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49-442: The Ericofon was designed in the late 1940s by a design team including Gösta Thames, Ralph Lysell, and Hugo Blomberg. The two major components of the telephone, the handset and the dial, are combined in a single unit. This one-piece design anticipated the evolution of the typical cordless phone and cell phone by several decades. Serial production began in 1954. Early models were sold only to institutions; in 1956, however, production for

98-783: A long distance service provider at about 30% of its previous size. That version of AT&T was later acquired by one of the Baby Bells. Southwestern Bell ; the new entity retained the AT&;T name and the company evolved into the present multinational telecommunications firm known as AT&T . The most obvious impact for consumers was the proliferation of new types of telephone equipment produced by myriad companies, including answering machines and designer handsets, while companies like Sprint and MCI offered competitive new options for long distance service. The Baby Bells were mostly successful and some of them merged with each other, resulting in

147-580: A vertical monopoly over telecommunication products and services in most areas of the United States and Canada. At the time of the breakup of the Bell System in the early 1980s, it had assets of $ 150 billion (equivalent to $ 440 billion in 2023) and employed over one million people. Beginning in the 1910s, American antitrust regulators had been observing and accusing the Bell System of abusing its monopoly power, and had brought legal action multiple times over

196-419: A post- World War II reconstruction relationship with state-owned Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) before the 1956 boundaries were emplaced. Before 1956, the Bell System's reach was truly gargantuan. Even during the period from 1956 to 1984, the Bell System's dominant reach into all forms of communications was pervasive within the United States and influential in telecommunication standardization throughout

245-404: A result of this vertical monopoly , the Bell System effectively owned most telephone service in the United States by 1940, from local and long-distance service to the telephones. This allowed Bell to prohibit its customers from connecting equipment not made or sold by Bell to the system without paying fees. For example, if a customer desired a style of telephone not leased by the local Bell company,

294-401: A single Bell System trademark. For each regional operating company, its name was placed where "name of associated company" appears in this template version of the trademark. Bell system telephones and related equipment were made by Western Electric , a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Co. Member telephone companies paid a fixed fraction of their revenues as a license fee to Bell Labs . As

343-592: A term that referred generally to all AT&T companies, of which there were five major divisions: In 1913, the federal government challenged the Bell System's growing monopoly over the phone system under AT&T ownership in an anti-trust suit, leading to the Kingsbury Commitment . Under the commitment, AT&T escaped break-up or nationalization in exchange for divesting itself of Western Union and allowing non-competing independent telephone companies to interconnect with its long-distance network. After 1934,

392-608: Is available in several colors and can be bought from web stores. The switch hook was redesigned to be stable. The keypad of the Scandiphones was not a standard touch-tone arrangement but rather appeared in a circle to mimic a rotary dial. A few other companies made Ericofon lookalikes with a more traditional-appearing keypad with the redesigned switch hook. Some of these lookalike phones may have used actual Ericofon cases purchased from excess stock in their phones. The Ericofon has been seen in several feature films and TV shows, mostly in

441-407: Is slightly taller, with the earpiece at nearly a 90-degree angle to the base. A later version has a shorter handle, with the earpiece angled slightly downward. The two versions are referred to as the old case and the new case. The old case was molded in two pieces, while the new case was molded as a single piece. Both versions were initially produced in 18 colors. They used the four-prong plug common in

490-486: The Baby Bells and do not provide telephone service. Beginning in 1991, the Baby Bells began to consolidate operations or rename their Bell Operating Companies according to the parent company name, such as "Bell Atlantic – Delaware, Inc." or "U S WEST Communications, Inc.", to unify their corporate images. The Bell System service marks, including the circled-bell logo, especially as redesigned by Saul Bass in 1969, and

539-560: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) assumed regulation of AT&T. Proliferation of telephone service allowed the company to become the largest corporation in the world until its dismantling by the United States Department of Justice in 1984, at which time the Bell System ceased to exist. Receiving a U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone on March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell formed

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588-569: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to become the natural monopoly telephone service provider in the country (known as the Bell System ) in return for commitments to universal service and basic connectivity for all consumers. As early as 1949, the American government had sued the company for conspiring to restrict the manufacture of handsets and other landline telephone equipment via its control of patents , and discussions about breaking up

637-496: The post-World War II occupation was considered an administrative adjunct to the North American Bell System. Immediately before the 1984 break-up, the Bell System had the following corporate structure : On January 1, 1984, the former components of the Bell System were structured into the following Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), which became known as Baby Bells. After 1984, multiple mergers occurred of

