What Were the Baby Bells?

The term Baby Bells refers to a series of regional telephone companies that provided telephone service to consumers in the United States. They were formed in 1984 following a U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT&T's—or Ma Bell's—monopoly in an effort to create more competition within the industry.

The company relinquished control of its monopoly in the U.S. and Canada following a 1982 consent decree. Nine Baby Bells were assigned a portion of the Bell 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:trademark—seven Baby Bells or Regional♋ Bell Operating Companies, as well as two smaller companies held by AT&T.

Understanding the Baby Bells

The federal government filed a lawsuit in 1974 to break up AT&T. The suit, which was based on Section 2 of the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Sherman Antitrust Act, was not meant to create the Baby Bell system but to force the company to divest its 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:subsidiary, Western Electric. At the time, AT&T was the only provider of telephone services in much of the United States, providing anywhere between 80% to 85% of lines in 1982, while most of the telephone equipment used was produced by Western Electric. This gave AT&T nearly complete control over both telephone service and e📖quipment in 𓆏the country.

AT&T felt it was going to lose the case and decided to propose an alternative—a self-imposed breakup of one of the largest companies in America. The proposal was accepted with some modifications. After the divestiture, the Baby Bell regional 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:holding companies retained the Bell trademark. They also kept about half of Bell Labs, AT&T's 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:research and development (R&D) 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:subsidiary, and the Yellow Pages directory business.

AT&T officially broke up on Jan. 1, 1984. Its 22 members were formed into seven independent Regional Holding Companies or the Baby Bells. They were as follows:

• Ameritech: Originally purchased by Southwestern Bell in 1999, it is now part of AT&T again.
• Bell Atlantic: Now Verizon Communications (VZ). Following the 2000 merger with GTE, it is now one of AT&T's global competitors.
• BellSouth: Served customers in nine Southeastern states and purchased by AT&T in 2006.
• NYNEX: Served most of New York state and five New England states.
• Pacific Telesis: Bought by Southwestern Bell in 1995 but is now part of AT&T.
• Southwestern Bell: Served customers in six Midwestern states and later became SBC Communications It actually bought AT&T in 2005 and adopted the AT&T name.
• U.S. West: Bought by Qwest in 2000 and then by CenturyLink in 2011.

The breakup also led to two smaller companies partially owned by AT&T—C🅘incinnati Bell and Southern New England Telephone, although these two enti💃ties were technically not RBOCs. Both are now fully independent.

Special Considerations

The rise of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:smartphones and other devices began to change the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:telecom industry once more. In fact, many of these Baby Bells were reincorporated into AT&T once again, introducing more competition from firms like T-Mobile. Regulators felt comfortable approving 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involving AT&T and t♈he Baby Bells🎉 in this environment.

In other cases, Baby Bells evolved into direct competitors of AT&T, such as Verizon. As a result, the concept of Baby Bells became ♓lesꦫs relevant in the 21st century.

Advantages of the Baby Bells

The Bab💙y Bells helped to free consumers from the drawbacks of AT&T's monopoly in the telephone business. Although they had monopolies over local phone service in their respective areas, long-distance phone service opened up to the competition. In the 1980s, AT&T had to compete with . This intense competition drove prices down for consumers.

Another advantage of the Baby Bells is 🌳that they did not control telephone equipment the way that AT&T did. The Baby Bells allowed consumers to use phones made by any manufacturer. The prices of phones fell dramatically. Phones with additional features, such as speakerphones, also became more common.