The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over 100 years from its creation in 1877 until its antitrust breakup in 1983. The system of companies was often colloquially called Ma Bell (as in "Mother Bell"), as it held a vertical monopoly over telecommunication products and services in most areas of the United States and Canada. At the time of the breakup of the Bell System in the early 1980s, it had assets of $ 150 billion (equivalent to $ 440 billion in 2023) and employed over one million people.
62-527: American Bell refers to two entities that were associated with the Bell System . Bell Telephone Company , at one time known as American Bell Telephone Company, original parent of American Telephone and Telegraph Company AT&T Information Systems , founded in 1982 as American Bell, Inc., an unregulated subsidiary of American Telephone and Telegraph Company that sold telephone equipment Topics referred to by
124-870: A $ 6 billion transaction. After acquiring the company, First Data Corporation made the decision to relaunch telegraphy services under the Western Union brand, but sold this to International Telegram in 2006. On January 26, 2006, First Data announced its intention to spin off Western Union into independent publicly traded financial services company focused on money transfers through a tax-free spin-off to First Data shareholders . The spin off occurred as planned on September 29, 2006. The next day Western Union announced that it would cease offering telegram transmission and delivery. In May 2009, Western Union announced its plan to acquire Canada-based Custom House from Peter Gustavson. The deal closed in September 2009 for
186-401: A complete strategic, operational and balance sheet restructuring of the company over the next six years. Amman executed a strategy of redirecting Western Union from being an asset-based provider of communications services, with a money transfer business as a large but less important part of the business, into being a provider of consumer-based money transfer financial services . Thus, Amman ran
248-473: A million miles of telegraph lines and two international undersea cables . AT&T gained control of Western Union in 1909, acquiring a 30% stake in the company. However, in 1913 AT&T , under indictment for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 , was forced to sell its shares in the company which once again became independent. Western Union acquired its only major competitor in
310-778: A mobile money-transfer service with the GSM Association , a global trade association representing more than 700 mobile operators in 218 countries and covering 2.5 billion mobile subscribers. The proliferation of mobile phones in developed and developing economies provides a widely accessible consumer device capable of delivering mobile financial services ranging from text notifications associated with Western Union cash delivery services to phone-based remittance options. Western Union's mobile money transfer service offering will connect its core money-transfer platform to m-bank or m-wallet platforms provided by mobile operators and/or locally regulated financial institutions. The company launched
372-542: A post- World War II reconstruction relationship with state-owned Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) before the 1956 boundaries were emplaced. Before 1956, the Bell System's reach was truly gargantuan. Even during the period from 1956 to 1984, the Bell System's dominant reach into all forms of communications was pervasive within the United States and influential in telecommunication standardization throughout
434-509: A purchase price of US$ 371 million. This acquisition led the company to be re-branded as Western Union Business Solutions. In January 2011, Western Union acquired Angelo Costa, a group active in money transfer and services to immigrants. Angelo Costa has a network of 7,500 points of sale throughout Europe. The agreement was signed for US$ 200 million. In July 2011, Western Union acquired Travelex 's Global Business Payments division for £ 606 million. In October 2011, Western Union completed
496-404: A result of this vertical monopoly , the Bell System effectively owned most telephone service in the United States by 1940, from local and long-distance service to the telephones. This allowed Bell to prohibit its customers from connecting equipment not made or sold by Bell to the system without paying fees. For example, if a customer desired a style of telephone not leased by the local Bell company,
558-480: A separate company called Western Union International (WUI), which it sold that year to American Securities . In 1967, American Securities listed WUI as a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange . WUI was acquired by Xerox for $ 207 million in stock in 1979 and subsequently sold for $ 185 million in cash to MCI Communications in 1981. MCI renamed WUI to MCI International, ceasing
620-401: A single Bell System trademark. For each regional operating company, its name was placed where "name of associated company" appears in this template version of the trademark. Bell system telephones and related equipment were made by Western Electric , a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Co. Member telephone companies paid a fixed fraction of their revenues as a license fee to Bell Labs . As
682-524: A special advisor who oversaw the divestiture of the four non-strategic telecommunications assets for about $ 280 million. Most of the company's business services unit including the Easylink electronic mail and Telex businesses were sold to AT&T for $ 180 million in Dec 1990. Western Union Priority Services including Mailgram, Priority Letter and Custom Letter services were not included in the deal. This marked
