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The Bell System, which was named for Alexander Graham Bell, the technologist popularly credited with the invention of the telephone, was a trademark and service mark used by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, or AT&T, a United States telecommunications company, and its affiliated companies to co-brand their extensive circuit-switched telephone network and their affiliations with each other. The telephone system had a near-monopoly on the U.S. telephone market until its divestiture in 1984.^[1] The Bell System was commonly referred to by the nickname Ma Bell.

Contents 1 History 2 Present-day usage of the Bell name 3 Subsidiaries and Bell Operating Companies Today 4 Pop Culture 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

The Bell trademark (pictured right) used by both the AT&T corporation and the regional operating corporations from 1921 to 1939 to co-brand themselves under a single Bell System trademark would have the regional operating corporation's name where the "name of associated company" appears in this boilerplate version of the trademark. Phones themselves were made by Western Electric, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AT&T, who also owned or controlled the local Bell System companies responsible for local phone service. Member telephone companies paid a fixed fraction of their revenues as a license fee to support Bell Labs.

As a result, by 1940 the Bell System effectively owned most telephone service in the United States, from local and long-distance service to the telephone itself. With control of the phone system, Bell could effectively prohibit its customers from connecting phones not made or sold by Bell companies to the system without leasing fees. For example, if a customer desired a type of phone not leased by the local Bell monopoly, one had to purchase the phone at cost, give it to the phone company, then pay a 're-wiring' charge and a monthly lease fee in order to use it. An oft-heard remark at the time was "Ma Bell has you by the calls".

A 1956 consent decree limited AT&T to engaging in only activities related to a maximum of 85% of the United States' national telephone network and certain government contracts, which precluded the Bell System from extending its reach into the fledgling computer industry 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. Northern Electric and Bell Canada were spun off in 1956 as separate companies outside of the Bell System proper. The Bell System's Caribbean regional operating companies were sold to the International Telephone & Telegraph Co., later known as ITT.

The Bell System also owned various Caribbean regional operating companies, as well as 54% of NEC and a post-WW II re-construction relationship with NTT before the 1956 boundaries were emplaced. Before 1956, the Bell System's reach was truly gargantuan, as the list below of now-divested formerly-held corporations indicates. 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 the industrialized world.

The 1984 Bell System divestiture that brought an end to the affiliation branded as the Bell System was the result of a lawsuit alleging illegal practices by the Bell System companies to stifle competition in the telecommunications industry; the lawsuit was brought against it by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). That lawsuit was filed in 1974, and was settled on January 8, 1982, displacing the former restrictions that AT&T and the DOJ had agreed to in 1956 based on a previous anti-trust lawsuit filed by the DOJ in 1949 that alleged that AT&T and its Bell System operating companies were using its near monopoly in telecommunications to attempt to establish allegedly unfair advantage in related technologies, especially the fledgling computer industry.

Prior to the 1984 break-up that ended the Bell System, the Bell System included not only AT&T corporate and its long-lines long-distance routing but also Bell Operating Companies.

Logo history

The Bell System trademark (as diagram) and service mark (as the words Bell System in text) was used before January 1, 1984, when the AT&T divestiture of its regional operating companies took effect.

Of the various resulting 1984 spinoffs, only BellSouth actively used and promoted the Bell name and logo for its entire history, from the 1984 break up to its merger 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 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 uses the Bell logo on its trucks and payphones, and Qwest, formerly US West, which licenses the Northwestern Bell and Mountain Bell names to Unical Enterprises, who makes telephones under the Northwestern Bell name. Qwest also has a rural subsidiary in Oregon, Malheur Bell, that continues to use the Bell name and logo.

Cincinnati Bell, a local franchise of the Bell System that was never wholly owned by AT&T and existed separately prior to 1984, also continues to use the Bell name. It stopped using the Bell logo in the summer of 2006.

In 1984, each regional Bell operating company was assigned a set list of names they were allowed to use in combination with the Bell marks. Again, aside from Cincinnati Bell and Malheur Bell, none of these Bell System names are currently in use in the United States. For example, Southwestern Bell used both 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.

Of the various resulting 1956 spinoffs, only Bell Canada continues to use the Bell name, although cessation of using either the Bell name and circled-bell trademark occurred for some of these companies multiple decades later. For example, for the multiple decades that Nortel was named Northern Telecom, their research and development arm was Bell Northern Research. Bell Canada and its holding-company parent, Bell Canada Enterprises, still use the Bell name and used variations the circled-bell logo until 1977, which until 1976 strongly resembled the 1921 to 1939 Bell System trademark shown above.

Before the 1984 break-up, the Bell System consisted of the companies listed below. These companies were divested from AT&T in 1984, except as noted. The former operating companies of the Bell System listed below are organized according to the current owners of the companies (or their successors). All of these companies, except for Cincinnati Bell, which remains independent, belong to AT&T, Verizon, or Qwest, the three remaining Regional Holding Companies (RBOCs).

