40th anniversary of the ‘Baby Bell’ breakup

These days, if you want to make a phone call, you have plenty of choices in phones, service providers, minute plans, data plans, and pay-as-you-go plans.

Not so long ago, however, throughout much of the era of landlines, you had just one choice: AT&T.

Since the breakup of the AT&T monopoly, a choice has expanded exponentially. Costs have gone up. And it’s a lot more complicated these days to just talk on the phone.

Up until 1982, AT&T controlled almost the entire American telephone network under the Bell System. If you wanted a phone, you rented one from AT&T (and only AT&T) and connected primarily to AT&T telephone lines.

The break up of the Bell System was a long time coming, with AT&T facing lawsuits throughout the 20th century. AT&T worked with the American government to avoid breakups and reached milestone agreements in 1913 and 1956.

The 1956 consent decree agreement was particularly important, as AT&T was forced to focus on running the national telephone system and special projects with the government. They couldn’t enter other markets.

Still, AT&T protected its turf. For example, AT&T long fought to keep the Caterfone, a mobile communications system, from connecting to its telephone lines. Then in 1968, the FCC decided that Americans could connect any lawful device to telephone lines.

Tensions between AT&T, the government, and rival telephone companies continued to simmer before finally boiling over. In 1982, an agreement was reached to break up AT&T into regional rivals.

In exchange, the new Baby Bells would no longer be restricted to the national telephone system and could enter new markets, such as computers and later, the Internet.

These days, mobile phone networks are similarly dominated by the Big Four: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile. The FCC found that these four companies soaked up 98 percent of mobile wireless service revenue in 2014.

Sprint has since joined forces with T-Mobile, further solidifying control. Still, consumers have alternate mobile service options today, such as Google Fi, which uses T-Mobile’s network, but is managed by tech giant Alphabet.