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#1732771771859744-493: A standardized time service in 1870 and wire money transfer in 1871. In the 1870s, the company faced increased competition from newly formed rival telegraphy conglomerate Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company and from the nascent telephony industry led by the Bell Telephone Company . Western Union instead attempted to launch a rival telephony system before settling a patent lawsuit with Bell and leaving
806-601: A term that referred generally to all AT&T companies, of which there were five major divisions: In 1913, the federal government challenged the Bell System's growing monopoly over the phone system under AT&T ownership in an anti-trust suit, leading to the Kingsbury Commitment . Under the commitment, AT&T escaped break-up or nationalization in exchange for divesting itself of Western Union and allowing non-competing independent telephone companies to interconnect with its long-distance network. After 1934,
868-715: Is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Colorado . Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York , the company changed its name to the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1856 after merging with several other telegraph companies. It dominated the American telegraphy industry from the 1860s to
930-508: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Bell System Beginning in the 1910s, American antitrust regulators had been observing and accusing the Bell System of abusing its monopoly power, and had brought legal action multiple times over the decades. In 1974 the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice brought a lawsuit against Bell claiming violations of
992-492: The Baby Bells and do not provide telephone service. Beginning in 1991, the Baby Bells began to consolidate operations or rename their Bell Operating Companies according to the parent company name, such as "Bell Atlantic – Delaware, Inc." or "U S WEST Communications, Inc.", to unify their corporate images. The Bell System service marks, including the circled-bell logo, especially as redesigned by Saul Bass in 1969, and
1054-583: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) assumed regulation of AT&T. Proliferation of telephone service allowed the company to become the largest corporation in the world until its dismantling by the United States Department of Justice in 1984, at which time the Bell System ceased to exist. Receiving a U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone on March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell formed
1116-659: The No Way Out 1998 and Slamboree 2000 . They sponsored UEFA Europa League from 2012 until 2015. During the 2003–04 season, Western Union served as the title sponsor for the Senior Division Football League in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The First Data Western Union Foundation donates money to charitable causes globally. After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami , the Foundation donated US$ 1,000,000 to
1178-475: The Russian invasion of Ukraine . Money can be sent online or in-person at Western Union agent locations. Cash can be collected in person at any other Western Union agent location worldwide by providing the 10-digit MTCN (Money Transfer Control Number) and identification. In some cases, a secret question and answer can be used instead of identification. In October 2007, Western Union announced plans to introduce
1240-484: The Sherman Act . In 1982, anticipating that it could not win, AT&T agreed to a Justice Department-mandated consent decree that settled the lawsuit and ordered it to break itself up into seven " Regional Bell Operating Companies " (known as "The Baby Bells"). This ended the existence of the conglomerate in 1984. The Baby Bells became independent companies and several of them are large corporations today. In 1877,
1302-507: The post-World War II occupation was considered an administrative adjunct to the North American Bell System. Immediately before the 1984 break-up, the Bell System had the following corporate structure : On January 1, 1984, the former components of the Bell System were structured into the following Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), which became known as Baby Bells. After 1984, multiple mergers occurred of
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#17327717718591364-418: The 'Treaty of Six Nations', an attempt by six of the largest telegraph firms to create a system of regional telegraphy monopolies with a shared network of main lines. After the creation of the 'Six Nations' system, Western Union continued to acquire both larger & smaller telegraph companies and by 1864 had transformed from a regional monopoly into a national oligopolist with its only serious competitors being
1426-567: The 1980s, pioneering technology such as telex and developing a range of telegraph-related services, including wire money transfer , in addition to its core business of transmitting and delivering telegram messages. After experiencing financial difficulties, it began to move its business away from communications in the 1980s and increasingly focused on its money-transfer services. It ceased its communications operations completely in 2006, at which time The New York Times described it as "the world's largest money-transfer business" and added that
1488-759: The American Bell Telephone Company, named after Alexander Graham Bell , opened the first telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut . Within a few years local exchange companies were established in every major city in the United States. Use of the Bell System name initially referred to those early telephone franchises and eventually comprised all telephone companies owned by American Telephone & Telegraph , referred to internally as associated companies , regional holding companies , or later Bell operating companies (BOCs). In 1899, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) acquired
