AT&T Splits: Monopoly Breaks Open
For decades, the Bell System controlled everything: the phones, the wires, the switches, even the plastic housing on the handset. AT&T's monopoly was so total that Americans couldn't legally attach a non-Bell device to their own phone lines. The 1982 consent decree changed all of that. AT&T agreed to spin off its twenty-two regional Bell operating companies, instantly creating seven independent 'Baby Bells' that would compete for local telephone service. The breakup unleashed a wave of innovation that had been bottled up for forty years. New companies rushed in with cheaper long-distance rates, answering machines appeared in stores, and the telecommunications infrastructure that would eventually carry the internet began to take shape. AT&T kept its long-distance business and Bell Labs but lost the captive market that had made it the largest corporation on Earth.
January 8, 1982
44 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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