• AT&T Inc., formerly SBC Communications, Inc., a currently-existing holding company
  • AT&T Corporation, a former holding company
    • AT&T Communications (Long Lines until 1984), the inter-operating-company routing unit
    • AT&T Labs, once a portion of Bell Labs
  • Ameritech Corporation, a former RBOC holding company
    • Illinois Bell Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
    • Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Inc., a currently existing regional LEC
    • Michigan Bell Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
    • The Ohio Bell Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
    • Wisconsin Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
  • BellSouth Corporation, a former RBOC holding company. Its two operating companies merged into one:
    • BellSouth Telecommunications, Operating Company formed by the merger of:
      • South Central Bell Telephone Company, a former regional LEC
      • Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company, a former regional LEC
  • Pacific Telesis, a former RBOC holding company
    • The Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, a currently existing regional LEC, more commonly known as Pacific Telephone
      • Bell Telephone Company of Nevada, a currently existing regional LEC, more commonly known as Nevada Bell; omitted from the MFJ
  • Southern New England Telecommunications Corp., a former holding company
    • Southern New England Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC that AT&T owned 16.8% of before 1984 and thus was left separate by the 1984 break-up
  • Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
• Cincinnati Bell, Inc., a currently-existing regional operating company of which AT&T owned 27.8% before 1984 and thus was left separate in by 1984 break-up
• Qwest Communications International, Inc., a currently-existing holding company. Its three operating companies merged into one while still under U S West:
  • U S WEST, Inc., a former RBOC holding company
    • The Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company, a currently existing regional LEC, commonly known as Mountain Bell
      • Malheur Home Telephone Company, a currently existing independent LEC which Mountain Bell acquired a controlling interest in; not a Bell Operating Company
    • Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company, a former regional LEC
    • Northwestern Bell Telephone Company, a former regional LEC
• Verizon Communications, Inc., formerly Bell Atlantic Corporation, a currently-existing holding company
  • The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, a currently existing regional LEC
  • The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
  • The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland, a currently existing regional LEC
  • The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia, a currently existing regional LEC
  • The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia, a currently existing regional LEC
  • The Diamond State Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
  • New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
  • NYNEX, a former RBOC holding company
    • New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, a currently existing regional LEC
    • The New York Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC
• Alcatel-Lucent, a currently-existing equipment/research company
  • Lucent Technologies, Inc., a research company spun off separately in 1995 and merged with Alcatel in 2006
    • Western Electric, a former telecommunications and recording equipment-manufacturing company that ceased to have that name as of the 1984 break-up
    • Bell Labs, the former AT&T-corporate research unit
• Avaya, Inc., a currently-existing equipment manufacturing company spun off from Lucent in 2000
• LSI Corporation, a currently-existing holding company
  • Agere Systems, incorporated on August 1, 2000, the former Micro Electronics subsidiary of Lucent was then spun off in 2002 and acquired by LSI in 2007
• Systimax Solutions, the Western Electric Structured Cabling unit, once known as AT&T Network Systems was spun off from Avaya in 2002 and is now part of CommScope
• Telcordia Technologies, Inc., a currently-existing research company, formerly known as Bell Communications Research (Bellcore)

Beginning in 1991, the Baby Bells began to consolidate operations or legally 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" the corporate image. To this day, the only remaining Baby Bell that has not renamed its operating companies is AT&T, formerly SBC Communications. Since 1995, there have only been 19 Bell Operating Companies, following the mergers of US West's and BellSouth's operating companies. Only 9 of those 19 have retained their original corporate name since their incorporation before 1984.

Before the 1956 break-up, the Bell System also included the companies listed below. Bell Canada, Northern Electric, and the Caribbean regional operating companies were considered part of the Bell System proper before the 1956 break-up. Nippon Electric was considered a more distant affiliate of Western Electric than Northern Electric, where Nippon Electric via its own research and development adapted 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 Telcordia standards than to European-originated ITU-T standards. Before the 1956 break-up, Northern Electric was predominantly focused only on manufacturing without any significant amount of separate telecommunication-equipment research & development of its own. The post-WWII-occupation operation of NTT was considered an administrative adjunct to the North American Bell System.

• Bell Canada Enterprises, Inc., a currently-existing regional operating company
  • Bell Canada, a current LEC
• Nortel Networks Corporation, formerly Northern Telecom, a currently-existing equipment-manufacturing company
  • Northern Electric, a former telecommunications equipment-manufacturing subsidiary of Western Electric
  • Dominion Electric, a former recording equipment-manufacturing company
• Various former Caribbean regional operating companies, sold to ITT
• NEC, a currently-existing equipment-manufacturing company in Japan
  • Nippon Electric, a former telecommunications equipment-manufacturing company 54% owned by Western Electric
• NTT, a currently-existing telecommunications company in Japan that was administered by AT&T as part of General Douglas MacArthur's post-WWII reconstruction

• Hip Hop artist MF Doom refers to the Bell System in a verse of Beef Rapp, his first track on MM..Food?. The verse goes as follows:

"Keep a cooker where the jar fell, And keep a cheap hooker that's off the hook like Ma Bell"

• The Beastie Boys refer to the Bell System in a line from "Get It Together", on the "Ill Communication" album:

"Like Ma Bell, I got the ill communication"

• Bell System Divestiture
• RBOC
• American Telephone & Telegraph Company

1. ^ AT&T Corporation. AT&T History: The Bell System. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.

• Bell.com ^[2]
• Bell System Memorial
• Blue Bell Telephone Sign History — New England Telephone and Telegraph
• AT&T Corporation (1885-2005 company) History
• BellSouth vs. FCC — reference for company names
• USPTO — see trademark database

v • d • e Bell System
Corporate Operations
Holding Company:	American Telephone & Telegraph
Local Telephone Operations
Bell Operating Companies:	Bell Telephone Company of Nevada · The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania · The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company · The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland · The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia · The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia · Diamond State Telephone · Illinois Bell · Indiana Bell · Michigan Bell · Mountain Bell · New England Telephone & Telegraph · New Jersey Bell · New York Telephone · Northwestern Bell · Ohio Bell · Pacific Northwest Bell · Pacific Telephone · South Central Bell · Southern Bell · Southwestern Bell · Wisconsin Telephone
Franchisees:	Southern New England Telephone · Cincinnati Bell
Other AT&T Subsidiaries
Manufacturing:	Western Electric
R&D Operations:	Bell Labs
Long Distance Services:	AT&T Long Lines
Wireless Services:	Advanced Mobile Phone Service