1550-666: The American Telegraph Company and the United States Telegraph Company. Western Union completed the first transcontinental telegraph in 1861. Notably, the first messages went to then President of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln . The firm additionally formed the Russian–American Telegraph Company in an attempt to link America to Europe, via Alaska , into Siberia , to Moscow – a project abandoned in 1867 following
1612-521: The American telegraphy sector Postal Telegraph, Inc. in 1945, effectively giving the company monopoly power over the industry. After 1945 the telegraphy industry began to experience a decline as the use of telephones increased, especially in the case of long-distance calls, with total telegraph messages almost halving from 1945 to 1960. In 1958, Western Union began offering telex services to customers in New York City. Teleprinter equipment for
1674-488: The Bell System's Caribbean regional operating companies. The consent decree also forced Bell to make all of its patents royalty-free . This led to substantial increases in innovation, in particular in the electronics and computer sectors. Steven Weber 's The Success of Open Source characterizes the consent decree as important in fostering the open source movement. The Bell System also owned various Caribbean regional operating companies, as well as 54% of Japan's NEC and
1736-597: The Bell Telephone Company in 1877, which in 1885 became AT&T. When Bell's original patent expired 15 years later in 1894, the telephone market opened to competition and 6,000 new telephone companies started while the Bell Telephone company took a significant financial downturn. On April 30, 1907, Theodore Newton Vail returned as President of AT&T. Vail believed in the superiority of one national telephone system and AT&T adopted
1798-548: The Bell name and the circled-bell trademark until SBC opted for all of its companies to do business under the "SBC" name in 2002. Bell Atlantic used the Bell name and circled-bell trademark until renaming itself Verizon in 2000. Pacific Bell continued operating in California under that name (or the shortened "PacBell" nickname) until SBC purchased it. In Canada, Bell Canada ( divested from AT&T in 1975) continues to use
1860-443: The Bell name. For the decades that Nortel was named Northern Telecom, its research and development arm was Bell Northern Research. Bell Canada and its holding-company parent, Bell Canada Enterprises , still use the Bell name. They used variations of the circled-bell logo until 1977, which until 1976 strongly resembled the 1921 to 1939 Bell System trademark shown above. Western Union The Western Union Company
1922-525: The DOJ had agreed upon in 1956. Before the 1956 break-up, the Bell System included the companies listed below, plus those listed in the pre-1984 section. Northern Electric and the Caribbean regional operating companies were considered part of the Bell System proper before the break-up. Nippon Electric was considered a more distant affiliate of Western Electric, and through its own research and development adapted
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1984-652: The Department of Justice in 1913. AT&T committed to sell its $ 30 million in Western Union capital stock, allow competitors to interconnect with its long-distance telephone network, and not acquire other independent companies without permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission . The Bell trademark was used from 1921 through 1969 by both the AT&;T corporation and the regional operating corporations to co-brand themselves under
2046-511: The Northwestern Bell name. In 1984, each regional Bell operating company was assigned a set list of names it was allowed to use in combination with the Bell marks. By 2022, all these Bell System names had disappeared from the United States business landscape. Cincinnati Bell was the last to use the name, until 2022 when it rebranded to Altafiber , though it still has Cincinnati Bell as its corporate name. Southwestern Bell used both
2108-542: The U.S. Abraham Lincoln . The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company was founded in Rochester, New York by Samuel L. Selden , Hiram Sibley , and others in 1851. In 1856 the company merged with its competitor the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company , controlled by John James Speed , Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith and Ezra Cornell and, at Cornell's insistence, changed its name to Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1857, Western Union participated in
2170-676: The Westar satellites launched) in 1988 after Western Union suffered financial losses with their telecommunications assets starting in the early 1980s. In 1981, Western Union purchased a 50% interest in Airfone . It sold Airfone to GTE in 1986 for $ 39 million in cash. From 1982, as a result of financial services deregulation , Western Union began offering wire money transfer services globally. In 1984, after years of declining profits and mounting debts, Western Union began to negotiate with its creditors regarding debt restructuring. The restructuring
2232-628: The Western Union Connect service in October 2015, following partnership agreements with major instant messaging apps WeChat and Viber . The partnership allows users of WeChat to send up to $ 100 to China , the US and 200 other countries, while Viber users can send up to $ 100 for $ 3.99 plus exchange rate fees , with that fixed fee increasing the more money is sent up a limit of $ 499. Along with satellite telecommunications, Western Union