686-643: The 1960s and 1970s. Bell System 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 system of companies was often colloquially called Ma Bell (as in "Mother Bell"), as it held

735-754: The AT&T monopoly due to abuses of its market power began during this period. By the 1950s the FCC began to allow devices manufactured by other firms to be connected to the AT&T landline telephone network, starting with the Hush-A-Phone in 1957. In 1968, the FCC permitted consumer use of the Carterfone , a device that connected the landline network to CB radio networks, thus allowing consumers to receive basic service from AT&T but with wider choices of device manufacturers and auxiliary network service options. The FCC also found evidence during this period that AT&T

784-488: The Bell System's Caribbean regional operating companies. The consent decree also forced Bell to make all of its patents royalty-free . This led to substantial increases in innovation, in particular in the electronics and computer sectors. Steven Weber 's The Success of Open Source characterizes the consent decree as important in fostering the open source movement. The Bell System also owned various Caribbean regional operating companies, as well as 54% of Japan's NEC and

833-580: The Bell Telephone Company in 1877, which in 1885 became AT&T. When Bell's original patent expired 15 years later in 1894, the telephone market opened to competition and 6,000 new telephone companies started while the Bell Telephone company took a significant financial downturn. On April 30, 1907, Theodore Newton Vail returned as President of AT&T. Vail believed in the superiority of one national telephone system and AT&T adopted

882-538: The Bell name and the circled-bell trademark until SBC opted for all of its companies to do business under the "SBC" name in 2002. Bell Atlantic used the Bell name and circled-bell trademark until renaming itself Verizon in 2000. Pacific Bell continued operating in California under that name (or the shortened "PacBell" nickname) until SBC purchased it. In Canada, Bell Canada ( divested from AT&T in 1975) continues to use

931-488: The Bell name. For the decades that Nortel was named Northern Telecom, its research and development arm was Bell Northern Research. Bell Canada and its holding-company parent, Bell Canada Enterprises , still use the Bell name. They used variations of the circled-bell logo until 1977, which until 1976 strongly resembled the 1921 to 1939 Bell System trademark shown above. United States v. AT%26T (1982) United States v. AT&T , 552 F.Supp. 131 (1982),

980-517: The DOJ had agreed upon in 1956. Before the 1956 break-up, the Bell System included the companies listed below, plus those listed in the pre-1984 section. Northern Electric and the Caribbean regional operating companies were considered part of the Bell System proper before the break-up. Nippon Electric was considered a more distant affiliate of Western Electric, and through its own research and development adapted

1029-637: The Department of Justice in 1913. AT&T committed to sell its $ 30 million in Western Union capital stock, allow competitors to interconnect with its long-distance telephone network, and not acquire other independent companies without permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission . The Bell trademark was used from 1921 through 1969 by both the AT&T corporation and the regional operating corporations to co-brand themselves under

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1078-503: The Northwestern Bell name. In 1984, each regional Bell operating company was assigned a set list of names it was allowed to use in combination with the Bell marks. By 2022, all these Bell System names had disappeared from the United States business landscape. Cincinnati Bell was the last to use the name, until 2022 when it rebranded to Altafiber , though it still has Cincinnati Bell as its corporate name. Southwestern Bell used both

1127-704: The United States at the time. A third version, the model 700, was produced beginning in 1976. It is easily distinguished from earlier Ericofons by its squarish design, as well as changes to the handle and plug. When it was introduced on the U.S. market, the Ericofon was available in 18 colors. However, after transfer of production to North Electric, the number of colors was reduced to eight. A small number of phones with clear and metallic finishes were produced for special promotions. The most popular and widely produced colors were bright red and bright white. Other colors included various pastel shades of blue, green, and pink. The phone

1176-612: The assets of its parent, the American Bell Telephone Company. American Bell had created AT&T to provide long-distance calls between New York and Chicago and beyond. AT&T became the parent of American Bell Telephone Company, and thus the head of the Bell System, because regulatory and tax rules were leaner in New York than in Boston, where American Bell was headquartered. Later, the Bell System and its moniker "Ma Bell" became

