Bell System

Denotes the family of companies run by the Bell Telephone Company during its 100 year outright monopoly on the telecommunications industry and infrastructure in the US. Inclusive of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), AT&T Long Lines (line network), the Western Electric Company (manufacturing telephonic equipment), and Bell Labs (the R&D section). Each major city/ region had a subsidiary, e.g. Michigan Bell, Northwestern Bell, the New York Telephone Company etc.

Colloquially known as “Ma Bell” (“mother Bell”).

The monopoly was broken up in 1983. Today, after the breakup the remaining (now separate) companies are AT&T (phone network, mobile network), Verizon (mobile network), and Lumen (cloud computing, networking services).