The Breakup of the Bell System was an event that took place in the United States in 1984 and had a profound impact on the telecommunications industry. The breakup occurred when AT&T, previously a monopoly provider of telephone services, agreed to divest itself of its local operating companies (the “Baby Bells”). This decision was made following an antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice against AT&T for violating antitrust laws through its monopolistic practices.
Before this landmark case, all telecommunication services were provided by one company: AT&T’s local operating companies or “Baby Bells” as they became known due to their smaller size compared to parent company AT&T at that time. These Baby Bells provided landline phone service across different regions within America. Also, they offered long-distance calling capabilities between these regions with help from parent company AT&T’s communications networks at a significant scale level.
After being ordered by courts to break up into eight separate regional entities – Ameritech Corp., Nynex Corp., Pacific Telesis Group, SouthwesternBell Corporation, U.S. West Inc., SNET Corporation, Contel Corporation, and Intel Corporation – each Baby Bell began providing more localized customer service while still relying on their respective network connections with other regional providers for interconnection purposes such as long distance calls outside their region. As part of this reorganization process, new competitors entered the market, including MCI Communications, which focused on providing low-cost long-distance plans using fiber optic cables instead copper wires used traditional methods employed before the breakup. Furthermore, deregulation allowed customers to choose among multiple options rather than having a single choice like before, thus giving them the power to decide what best suited them in terms of price points, features, etc., leading to increased competition telecom sector overall.
In conclusion, it can be seen that Break up of Bell System has changed the face telecommunications industry forever, allowing customers access to a variety of choices, better prices improved quality products, ultimately increasing consumer satisfaction levels current day scenario where we have a plethora of options available to us thanks to decisions taken during the 1980s.