American Telephone & Telegraph Company
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Formerly called
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American Telephone and Telegraph Company (1885-1994) |
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Fate | Became subsidiary of AT&T Inc. in 2005 |
| Successor | AT&T |
| Founded | March 3, 1885 (as American Telephone and Telegraph Company) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Founder | Alexander Graham Bell |
| Headquarters | Dallas, Texas, United States |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
| Products | Wireless, Long Distance, Local Service, Internet, MPLS, TV, DirecTV, Business Solutions |
| Parent |
American Bell (1885-1899) AT&T (2005-present) |
| Subsidiaries | |
| Website | www |
AT&T Corp., originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies.
Founded in 1885 as the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, it was at times the world's largest telephone company, the world's largest cable television operator, and a regulated monopoly. At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, it employed one million people and its revenue was roughly $3 billion annually.
In 2005, AT&T was purchased by Baby Bell and former subsidiary SBC Communications for more than $16 billion ($19.6 billion in present-day terms). SBC then changed its name to AT&T Inc. Today, AT&T Corporation continues to exist as a long distance subsidiary of AT&T Inc., and its name occasionally shows up in AT&T press releases.
AT&T started with Bell Patent Association, a legal entity established in 1874 to protect the patent rights of Alexander Graham Bell after he invented the telephone system. Originally a verbal agreement, it was formalized in writing in 1875 as Bell Telephone Company.
In 1880 the management of American Bell had created what would become AT&T Long Lines. The project was the first of its kind to create a nationwide long-distance network with a commercially viable cost-structure. The project was formally incorporated in New York State as a separate company named American Telephone and Telegraph Company on March 3, 1885. Starting from New York, its long-distance telephone network reached Chicago, Illinois, in 1892, with its multitudes of local exchanges continuing to stretch further and further yearly, eventually creating a continent-wide telephone system. On December 30, 1899, the assets of American Bell were transferred into its subsidiary American Telephone and Telegraph Company (formerly AT&T Long Lines); this was because Massachusetts corporate laws were very restrictive, and limited capitalization to ten million dollars, forestalling American Bell's further growth. With this assets transfer, AT&T became the parent of both American Bell and the Bell System.
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Wikipedia