Ma Bell Formally “The Bell System”

• 
  Formally “The Bell System” was ________________ controlled by the Bell Telephone Company
  
• 
  Operated all phone services in USA & Canada: ______ to 1984
  
• 
  Established by ___________________________(inventor of the telephone)
  
• 
  Who also established the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. in 1885 = known as _________
  

• 
   president of AT&T 1885 – 1919
  
  • 
     "One Policy, One System, Universal Service.“
    
• 
  AT&T began purchasing competitors, which attracted the attention of ____________ regulators.
  
  • 
    To avoid antitrust action, in a deal with the government, Vail agreed to the _______________________ of 1913.
    
  • 
    One of the three terms of the agreement forbade AT&T from acquiring any more independent phone companies without the approval of the__________________________ (ICC)
    

• 
  Created to regulate Railroads; then _____________________ ________________________________
  
  • 
    Signed into law by Grover ___________
    
• 
  Abolished by ________________in 1995 (House: 417 yes, 8 no)
  
  • 
    The 8 were all __________
    
  • 
    Lynn ____________ voted yes
    

• 
  Around 1917, the idea that everyone in the country should have phone service and that the government should promote it began being discussed politically.
  
  • 
    AT&T agreed, saying in a 1917 annual report: "A combination of like activities under proper control and regulation, the service to the public would be better, more progressive, efficient, and economical than _____________ systems.“
    
  • 
    In 1918 the federal government nationalized the entire telecommunications industry, with ___________________ as the stated intent.
    

• 
  In 1925, AT&T created Bell Labs. This research and development unit proved highly successful, pioneering, among other things, radio astronomy, the ____________, and the Unix operating system.
  
• 
  AT&T ranked 13th among United States corporations in the value of its _____________ contracts for the USA Gov’t during WWII.
  
• 
  In 1949, the Justice Department filed an antitrust suit aimed at forcing AT&T to divest Western Electric (a __________)
  

• 
  Rates were regulated so that customers in large cities would pay higher rates to subsidize those in more ____________ areas.
  
• 
  _________ was appointed to manage the telephone system with AT&T being paid a percentage of the telephone revenues. AT&T profited well from the nationalization arrangement which ended a year later.
  
• 
  ______________ was highly regulated or prohibited in local markets.
  
• 
  Also, potential competitors were forbidden from installing _________to compete, with state governments wishing to avoid "duplication." The claim was that telephone service was a “________________," meaning that one firm could better serve the public than two or more. AT&T dominated this market.
  

• 
  Bell Telephone and AT&T had ____________ over time, beginning in the 1880’s.
  
• 
  They franchised 22 regional telephone services
  
• 
  These regional subsidiaries were the _________ providers in their regions.
  
• 
  AT&T directly controlled inter-regional calls (“____________________”)
  

• 
   Department of _________ antitrust suit against AT&T (which is also Bell)
  
• 
  1984 AT&T agrees to split into 7 independent regional phone companies
  
• 
  These were known as “______________”
  

Bell facilities in 1983

• 
  There are two giant entities at work in our country, and they both have an amazing influence on our daily lives. . . one has given us radar, sonar, stereo, teletype, the transistor, hearing aids, artificial larynxes, talking movies, and the telephone. The other has given us the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment, the Great Depression, the gasoline crisis, and the Watergate fiasco. Guess which one is now trying to tell the other one how to run its business?
  

• 
  Until this point, Americans couldn’t own phones outright, as the patents demanded that customers pay ______ on the phone itself.
  
• 
  This opened up competition in the phone device itself, of which AT&T had not been ___________________
  
• 
  New competitors in the phone device (not the phone service) beat AT&T with better/sleeker phone choices and AT&T lost value
  
• 
  It also lost the “_________” fees
  

• 
  Bell Atlantic (one of the 7 ____________) merged with NYNEX (a baby bell from the Northeast) in 1997
  
• 
  Then merged with non-Bell GTE in 2000 to create _____________ Communications
  

2002: AT&T Broadband was acquired by _________