1225-551: The case. The Department of Justice announced in early 1982 that it had completed the development of its plan to break up AT&T. Judge Greene investigated this plan and issued a ruling to wrap up the U.S. v. AT&T proceedings. Greene cited evidence that the company had restricted connection of service offerings and devices from other companies to its landline network, had unfairly prioritized equipment manufactured by its Western Electric subsidiary, and had overcharged for long distance telephone calls. Greene then ruled that

1274-800: The company and the Department of Justice, was called the Modification of Final Judgment and was signed off by AT&T Chief Executive Officer Charles L. Brown and Assistant Attorney General William F. Baxter. Judge Greene accepted the terms of this agreement in an addendum to his ruling in August 1982. After Greene's ruling in August 1982, the AT&T corporate structure was divested into seven regional holding companies that became known as Regional Bell Operating Companies , or colloquially as "Baby Bells", which went into operation on January 1, 1984. Those companies inherited local landline telephone services for each region, while AT&T continued to exist as

1323-428: The company's 100th anniversary in 1976. The model 700 had a squarer design than earlier models. It was not a touch-tone phone. Instead, its electronics generated electrical pulses as its buttons were pressed, simulating the pulses produced by a rotary dial. Ericsson continued to produce rotary-dial Ericofons until about 1980. Wild and Wolf produces an Ericofon-lookalike called "Scandiphone". The modern touch-tone phone

1372-445: The customer was required to purchase the instrument at cost, furnish it to the telephone company for rewiring, pay a service charge, and a monthly lease fee for using it. In 1949, the United States Department of Justice alleged in an antitrust lawsuit that AT&T and the Bell System operating companies were using their near-monopoly in telecommunications to attempt to establish unfair advantage in related technologies. The outcome

1421-526: The decades. In 1974 the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice brought a lawsuit against Bell claiming violations of the Sherman Act . In 1982, anticipating that it could not win, AT&T agreed to a Justice Department-mandated consent decree that settled the lawsuit and ordered it to break itself up into seven " Regional Bell Operating Companies " (known as "The Baby Bells"). This ended

1470-531: The designs of Western Electric's North American telecommunications equipment for use in Japan, which to this day gives much of Japan's telephone equipment and network a closer resemblance to North American ANSI and iconectiv standards than to European-originated ITU-T standards. Before the 1956 break-up, Northern Electric was focused on manufacturing, without significant telecommunication-equipment research & development of its own. The operation of Japan's NTT during

1519-426: The divestiture as an act of deregulation (of a natural monopoly ) that enabled more competition, which in turn enabled the development of firms that could serve multiple sectors of the marketplace such as phones, computer networks, and cable television. On the other hand, further technological and financial developments in the telecommunications industry, such as the convergence of networks and services, have made

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1568-815: The existence of the conglomerate in 1984. The Baby Bells became independent companies and several of them are large corporations today. In 1877, the American Bell Telephone Company, named after Alexander Graham Bell , opened the first telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut . Within a few years local exchange companies were established in every major city in the United States. Use of the Bell System name initially referred to those early telephone franchises and eventually comprised all telephone companies owned by American Telephone & Telegraph , referred to internally as associated companies , regional holding companies , or later Bell operating companies (BOCs). In 1899, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) acquired

1617-438: The industrialized world. The 1984 Bell System divestiture brought an end to the affiliation branded as the Bell System. It resulted from another antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1974, alleging illegal practices by the Bell System companies to stifle competition in the telecommunications industry. The parties settled the lawsuit on January 8, 1982, superseding the former restrictions that AT&T and

1666-469: The marks on rare occasions to maintain their trademark rights, even less now that they have adopted names conceived long after divestiture. Examples include Verizon, which still used the Bell logo on its trucks and payphones until it updated its own logo in 2015, and Qwest, formerly US West , which licenses the Northwestern Bell and Mountain Bell names to Unical Enterprises, who makes telephones under

1715-464: The modern telecommunications companies Verizon and Lumen Technologies . The divestiture of AT&T, and the actions by courts and regulatory agencies to achieve it, was the largest government action to reduce a corporation's market power in American history, and it is a dominant instance of the enforcement of American antitrust law . However, the results for the American telecommunications marketplace have been mixed. Some researchers praised

1764-475: The natural monopoly in that marketplace. A plan to break up the company into smaller components was proposed by the United States Department of Justice starting in 1974, citing authority under the Sherman Antitrust Act to reduce the power of a monopoly firm. AT&T itself recommended a divestiture structure in which it would be broken up into regional subsidiaries. The Department of Justice action

