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Article: AT&T Divestiture
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AT&T DIVESTITURE
AT&T DIVESTITURE.
American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) was the largest company in the world for most of the twentieth century, with $75 billion in assets and more than a million employees. Unlike other corporations, AT&T was a regulated monopoly; the government allowed it to operate without competitors in return for high-quality, universal service.
Despite the success of the Bell System, which provided the world's best telephone service, competitors, state regulators, legislators, and the federal government conspired to break it up. AT&T faced constant regulatory scrutiny, but the alliance between the company and regulators was never formal ...