2294-412: The Western Union company for telegram and mailgram message data to Western Union bureaus nationwide. It also handled traffic for its telex and TWX services. The Westar satellites ' transponders were also leased by other companies for relaying video , voice , data , and facsimile (fax) transmissions. The Westar fleet of satellites and ground stations were sold to Hughes (who originally built all of
2356-658: The acquisition of Finint S.r.l., one of Western Union's leading money transfer network agents in Europe, with more than 10,000 subagent locations across Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. In May 2015, rumors emerged over a proposed merger of Western Union and competitor MoneyGram , at a time when both companies’ revenue were declining. Western Union denied this was the case. In January 2017, Ant Financial , Alibaba ’s financial technology firm instead unsuccessfully attempted to acquire MoneyGram for $ 880 million, but this
2418-547: The assets of its parent, the American Bell Telephone Company. American Bell had created AT&T to provide long-distance calls between New York and Chicago and beyond. AT&T became the parent of American Bell Telephone Company, and thus the head of the Bell System, because regulatory and tax rules were leaner in New York than in Boston, where American Bell was headquartered. Later, the Bell System and its moniker "Ma Bell" became
2480-465: The company as two separate companies. One business consisted of the money transfer business, which was funded and operated to take advantage of the significant growth opportunity. The second unit consisted of all the non-strategic communications assets such as the long-distance analog voice network, satellite business and undersea cable assets. In the three-year period through 1990 Amman was supported by Robert A. Schriesheim , also installed by LeBow, as
2542-552: The company would remain as such due to the large number of immigrants wiring money home . From the perspective of the history of technology , Western Union notably completed the first transcontinental telegraph in 1861, being a part of U.S. industry's investments into developing American communications between the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean . The first messages went to then President of
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2604-445: The customer was required to purchase the instrument at cost, furnish it to the telephone company for rewiring, pay a service charge, and a monthly lease fee for using it. In 1949, the United States Department of Justice alleged in an antitrust lawsuit that AT&T and the Bell System operating companies were using their near-monopoly in telecommunications to attempt to establish unfair advantage in related technologies. The outcome
2666-535: The designs of Western Electric's North American telecommunications equipment for use in Japan, which to this day gives much of Japan's telephone equipment and network a closer resemblance to North American ANSI and iconectiv standards than to European-originated ITU-T standards. Before the 1956 break-up, Northern Electric was focused on manufacturing, without significant telecommunication-equipment research & development of its own. The operation of Japan's NTT during
2728-404: The end of Western Union's telecommunications carrier business. The official name of the corporation was changed to New Valley Corporation in 1991, as part of the company's move to seek bankruptcy protection to eliminate the firm's overleveraged balance sheet while continuing to grow the money transfer business. The name change was used to shield the Western Union name from being dragged through
2790-438: The industrialized world. The 1984 Bell System divestiture brought an end to the affiliation branded as the Bell System. It resulted from another antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1974, alleging illegal practices by the Bell System companies to stifle competition in the telecommunications industry. The parties settled the lawsuit on January 8, 1982, superseding the former restrictions that AT&T and
2852-477: The marks on rare occasions to maintain their trademark rights, even less now that they have adopted names conceived long after divestiture. Examples include Verizon, which still used the Bell logo on its trucks and payphones until it updated its own logo in 2015, and Qwest, formerly US West , which licenses the Northwestern Bell and Mountain Bell names to Unical Enterprises, who makes telephones under
2914-416: The operating companies and between them, so that some components of the former Bell System are now owned by companies independent of the historic Bell System, including foreign telecommunications firms. The structure of the companies today is as follows. The following telephone companies are considered independent of the Baby Bells : The following companies were divested after 1984 from AT&T Corp. or
2976-502: The proceedings (and the resulting bad PR). Under the day to day leadership of Amman and the backing of LeBow , the company's value increased dramatically through its years operating under chapter 11. Following various restructurings, including negotiations with Carl Icahn who became a large bond holder, New Valley Corporation was sold in a bankruptcy auction to First Financial Management Corporation in 1994 for $ 1.2 billion. In 1995, First Financial merged with First Data Corporation in
3038-423: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title American Bell . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_Bell&oldid=1074689737 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
3100-403: The slogan One Policy, One System, Universal Service. This became the company's philosophy for the next 70 years. Under Vail, AT&T began acquiring many of the smaller telephone companies including the Western Union Telegraph Company . In response to the threat of antitrust action from government, AT&T entered into an out-of-court agreement, known as the Kingsbury Commitment with
