The image above shows the AT&T logo which was introduced in 1969 and which AT&T maintained until 1983.
In 1971 researchers at the Bell Telephone Laboratories developed the UNIX operating system which was designed to be hardware independent so that it could run on any computer. This language now forms the backbone of the internet.
However, in 1974 the United States Department of Justice filed and antitrust suit against AT&T. Though the suit was not settled until 1982. Meanwhile during 1975–1976 computerization of the network began as AT&T installed the world's first digital electronic toll switch, the 4ESS®, in Chicago. This allowed a much higher capacity of calls (initially 350 000 per hour) than the electromechanical switch it replaced. In Chicago in 1977 AT&T installed the first fibre optic cable in a commercial communications system.
Then on January 8, 1982 AT&T and the Justice Department agree on tentative terms for settlement of the anti-trust suit filed against them in 1974. AT&T agreed to divest itself of the wholly owned Bell operating companies that provided local exchange service. This would, the government believed, separate those parts of AT&T (the local exchanges) where the natural monopoly argument was still seen as valid from those parts (long distance, manufacturing, research and development), where competition was appropriate. In return, the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to lift the constraints of the 1956 decree which effectively allowed AT&T the chance to go into the computer business. AT&T's local operations were split into seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies known as "Baby Bells" (just as AT&T itself used to be known as "Ma Bell"). Divestiture took place on January 1, 1984, and the Bell System was dead. In its place was a new AT&T and seven regional Bell operating companies.
With the American consumer's new ability to purchase phones outright, AT&T and the Bell System lost the considerable revenues earned from phone leasing by local Bell companies. Forced to compete with other manufacturers for new phone sales, the aging Western Electric phone designs still marketed through AT&T failed to sell, and Western Electric eventually closed all of its U.S. phone manufacturing plants. AT&T, reduced in value by about 70%, continued to run all its long distance services through AT&T Communications (the new name of AT&T Long Lines), although it lost some market share in the ensuing years to competitors MCI and Sprint Corporation. This was probably inevitable as the company had to adjust from its monopoly position to a position of intense competition.
A sign that could be seen in many Bell facilities in 1983 read: 'There are two giant entities at work in our country, and they both have an amazing influence on our daily lives. . . one has given us radar, sonar, stereo, teletype, the transistor, hearing aids, artificial larynxes, talking movies, and the telephone. The other has given us the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment, the Great Depression, the gasoline crisis, and the Watergate fiasco. Guess which one is now trying to tell the other one how to run its business?'
On 1st January 1984 the old AT&T was gone, along with it's traditional 'bell' symbol and in its place was a stylized globe and the monogram 'AT&T'. Yet, as far as customers were concerned, the phones still worked as did the other services they were used to. But for AT&T itself the world would never be the same again.
Yet AT&T maintained its financial strength and even when its own attempt to penetrate the computer marketplace failed, in 1991 AT&T was still able to acquire NCR Corporation (National Cash Register), hoping to capitalize on the burgeoning personal computer and UNIX networked server markets. However, AT&T was ultimately unable to extract and lasting financial or technological gains from the merger and in 1996 NCR was divested again.
In 1994 AT&T acquired McCaw Cellular for $11.5 billion which gave AT&T access to over 2 million cellular customers (AT&Ts first direct customers in over a decade). The new unit, renamed AT&T wireless, established AT&T as a leading force in the fast-growing mobile telecommunications industry.
In 1995, AT&T purchased long-distance provider Alaska Communications System (Alascom). FCC approval required the company be run as an AT&T subsidiary rather than a more likely absorption into AT&T Communications, giving the company the AT&T Alascom name. The buyout marked the first time that any company with Bell roots would hold operations in the non-contiguous United States.
Yet, AT&T was suffering from the acquisitions of the 1980s. There were few synergies between the company's communication and manufacturing businesses and the US was moving to re-writing its communications laws. It seemed as it AT&Ts businesses would increasingly become obstacles to one another. Therefore, on September 20, 1995 AT&T's CEO, Robert Allen announced that AT&T would be restructured.The announcement stated that AT&T was restructuring into three separate publicly-traded companies: a systems and equipment company (which became Lucent Technologies,) a computer company (NCR) and a communications services company (which would remain AT&T.) This was the largest voluntary break-up in American corporate history.
