The Bell telephone system (which was nicknamed the MA system) was named after Alexander Graham Bell, the creator of the telephone. The Bell system was a collective effort of all the telecommunications services provided throughout the United States. Although each region had its own service, such as Bellsouth and Bell Atlantic, essentially all of the telecommunications services throughout the United States were provided by one company, AT&T. Initially, the Bell system was founded in 1877 under the name of ?American Bell Telephone Company,? but 22 years later changed its name to ?American Telephone and Telegraph Company.?
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After 15 years of holding total domination over the telecommunications market, Bell?s patent on the telephone expired. This patent expiration allowed competitors to enter the market, and within months the telecommunications market was flooded with over 6,000 new companies. The seniority that AT&T held over the competition wasn?t enough of an asset to remain number one in the industry. After taking a beating in the market for over ten years, AT&T employed a new strategy and began to buy out most of the competition. Fearing that the company would endure penalties against the antitrust law (business competition law), AT&T entered into the Kingsbury Commitment, an agreement with the government. The Kingsbury Commitment forced AT&T to discontinue purchases of independent companies and sell $30,000,000 of its Western Union stock. However, in 1934 AT&T became a regulated monopoly and was given control (by the government) of the telecommunications industry. The competition was not happy about the monopoly, and in 1956 AT&T was limited to 85% of America?s telecommunications involvement. This limitation was due to antitrust lawsuit filed against AT&T in 1949. Now, over half a century later, AT&T provides dozens of services, such as: AT&T for small business, AT&T Wholesale Services, AT&T Wireless and AT&T Internet and DSL.
