A History of Telephone Companies
On July 9, 1877, a functional telephone was produced and the Bell Telephone Company became a reality. One year later, Western Union Telegraph Company entered the communications business. Bell then filed a lawsuit for patent infringement against Western Union, and won the case in 1879. When the Bell patent expired in 1893 and 1894, there was a formation of more than 6,000 independent telephone companies. In 1900, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) was established as the parent company of the Bell Company. AT&T/Bell became a monopoly buying out some of the independent companies and forcing others out of business. In 1877, the federal Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) began regulating communications and setting standards. By 1910, this included all wire and radio communications as well as interstate telephone business. Even with the enactment of the Communications Act of 1934 (An Act to provide for the regulation of interstate and foreign communication by wire or radio, and for other purposes), the FCC became the primar
Two companies that were well positioned to compete and are now household names in long-distance telephone service are MCI and Sprint. Other companies besides AT&T could now attach their equipment to the network. February 8, 1996, President bill Clinton signed into law the first major overhaul of the Communications Act of 1934. January 1, 1984, the date that the Modified Final Judgment (MFJ) of the consent decree would be implemented and take effect. The Nineties: The 1984 Consent decree was designed to open competition, first in the long-distance arena. The Sixties: By 1967, there were exactly 200 million telephones in operation around the world, half of which were in the United States alone. 1993, MCI invested $2 billion to develop local-access networks in U. Continental Cablevision announced it's intention to offer customers with computers direct access to the internet. This marked the beginning of the end of telephone networks and services provided by a single dominant supplier. This led to the development and proliferation of earth stations. The Seventies: The Advanced Research Project Agency's (ARPA) decision to build ARPAnet, a communications system designed to be independent of the Bell system and, thereby, protect U. District Court gave exclusive rights to use the Bell name and logo to AT&T's operating companies. The Eighties: In 1982, AT&T and the Department of Justice signed a consent decree settling the Department of Justice's anti-trust case by divesting AT&T of its local telephone companies, which was known as the Modified Final Judgment (MJF), ending AT&T's long-standing and well-defended monopoly status. The 1972 "open skies" policy allowed any entity that was technically capable and financially sound to own and operate a satellite system.
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