e., the circled-bell logo (especially as redesigned by noted graphic designer [[Saul Bass]] in 1969 and seen at the top of this article) 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]], [[CenturyLink]], and [[Cincinnati Bell]].<ref>[http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=73727728 USPTO record for trademark serial no. 73727728] (example "Bell" registration originally held by [[Pacific Telesis]]): "Registration is nationwide, but is subject to the condition that registrant shall use the mark only in conjunction with one or more of the following modifiers; "Nevada Bell", "Pacific Bell", "Pacific Telephone", "Pacific Telesis", or "PacTel". Use of a modifier shall be considered to be in conjunction with the mark if it is used in sufficient proximity to the mark such that a reasonable observer would normally view the mark and the modifier in a single visual impression and would recognize that both the mark and the modifier are used by registrant. Registrant's right to exclusive use of the mark is subject to the rights of the [other RBOCs], to which concurrent registrations in the mark have also been issued, to use the mark in conjunction with one or more of the modifiers specified in those registrations[...]"</ref> International rights to the marks, except for [[Canada]], are held by a joint venture of these companies, [[Bell IP Holdings]]. [[File:VerizonBell.jpg|200px|thumb|left|A [[Verizon Communications|Verizon]] [[payphone]] with the Bell logo]] Of the various resulting 1984 spinoffs, only [[BellSouth]] 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]], which licenses the [[Northwestern Bell]] and [[Mountain Bell]] names to Unical Enterprises, who makes telephones under the Northwestern Bell name. [[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]] 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. [[Verizon|Bell Atlantic]] used the Bell name and circled-bell trademark until renaming itself Verizon in 2000. Of the various resulting 1984 spinoffs, only [[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]] 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 == {{See also|Bell System Divestiture}} Before the 1984 break-up, the Bell System consisted of the following corporate structure: * '''[[AT&T Corp.|American Telephone and Telegraph Company]]''', a holding company and long-distance carrier ** [[Illinois Bell]] Telephone Company ** [[Indiana Bell]] Telephone Company, Incorporated ** [[Michigan Bell]] Telephone Company ** [[New England Telephone]] and Telegraph Company ** [[New Jersey Bell]] Telephone Company ** [[New York Telephone]] Company ** [[Northwestern Bell]] Telephone Company ** [[Pacific Northwest Bell]] Telephone Company ** [[South Central Bell]] Telephone Company ** [[Southern Bell]] Telephone and Telegraph Company ** [[Southwestern Bell]] Telephone Company ** The [[Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania]] ** The [[Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company]] ** The [[Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland]] ** [[Frontier West Virginia|The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia]] ** The [[Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia]] ** The [[Diamond State Telephone Company]] ** The [[Mountain Bell|Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph]] Company *** [[Malheur Bell|Malheur Home Telephone Company]] ** The [[Ohio Bell]] Telephone Company ** [[Pacific Bell|The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company]] *** [[Bell Telephone Company of Nevada]] ** [[Wisconsin Telephone]] Company *Other subsidiaries: ** [[Western Electric|Western Electric Co., Inc.]] (equipment manufacturing) *** [[Bell Labs|Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.]] (R&D, co-owned between [[AT&T Corp.|AT&T]] and [[Western Electric]]) ** [[Cincinnati Bell|Cincinnati Bell, Inc.]] (22.7% owned) ** [[Southern New England Telephone|The Southern New England Telephone Company]] (16.8% owned) ** [[Bellcomm]] === Post-breakup === ==== 1984 ==== On January 1, 1984, the former components of the Bell System were structured as such: *'''[[Ameritech|American Information Technologies]] Corporation''' **[[Illinois Bell]] Telephone Company **[[Indiana Bell]] Telephone Company, Incorporated **[[Michigan Bell]] Telephone Company **The [[Ohio Bell]] Telephone Company **[[Wisconsin Bell]], Inc. *'''[[American Telephone and Telegraph Company]]''' **[[AT&T Communications]], Inc. **[[AT&T Information Systems]], Inc. **[[AT&T Technologies]], Inc. **[[Bell Telephone Laboratories]], Inc. *'''[[Bell Atlantic]] Corporation''' **[[New Jersey Bell]] Telephone Company **[[Bell of Pennsylvania|The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania]] **[[C&P Telephone|The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company]] **[[C&P Telephone|The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland]] **[[Frontier West Virginia|The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia]] **[[C&P Telephone|The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia]] **The [[Diamond State