3162-428: The successful laying of a transatlantic cable in 1866. In 1866, Western Union acquired the American Telegraph Company and the United States Telegraph Company, its two main competitors, for a time gaining a virtual monopoly over the American telegraphy industry. The company also began to develop new telegraphy-related services beyond the transmission and delivery of telegrams, launching the first stock ticker in 1866,
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#17327717718593224-581: The telephone business completely in 1879. Financier Jay Gould orchestrated a merger of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company with Western Union in 1881, giving him a controlling share of the merged company. When the Dow Jones Railroad Average stock market index for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was created in 1884, Western Union was one of the original eleven companies to be included. By 1900, Western Union operated
3286-637: The telex network was originally provided by Siemens & Halske AG and later by Teletype Corporation . Direct international telex services commenced in the summer of 1960, with limited service to London and Paris. In honor of Valentine's Day 1959, Western Union introduced the Candygram, a box of chocolates accompanying a telegram that was featured in a commercial with the famously rotund radio announcer Don Wilson . In 1963, Western Union organized its international cable system properties and its right-of-way for connecting international telegraph lines into
3348-507: The use of Western Union branding. Western Union purchased the TWX system from AT&T in January 1969, the only major competitor to its own telex network. Western Union became the first American telecommunications corporation to maintain its own fleet of geosynchronous communications satellites , starting in 1974. The fleet of satellites, called Westar , carried communications within
3410-414: The various resulting 1984 spinoffs, only BellSouth actively used and promoted the Bell name and logo during its entire history, from the 1984 break-up to its reunion with the new AT&T in 2006. Similarly, cessation of using either the Bell name or logo occurred for many of the other companies more than a decade after the 1984 break-up as part of an acquisition-related rebranding. The others have only used
3472-500: The words Bell System in text, were used before January 1, 1984, when the AT&;T divestiture of its regional operating companies took effect. The word mark Bell , the logo, and other related trademarks, are held by each of the remaining Bell companies, namely AT&T, Verizon , CenturyLink , and Altafiber . International rights to the marks, except for Canada , are held by a joint venture of these companies, Bell IP Holdings . Of
3534-848: Was a 1956 consent decree limiting AT&T to 85% of the United States' national telephone network and certain government contracts, and from continuing to hold interests in Canada and the Caribbean . The Bell System's Canadian operations included the Bell Canada regional operating company and the Northern Electric manufacturing subsidiary of the Bell System's Western Electric equipment manufacturer. Western Electric divested Northern Electric in 1956, but AT&T did not divest itself of Bell Canada until 1975. ITT Inc. , then known as International Telephone & Telegraph Co. , purchased
3596-447: Was also active in other forms of telecommunication services: Most of these services were discontinued by Western Union in the late 1980s due to a lack of profitability, with the company's divisions providing said services being divested and sold to other companies, such as the 1988 sale of WU's satellite fleet and services to Hughes Space and Communications , and the sale of WU's Airfone service to GTE in 1986. In 1914, Western Union
3658-562: Was blocked by the U.S. government citing national security concerns. In 2018, the company moved its headquarters from Englewood, Colorado to the Denver Tech Center . The Englewood office complex was sold in 2020 for $ 40 million. In November 2020, Western Union acquired a 15% stake in the digital payments unit of Saudi Telecom Company for $ 200 million. In 2022, Western Union suspended operations in Russia and Belarus due to
3720-433: Was completed in 1987 when investor Bennett S. LeBow acquired control of Western Union through an outside of chapter 11 process that was a complex leveraged recapitalization. The transaction was backed by a total of $ 900 million in high-yield bonds and preferred stock underwritten by Michael Milken 's group at Drexel Burnham Lambert as part of an exchange offer. LeBow installed Robert J. Amman as president and CEO who led
3782-517: Was later discontinued by CyberSource effective December 31, 2007. Western Union was a major shirt-sponsor of the Sydney Roosters NRL team from 2002 to 2003. The company still sponsors the team, but not as a shirt-sponsor. Globally Western Union sponsors numerous community events that help support the diaspora communities that use the global Money Transfer service. They also sponsored numerous WWE and WCW pay-per-view events such as
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#17327717718593844-542: Was the first to issue a charge card. As the Internet became an arena for commerce at the turn of the millennium, Western Union started its online services. BidPay was renamed "Western Union Auction Payments" in 2004 before being renamed back to BidPay. BidPay ceased operations on December 31, 2005, and was purchased for US$ 1.8 million in March 2006 by CyberSource Corp. who announced their intention to re-launch BidPay. BidPay
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