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The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over 100 years from its creation in 1877 until its antitrust breakup in 1983.
The breakup of the Bell System resulted in the creation of seven independent companies that were formed from the original twenty-two AT&T-controlled members of the System. On January 1, 1984, these companies were NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, Southwestern Bell Corporation, BellSouth, and US West.
Bell System, a former American telephone system, governed by American Telephone & Telegraph Company (now AT&T Corporation; q.v.) and including Western Electric Company (q.v.), the system’s manufacturer; Bell Laboratories (q.v.), the research and development facility; and other departments and 22.
A Mature Bell System Achieves Its Goals. At war's end, pent-up demand created a backlog of almost two million unfilled orders. Financially, the Bell System emerged from its war efforts in a weakened condition, and AT&T again had to pay the $9 dividend from surplus.
In 1947, the Bell System honored the 100th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell's birth with a long (for a Bell System film) biopic. The half-hour film starred Raymond Edward Johnson as Bell and Mason Adams as Thomas A. Watson.
The Bell Telephone Company was the initial corporate entity from which the Bell System originated to build a continental conglomerate and monopoly in telecommunication services in the United States and Canada.
Telephone Company Histories - Introduction. The Bell System’s history stretches back to 1876, with founder Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone. Bell, Thomas Sanders and Gardiner G. Hubbard formed The Bell Patent Association in order to capitalize on the invention.
The Bell System (AT&T and the various other companies it owned) had become the dominant phone service provider in the United States long before the 1920s; in fact, it had a monopoly on phone service even then.
