Fractured phone system consolidating once again

FRACTURED PHONE SYSTEM CONSOLIDATING ONCE AGAIN
[SOURCE: USAToday]
AT&T's relationship with the federal government has been a century in the making. The company was founded in 1885 and over the next century became the nation's de facto phone monopoly. At its peak in the early 1980s, it employed 1 million people. In 1984, the Bell Telephone System was broken up by a court decree. AT&T's local operating companies -- there were 22 in all -- were grouped into seven “Baby Bells” and spun off as separate companies. Each had monopoly control over local phone service in a specific region of the country. Since then, Ma Bell has been largely reconstituted. Today's AT&T is an amalgam of three Bells: Ameritech, Southwestern Bell and Pacific Telesis, plus AT&T, which is essentially the long-distance arm of the company. The carrier recently announced plans to buy BellSouth, another of the original seven Baby Bells, for $67 billion. Once the BellSouth deal closes, AT&T will cement its position as the nation's biggest communications company. It will also assume control of Cingular, the nation's biggest cellphone carrier with more than 45 million customers.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060511/a_history11.art.htm