The Bell System

Also known as Ma Bell

Cause of death

Killed by lawsuit

Made by

American Telephone and Telegraph Company

A Justice Department antitrust suit filed in 1974 ended in a consent decree forcing AT&T to divest its local operating companies.

For most of a century one company owned the telephone in America: the wires, the switches, the handset screwed to your wall, and the laboratory that invented the transistor. The Justice Department sued in 1974, and in January 1982 AT&T settled by agreeing to give up the part everybody actually used. The divestiture took effect on 1 January 1984, turning the local companies into seven Baby Bells and cutting about 70% off AT&T's own book value.