Telephone]] Company *'''[[Telcordia Technologies|Bell Communications Research]], Inc.''', owned equally by all the Baby Bells *'''[[BellSouth Corporation]]''' **[[BellSouth Telecommunications|Southern Bell]] Telephone and Telegraph Company **[[South Central Bell]] Telephone Company *'''[[Cincinnati Bell]], Inc.''' **Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company *'''[[NYNEX]] Corporation''' **[[New York Telephone]] Company **[[Verizon New England|New England Telephone and Telegraph Company]] *'''[[Pacific Telesis]] Group''' **[[Pacific Bell]] Telephone Company ***[[Nevada Bell]] Telephone Company *'''[[AT&T|Southwestern Bell]] Corporation **[[Southwestern Bell]] Telephone Company *'''[[Southern New England Telephone|The Southern New England Telephone Company]]''' *'''[[US West|U S WEST]], Inc.''' **[[Northwestern Bell]] Telephone Company **[[Pacific Northwest Bell]] Telephone Company **The [[Qwest Corporation|Mountain States Telephone]] and Telegraph Company ***[[Malheur Bell|Malheur Home Telephone]] Company ==== Today ==== After 1984, there were multiple mergers of the operating companies themselves, as well as multiple Baby Bells that came together, and some components are now in the hands of companies independent from the historic Bell System. The current structure of the companies today is as follows. <br>'''[[Regional Bell Operating Companies]]''': * '''[[AT&T|AT&T Inc.]]''', formerly Southwestern Bell Corporation then SBC Communications, Inc., a currently existing holding company ** [[American Telephone & Telegraph|AT&T]] Corp., a current subsidiary ** [[Ameritech|AT&T Teleholdings, Inc.]] (formerly Ameritech Corporation), a current subsidiary, also includes now defunct [[Southern New England Telecommunications|SNET]] and [[Pacific Telesis]] *** [[Illinois Bell]] Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC *** [[Indiana Bell]] Telephone Company, Incorporated, a currently existing regional LEC *** [[Michigan Bell]] Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC *** [[Pacific Bell]] Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC **** [[Nevada Bell]] Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC, omitted from the [[Modification of Final Judgment|MFJ]] *** The [[Ohio Bell]] Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC *** [[Southern New England Telephone|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]], Inc., a currently existing regional LEC ** [[BellSouth]] Corporation, a current subsidiary. Its two operating companies merged into one: *** [[BellSouth Telecommunications]], LLC, a currently existing regional LEC, includes Southern Bell & South Central Bell ** [[Southwestern Bell]] Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC * '''[[Verizon Communications|Verizon Communications, Inc.]]''', formerly [[Bell Atlantic]] Corporation, a currently existing holding company ** [[NYNEX]] Corporation, a former RBOC holding company *** [[Verizon New England]], Inc., a currently existing regional LEC *** [[Verizon New York]], Inc., a currently existing regional LEC ** [[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 The following telephone companies are considered independent of the [[Baby Bells]]: * '''[[CenturyLink|CenturyLink, Inc.]]''', a currently existing independent LEC holding company ** [[Qwest|Qwest Communications International, Inc.]], a holding company acquired in 2011; originally a non-Bell company, acquired and merged [[US West|U S WEST]] in 2000. *** Qwest Services Corporation, a holding company within the Qwest corporate structure **** [[Qwest Corporation]], a currently existing regional LEC, originally Mountain Bell, includes defunct Malheur Bell, Northwestern Bell, Pacific Northwest Bell * '''[[Cincinnati Bell|Cincinnati Bell, Inc.]]''', a currently existing independent LEC holding company ** Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company LLC, a currently existing LEC of which AT&T owned 27.8% before 1984 and thus was left separate in the 1984 break-up * '''[[Comcast Corporation]]''', a currently existing [[cable television]] holding company ** [[MediaOne|Comcast MO Group]], Inc., the original [[US West|U S WEST]]; spun off a "new" U S WEST and changed its name to MediaOne in [[1998]]; acquired by [[AT&T Corp.|AT&T]] in 1999; sold to [[Comcast]] in 2002 * '''[[FairPoint Communications|FairPoint Communications, Inc.]]''', a currently existing independent LEC holding company ** [[Northern New England Telephone Operations]] LLC, a regional LEC created when [[Verizon New England]] lines in [[Maine]] and [[New Hampshire]] were sold to [[FairPoint]] in 2008 *** [[Telephone Operating Company of Vermont]] LLC, a regional LEC created when Verizon New England lines in [[Vermont]] were sold to FairPoint in 2008 * '''[[Frontier Communications|Frontier Communications Corporation]]''', a currently existing independent LEC holding company ** [[Frontier Communications ILEC Holdings|Frontier Communications ILEC Holdings, Inc.]], an LEC holding company created by [[Verizon Communications|Verizon]] and sold to Frontier in 2010 *** [[Frontier West