Baby Bell

Any of seven telecommunications companies that were formed from AT&T after its antitrust break-up in 1984. In that year, AT&T was determined to be so large that it violated antitrust law in the United States and it was forced to spin off seven subsidiaries, which became known as the baby bells. Few of the baby bells still exist as independent companies, as most have gone through a series of mergers and acquisitions in the years since.

Baby Bell

One of several integrated-communications providers that were formerly part of AT&T but became independent in 1984 following AT&T's court-ordered divestiture. The seven original Baby Bells were once operating subsidiaries of AT&T that provided local and intrastate long-distance service.

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References in periodicals archive

The final ingredient would be access to local feeder networks owned by the Baby Bells or to competing networks now being built by Competitive Local Exchange Companies.

Battle for the backbone

In particular, the Baby Bell providers of local phone service opposed the bill, and Republican leader Robert Dole did their bidding.

The robber barons of the information highway

That would make Southwestern Bell the second of the Baby Bells to win regulatory approval to sell long-distance since a federal judge carved up the American Telephone & Telegraph monopoly in 1984.

SW Bell Readies For Long-Distance Run in Arkansas

Neuharth warned that getting Congress involved -- notably through the bills currently in the House and Senate -- "is an especially serious mistake" that could "unwittingly create a climate of regulation that makes the government, rather than the Baby Bells, their [newspapers'] new partners."

Neuharth pulls no punches

According to a study by the Consumer Federation of America, the "baby Bell" companies overcharged customers by about $30 billion between the breakup of AT&T Co.

Hold the phone, Mike; SW Bell President Mike Flynn trades exchanges with Winston Bryant over proposed PSC settlement

"Next year [1992], the Baby Bell issue will be the fight of the decade, if not the century," said Robert J.

Newspapers lobby against RBOCs: major effort will continue to try to gain restrictions on Baby Bells

Like many large telecommunications companies today, the $11 billion Baby Bell must learn to do more than just talk.

America's most powerful Black executives: B.E. selects 40 all-stars from the nation' corporate elite

He lifted the legal bar that had prevented the seven regional Baby Bell telephone companies from offering information services, as he virtually had been ordered to by the U.S.

Decide, stay and dissent

The Baby Bell has more than 1,000 employee development programs, which range from career development workshops to counseling and educational programs.

25 best places for blacks to work

Through its contacts with the Baby Bell companies - and the companies that eventually emerged from them, including AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink - the company would get referrals for work.

Mukilteo phone company designs a better way to communicate

One would go to a local phone carrier, typically a Baby Bell. (AT&T was being divested at this time, with the local exchange carriers--"Baby Bells"--split off while AT&T retained its long-distance and equipment manufacturing businesses.) A "non wireline" company, not a Baby Bell, would receive the other license.

We could have had cellphones four decades earlier: thanks for nothing, Federal Communications Commission

The rare baby Bell's anglehead lizard that has hatched at Chester Zoo

Rare lizard breeds in UK for first time