The Bell System was divested in 1984 by an agreement between the former AT&T and the U. S. Department of Justice, in which AT&T agreed to divest itself of its local telephone operations but retain its long distance, R&D and manufacturing arms. Out of the divestiture was born SBC Communication, formerly known as Southwestern Bell Corp and BellSouth Corporation. In the face of dramatic changed to the competitive landscape triggered by the Telecommunication Act of 1996, SBC Communications Inc. embarked upon a series of acquisitions to establish itself as a global communications provider: Pacific Telesis Group (1197), Southern New England Telecommunications (1998) and Ameritech Corporation (1999).
In 2005, SBC Communications Inc. acquired AT&T Corporation and created the new AT&T, poised to lead the industry in one of the most significant shifts in communications technology since the invention of the telephone nearly 131 years earlier.
Key Facts about AT&T
With the merger of AT&T and Bellsouth, along with consolidated ownership of Cingular Wireless and YELLOWPAGES.COM, the new AT&T have had a greater financial, technology, research and development as well as network and marketing resources to better serve consumers and business customers of all sizes. The merger has accelerated the introduction of new and improved product and service for customers. AT&T operates one of the worlds most advanced and powerful global backbone networks, carrying more than 9.59 petabytes of data traffic on an average business day to nearly every continent and country, with up to 99.999 percent reliability.
AT&T is ranked as one of the world’s largest providers of IP-based communications services fro businesses, with an extensive portfolio of Virtual Private Network (VPN), Voice o ...