The history
of AT&T is in large measure the history of the telephone in
the United States. AT&T's roots stretch back to 1875, with
founder Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone.
During the 19th century, AT&T became the parent company of the
Bell System, the American telephone monopoly. The Bell System
provided what was by all accounts the best telephone service
in the world. The system broke up into eight companies in 1984
by agreement between AT&T and the U.S. Department of Justice.
From 1984 until 1996 AT&T was an integrated (att.com)
telecommunications services and equipment company, succeeding
in a newly competitive environment. Today, AT&T is rapidly
evolving from a company that handles mostly long-distance
voice calls to a company that provides data and voice
communications over any distance through its two operating
units, AT&T Business and AT&T Consumer