In 1997, AT&T hired former IBM executive C Michael Armstrong as its chief executive officer. Armstrong's vision was to change AT&T from a long-distance carrier into a global "telecommunications supermarket", eyeing Internet services for the booming dot-com industry. Armstrong directed the company into buying significant cable television assets. Indeed, after acquiring John Malone's TCI and Media One (gaining through the latter a 25% share of Time Warner Cable), AT&T was the largest provider of cable television in the United States. It intended to use these assets to bridge the so-called "last mile" and break the Regional Bell Companies' access-monopoly of the consumer household for data and telephony services. However, this was a very expensive wager on the part of the company and substantially increased company's debt ($16 billion in the purchase of TCI alone). The new companies became AT&T Broadband and the unit became the largest cable company in the United States.
There was an abortive alliance with Britain's BT in 1998 when the two companies announced a $1 billion to offer global voice over IP (VoIP) services, called Concert, sparking rumors of a potential merger. But both parties fought for control of the project and by October 2001 the entire project was scrapped.
In 1999 AT&T acquired the Olivetti & Oracle Research Lab, from Olivetti and Oracle Corporation. In 2002, it closed down the research part of the lab. In the same year AT&T paid US$5 billion to purchase IBM's Global Network business, which became AT&T Global Network Services, LLC. As part of the purchase agreement, IBM granted AT&T a five-year, US$5-billion contract to handle much of IBM's networking needs, and AT&T outsourced some of its applications processing and data management work to IBM. IBM also committed to billing and installation for AT&T's long-distance customers in a 10-year deal valued at US$4 billion; and assumed management of AT&T's data processing centers.
As a result of all these acquiitions, by mid 200 AT&T had three rapidly-evolving networks — data, broadband and wireless and the company also had four separate businesses in its portfolio — cable, wireless, business and consumer. With long-distance rates falling and the market for telecommunications services overall weakening, AT&T could not sustain the debt it had incurred in these ventures. Moreover, the cost of upgrading TCI's equipment to handle two-way communications proved far higher than pre-merger estimates. As a result, in October 2000 AT&T announced that it would restructure itself over the next two years, becoming a family of separate publicly-held companies: AT&T Wireless, AT&T Broadband, and AT&T. On January 9, 2001 AT&T Wireless Corp was spun-off hat was then the world's largest initial public offering (IPO). Later that same year AT&T spun off AT&T Broadband and Liberty Media, which comprised its cable TV assets. AT&T Broadband was subsequently acquired by Comcast in 2002, and AT&T Wireless merged with Cingular Wireless LLC in 2004. With the completion of the restructuring, David W. Dorman succeeded C. Michael Armstrong as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AT&T in November 2002.
With the US Government's 2004 elimination of equal access regulations that allowed long-distance phone companies to access the networks owned by the regional Bell carriers at fixed rates AT&T's core business model was rendered ineffective. This coincided with a meltdown in the global telecommunications industry that was marked by oversupply, fraud, a complicated regulatory environment and nonstop pricing pressures. Combined, these forces led to an industry meltdown in which numerous bankruptcies, defaults and business failures occurred. This ultimately caused AT&T to move away from the residential telephone business — declaring in the process that it would no longer market residential telephone service. Instead, its residential focus shifted to offering a voice service over a broadband Internet connection called AT&T CallVantage.
The redesigned AT&T became a global IP networking provider dedicated to delivering powerful networks, applications and capabilities to business and government customers. Concurrently, AT&T introduced a breakthrough alternative to traditional services – VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol – for consumers and small businesses.
On January 31, 2005, SBC Communications announced its plans to acquire its former parent AT&T Corp. for $16 billion. SBC announced in October 2005 that it would shed the "SBC" brand and take the AT&T brand along with the "T" NYSE ticker symbol. Approval for the merger was concluded on November 18h 2005 and SBC communications was re-branded the following Monday, as "AT&T, Inc". The original AT&T corporate entity, founded in 1885, became a subsidiary of the new AT&T Inc. However, this is not the first time it has existed as a subsidiary: after all in its founding it was a subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company.
Still, the old AT&T in terms of its corporate identity was no more and a new company was in its place, with a new logo (left) which was an updated version of the previous model. The corporate logo, originally designed by Saul Bass in 1983, has attracted some ridicule and has been nicknamed the Death Star in reference to Star Wars.
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