The Bell System
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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 $450 billion in 2024) and employed over one million people.
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 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.
- Slow Down - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- Let It Go - Live @cbgbs, New York, NY, Nov. 1981 - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- I Hope It's Not Our House - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- It's Over - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- America Now - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- '62 Hawk - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- I Need Drugs - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- Muckraker - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- You Be You - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- How Can I Tell You - Live on Wybc-Fm New Haven, Ct May 1982 - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- I Think I'm Falling - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- Yes I Do - Live @ Brothers III, West Haven Ct Apr 1982 - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- You Won't Like It - Live @ Ron's Place, New Haven, Ct, Aug 1980 - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- Annie - Live Solo @ Ron's Place, New Haven, Ct Dec 1979 - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
- America Now - Live on Wpkn-Fm Bridgeport, Ct Jul 1985 - AKA Darwin Layne - The Bell System
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