Virginia]], Inc., a currently existing regional LEC, formerly C&P Telephone of West Virginia The following companies were spun off after 1984 from [[AT&T Corp.]] or the [[Baby Bells]] and do not provide telephone service. * '''[[Alcatel-Lucent]]''', a currently existing equipment/research company ** [[Lucent|Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc.]], a research company spun off separately in 1995 and merged with [[Alcatel]] in 2006 *** [[Western Electric|Western Electric Company, Incorporated]], 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]] that was founded in [[Antwerp]], [[Belgium]] in 1882, by Western Electric. It came into Alcatel-Lucent ownership via [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] and [[Alcatel]]. *** [[Bell Labs|Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.]], the former AT&T-corporate research unit * '''[[Avaya|Avaya, Inc.]]''', a currently -existing equipment manufacturing company spun off from [[Lucent]] in 2000 * '''[[LSI Corporation]]''', 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]] in 2007 * '''[[Systimax Solutions]]''', the [[Western Electric]] Structured Cabling unit, once known as [[AT&T Network Systems]] was spun off from [[Avaya]] in 2002 and is now part of [[CommScope]] * '''[[Ericsson|Telefonaktiebolaget L. M. Ericsson]]''', a [[Sweden|Swedish]] communications company ** [[Telcordia Technologies|Telcordia Technologies, Inc.]], 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 2001, there have only been 17 the original 22 Bell Operating Companies, following the mergers of [[U S WEST]]'s and [[BellSouth]]'s operating companies and reincorporation of Southwestern Bell. Only 9 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]], which to this day gives much of Japan's telephone equipment and network a closer resemblance to North American [[American National Standards Institute|ANSI]] and [[Telcordia Technologies|Telcordia]] standards than to [[Europe]]an-originated [[ITU-T]] 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. * '''[[Bell Canada|BCE Inc.]] (Bell Canada Enterprises)''', a currently existing holding company ** [[Bell Canada]], a current LEC * '''[[Nortel|Nortel Networks Corporation]]''', 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]] regional operating companies, sold to [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] * '''[[NEC Corporation|NEC]]''', a currently existing equipment-manufacturing company in Japan ** Nippon Electric, a former telecommunications equipment-manufacturing company 54% owned by Western Electric * '''[[Nippon Telegraph and Telephone|NTT]]''', a currently existing telecommunications company in Japan that was administered by AT&T as part of General Douglas MacArthur's post-WWII reconstruction [[File:Bell Systems manhole hayward.jpg|thumb|Manhole cover with Bell System logo]] == In popular culture == <onlyinclude> * From 1940 to 1968 the company sponsored ''[[The Bell Telephone Hour]]'' on [[NBC]] radio and (later) television. The program was devoted to concert performances by various singers and musicians. * [[Steven Spielberg]]'s 1982 film ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial]]'' 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 climax of the 1967 satirical film ''[[The President's Analyst]]'', 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]] that [[Frank Capra]] produced for Bell Laboratories in the 1950s. * The [[Beastie Boys]] alluded to Bell Telephone in their songs "Sure Shot" and "[[Get It Together (Beastie Boys song)|Get It Together]]" off of the 1994 ''[[Ill Communication]]'' album by finishing the song with the repetitive line, "Ma Bell, I got the Ill Communication." </onlyinclude> <!-- please maintain this transclusion tag as the last line of this section; content is transcluded to another article --> == See also == * [[Bell Telephone Company]] * [[Bell Telephone Memorial]] * [[Bell System divestiture]] * [[RBOC]] (Regional Bell Operating Company) * [[American Telephone & Telegraph Company]] * [[Independent telephone company]] * [[Push-button telephone]] * [[The Telephone Cases]] == References == {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}} {{Refimprove|date=January 2008}} == External links == * [http://www.bell.com/ Bell.com] * [http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com/ Bell System Memorial] * [http://www.belltelephonesigns.com/ Blue Bell Telephone Sign History — New England Telephone and Telegraph] * [http://www.corp.att.com/history/ AT&T Corporation (1885-2005 company) History] * [http://lw.bna.com/lw/19980602/971113.htm ''BellSouth vs. FCC'' — reference for company names] * [http://www.uspto.gov USPTO — see trademark database] {{Bell System}} {{Telecommunications}} [[Category:Companies established in 1921]] [[Category:Bell System| ]] [[Category:AT&T]] [[Category:Alexander Graham Bell]] [[Category:Monopolies]] [[Category:Companies disestablished in 1984]] [[Category:Defunct companies based in New York City]] [[Category:Defunct telecommunications companies of the United States]] [[sv:Bell System]]'