1813-576: The open market began in Europe and Australia. As the Bell System did not permit the operation of third-party equipment on their network, the Ericofon could only be used by independent telephone companies in the United States. North Electric in Galion, Ohio , manufactured the Ericofon for the North American independent market. The original phone was produced in two slightly different designs. The earlier version

1862-416: The operating companies and between them, so that some components of the former Bell System are now owned by companies independent of the historic Bell System, including foreign telecommunications firms. The structure of the companies today is as follows. The following telephone companies are considered independent of the Baby Bells : The following companies were divested after 1984 from AT&T Corp. or

1911-414: The phone to come apart if it was set down too forcibly or accidentally dropped and the phone then became unusable. It was almost impossible for the average consumers to restore the hook switch mechanism to correct operating condition if it were so damaged. North Electric ceased production of the Ericofon for North America in 1972. Ericsson introduced a push-button version of the Ericofon, the model 700, for

1960-463: The plan to break up the company was consistent with various provisions of antitrust law , including the Sherman Act which allows government action against companies that abuse their market power, and the Tunney Act which enables government investigations of the effects of mergers and acquisitions. The final plan for breaking up AT&T, which was originally in the form of a consent decree between

2009-476: The slogan One Policy, One System, Universal Service. This became the company's philosophy for the next 70 years. Under Vail, AT&T began acquiring many of the smaller telephone companies including the Western Union Telegraph Company . In response to the threat of antitrust action from government, AT&T entered into an out-of-court agreement, known as the Kingsbury Commitment with

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2058-414: The various resulting 1984 spinoffs, only BellSouth actively used and promoted the Bell name and logo during its entire history, from the 1984 break-up to its reunion with the new AT&T in 2006. Similarly, cessation of using either the Bell name or logo occurred for many of the other companies more than a decade after the 1984 break-up as part of an acquisition-related rebranding. The others have only used

2107-496: The words Bell System in text, were used before January 1, 1984, when the AT&;T divestiture of its regional operating companies took effect. The word mark Bell , the logo, and other related trademarks, are held by each of the remaining Bell companies, namely AT&T, Verizon , CenturyLink , and Altafiber . International rights to the marks, except for Canada , are held by a joint venture of these companies, Bell IP Holdings . Of

2156-825: Was a 1956 consent decree limiting AT&T to 85% of the United States' national telephone network and certain government contracts, and from continuing to hold interests in Canada and the Caribbean . The Bell System's Canadian operations included the Bell Canada regional operating company and the Northern Electric manufacturing subsidiary of the Bell System's Western Electric equipment manufacturer. Western Electric divested Northern Electric in 1956, but AT&T did not divest itself of Bell Canada until 1975. ITT Inc. , then known as International Telephone & Telegraph Co. , purchased

2205-561: Was a ruling of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia , that led to the 1984 Bell System divestiture , and the breakup of the old AT&T natural monopoly into seven regional Bell operating companies and a much smaller new version of AT&T . Since the Kingsbury Commitment in 1913, AT&T was permitted by the United States government, first via the Interstate Commerce Commission and then via

2254-480: Was filed as United States v. AT&T with United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 1974. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia oversaw the proceedings for nearly a decade as AT&T and the Department of Justice formulated a plan to break up the company. In 1978, Judge Harold H. Greene , on his first day on the bench at the District Court, took over management of

2303-445: Was never produced in black. Most Ericofons had mechanical rotary dials , typical of all phones made in the era. While Ericofons produced by Ericsson used miniature buzzers as ringers, North Electric introduced the electronic "Ericotone" ringer. The Ericotone ringer used a simple, one- transistor oscillator circuit to produce a distinctive "chirping" sound. Colloquially, Ericofons were sometimes referred to as "tweeter" phones. This

2352-404: Was one of the earliest uses of a transistor in a telephone; telephones with mechanical bell ringers and rotary dials did not need transistors. North Electric introduced a touch-tone version of the Ericofon in the United States in 1967. Production of this variant was much lower than that of the rotary-dial Ericofons. A design flaw in the hook switch mechanism would cause the touch-tone version of

2401-504: Was overcharging consumers for physical products that had been manufactured by its equipment subsidiary Western Electric , which was itself a monopoly, and using the resulting monopoly profits to subsidize its landline network operations, which was a violation of antitrust law . These developments, along with an appreciation of new technologies and business models for telephone service that were becoming available, convinced American regulators that AT&T should no longer be tolerated as

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