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The breakup of the Bell System was mandated on January 8, 1982, by an agreed consent decree providing that AT&T Corporation would, as had been initially proposed by AT&T, relinquish control of the Bell Operating Companies that had provided local telephone service in the United States and Canada up until that point. This effectively took the monopoly that was the Bell System and split it into entirely separate companies that would continue to provide telephone service. AT&T would continue to be a provider of long distance service, while the now independent Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) would provide local service, and would no longer be directly supplied with equipment from AT&T subsidiary Western Electric. This divestiture was initiated by the filing in 1974 by the United States Department of Justice of an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T. AT&T was, at the time, the sole provider of telephone service throughout most of the United States. Furthermore, most telephonic equipment in the United States was produced by its subsidiary, Western Electric. This vertical integration led AT&T to have almost total control over communication technology in the country, which led to the antitrust case, ''United States v. AT&T''. The plaintiff in the court complaint asked the court to order AT&T to divest ownership of Western Electric.〔(Bell Telephone System )〕 Feeling that it was about to lose the suit, AT&T proposed an alternative — the breakup of the biggest corporation in American history. It proposed that it retain control of Western Electric, Yellow Pages, the Bell trademark, Bell Labs, and AT&T Long Distance. It also proposed that it be freed from a 1956 anti-trust consent decree that barred it from participating in the general sale of computers.〔(AT&T BREAKUP II : Highlights in the History of a Telecommunications Giant - Los Angeles Times )〕 In return, it proposed to give up ownership of the local operating companies. This last concession, it argued, would achieve the Government's goal of creating competition in supplying telephone equipment and supplies to the operative companies. The settlement was finalized on January 8, 1982, with some changes ordered by the decree court: the regional holding companies got the Bell trademark, Yellow Pages, and about half of Bell Labs. Effective January 1, 1984, the Bell System’s many member-companies were variously merged into seven independent "Regional Holding Companies", also known as Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), or "Baby Bells". This divestiture reduced the book value of AT&T by approximately 70%. ==Post-breakup structure== (詳細はAmeritech, acquired by SBC in 1999, now part of AT&T Inc. *Bell Atlantic (acquired GTE in 2000 to form Verizon Communications) *BellSouth, acquired by AT&T Inc. in 2006 *NYNEX, acquired by Bell Atlantic in 1996, now part of Verizon Communications *Pacific Telesis, acquired by SBC in 1997, now part of AT&T Inc. *Southwestern Bell (later SBC, now AT&T Inc.), which acquired AT&T Corporation in 2005 *US West, acquired by Qwest in 2000, which in turn was acquired by CenturyLink in 2011 In addition, there were two members of the Bell System that were only partially owned by AT&T. Both of these companies were monopolies in their coverage areas, received Western Electric equipment and had agreements with AT&T whereby they were provided with long distance service. They continued to exist in their pre-breakup form after antitrust case, but no longer directly received Western Electric equipment, and were no longer bound to use AT&T as their long distance provider.〔 These companies were: *Cincinnati Bell, now the only Bell System member never owned by a Baby Bell, covering the Cincinnati metropolitan area *Southern New England Telephone (SNET), acquired by SBC in 1998, now part of Frontier Communications, covering Connecticut. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Breakup of the Bell System」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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