Break Up, benefits and restructuring


The rest of the telephone monopoly lasted until January 8, 1982, the date of settlement of United States v. AT & T, a 1974 United States Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT & T. Under Regulation AT & T ("Ma Bell") has agreed to divest its local exchange companies operating services in exchange for a chance to go in the computer industry (see AT Computer Systems & T). Local operations of AT & T were divided into seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies known as "Baby Bells."

With the new ability of U.S. consumers to buy phones outright, AT & T and Bell System lost the considerable revenues obtained by phone hire by local businesses Bell. Compete with other manufacturers for new phone sales, the aging Western Electric phone designs still marketed by AT & T does not sell, and Western Electric eventually closed all of its U.S. factories manufacturing phones. AT & T, the value reduction of approximately 70%, continued to run all its long distance services through AT & T Communications (the new name of AT & T Long Lines), although it has lost market share in the ensuing years to competitors MCI and Sprint.

A sign that hung in many Bell facilities in 1983 as follows:

There are two giant entities at work in our country, and they both have a tremendous impact on our daily lives. . . was given radar, sonar, stereo, teletype, the transistor, hearing aids, artificial larynx, talking movies, and telephone. The other gave us the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, WWI, WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, double-digit inflation, double digit unemployment, the Great Depression the gasoline crisis, and the Watergate fiasco. Guess which is now saying that the other way of managing his affairs?

Western Electric was renamed AT & T Technologies and was divided into several units focused on specific client groups, such as network systems and AT & T Consumer Products AT & T. She, along with Bell Labs, is fully merged and absorbed into the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1991.

In 1991, AT & T stopped offering telegraph services.

After his attempt to penetrate the computer failed in 1991, AT & T acquired NCR Corporation (National Cash Register), hoping to capitalize on the emergence PC and Unix server market network, but n was unable to extract lasting financial or technological gains from the merger. After the deregulation of American Telecommunications industry via the Telecommunications Act of 1996, NCR was divested again. At the same time, the majority of AT & T Technologies and the famous Bell Labs was spun off as Lucent Technologies. The industry as a whole had many other reorganizations since the 1990 both because of deregulation and thanks to technological advances reducing demand and pricing power in telecommunications.

In 1994, AT & T purchased the largest cellular carrier, McCaw Cellular for $ 11.5 billion and launched its cellular division with 2 million subscribers.

In 1995, AT & T purchased long distance provider Alaska Communications System. FCC approval required the company to be managed as a subsidiary of AT & T rather than a more likely absorption in AT & T Communications, giving the company the AT & T Alascom name.

In 1997, AT & T hired former IBM executive C Michael Armstrong as its CEO. Armstrong vision was to change AT & T from a long distance in a "global telecommunications supermarket", eyeing Internet services for the dot-com boom in the industry.

Most important strategy Armstrong was buying significant cable television assets. After acquiring John Malone TCI and Media One (gaining through the latter part of 25% of Time Warner Cable), AT & T was the largest provider of cable television in the United States. He intends to use these assets to meet the so-called "last mile" and break the Regional Bell companies access monopoly consumption for data services and telephony, but the gamble was expensive, a substantial increase in the debt of the company. AT & T acquired TCI in a $ 48 billion transaction all animals, including the assumption of $ 16 billion of debt. AT & T acquired MediaOne for $ 54 billion in cash and stock, after a bidding war with Comcast.

In 1998, AT & T announced a $ 1 billion alliance with BT to offer global voice over IP (VoIP), called Concert, sparking rumors of a possible merger. But the parties vied for control of the project and could not even agree on the name of the alliance. In mid-2001, customers were directed to sign contracts with the parent companies and communications services together, the company was eventually known, was abandoned in October this year.



In 1999, AT & T acquired the Olivetti & Oracle Research Lab, from Olivetti and Oracle Corporation. In 2002, he closed the research part of the laboratory.

Also in 1999, AT & T paid $ 5 billion to purchase IBM Business Global Network, which became AT & T Global Network Services, LLC. As part of the purchase agreement, IBM granted AT & T a five-year contract of U.S. $ 5 billion to manage much of the networking needs of IBM and AT & T outsourced part of his salary demands and work data management at IBM. IBM also committed to billing and installation for AT & T long distance customers in a 10-year contract valued at $ 4 billion, and assumed management of AT & T treatment centers data.

With long distance rates falling and the market for telecommunications services overall weakening, AT & T could not sustain the debt caused in these companies. In addition, the cost of upgrading equipment TCI to manage bidirectional communication proved to be much higher than pre-merger estimates. AT & T undertook a major reorganization in October 2000, moving his mobile phone and broadband units into separate companies, to allow each unit to raise capital independently.



On 9 July 2001, it has spread AT & T Wireless Services in what was then the largest initial public offering (IPO). Later that year split AT & T Broadband and Liberty Media, which includes its cable assets. AT & T Broadband was subsequently acquired by Comcast in 2002, and AT & T Wireless merged with Cingular Wireless LLC in 2004. The telephone company merged Cingular Wireless works like until 2007, when it became AT & T Mobility.

In 2004, the U.S. government eliminated equal access regulations that allowed long distance telephone companies for access to networks owned by regional Bell operators at fixed rates. This ultimately caused AT & T to move away from the residential telephone business - declaring in the process that it would not be a home phone service. Instead, the focus moved to offer residential voice services over broadband Internet connection called AT & T CallVantage