History Of AT & T, Inc.

The history of AT&T, Inc. goes all the way back to 1875 when Alexander Graham Bell was trying to invent a talking telegraph - or what is now known as the telephone. He ultimately was successful in in inventing the telephone and obtained patents for his work in 1876 and 1877.

Alexander Graham Bell, along with Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders who provided financing, formed the Bell Telephone Company in 1877 to take advantage of marketing this new invention. The Bell Telephone Company opened the first telephone exchange in New Haven, CT in 1878 and by 1880 there were telephone exchanges in most major U.S. cities operating under licenses with The Bell Telephone Company, which had now changed its name to American Bell Telephone Company. Also, in 1880, American Bell created a company that would become AT&T Long Lines to create a nationwide long-distance network. American Bell Telephone Company then obtained a controlling interest in Western Electric in 1882 which became the unit that manufactured telephones and equipment.

Bell's last patent on the telephone expired in 1894. Before it expired, only Bell Telephone and its licensees could legally operate telephone systems in the United States. By 1904, over 6,000 independent telephone companies went into business in the United States, and the number of telephones increased from 285,000

To avoid an antitrust suit being filed against them, AT&T agreed with the government to what is known as the Kingsbury Commitment of 1913. There were three provisions to this agreement. AT&T could not buy any more independent telephone companies without the approval of the Interstate Commerce Commission, AT&T would allow non-competing telephone companies to connect to their system and they had relinquish the controlling interest the had acquired in Western Union