Baby Bells

Comments

[Woody]

Interresting chart. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Are we going to see another break-up?

If we take this to the government level, we can see how one country was divided into individual states and then brought back under the control of one big country again.

[Woody]

I sent the chart to my cousin, who was an executive with Bell South and had to deal with this from the beginning to about two years ago. Here's his take

"The main inaccuracy is that Sprint/Nextel is left off the chart. And if the evolution of cellular ownership were shown, it would make a more complete picture."

Now, I don't know if Sprint and Nextel were completely outside of the break-up and reconfiguration or within it. If outside, then my cousin was probably referring to the greater telecommunications industry.

[Maven]

Your cousin was referring to the larger industry.

Thanks for the chart, Tom! I had wondered once or twice about how the split/mergers looked, but never enough to make the effort of research :)

[Guy]

SBC DSL, Verizon Wireless - I am just a minion of the Big Baby Bells.

[The Comedian]

Our local phone company, Southern New England Telephone (SNET), was spun off of AT&T, remained independant for a while, was then bought by SBC, and is now again a part of AT&T.

I'm not sure of the dates, though.

I wonder if comp.dcom.telecom still gets any activity. They'd probably enjoy your great graphic.

[fred]

Great chart on bells.

How about a 2006 update?

[Tom McMahon]

I will when the BellSouth takeover goes through. I'm not 100 percent sure it will.

[RodneyG]

Hey Tom, did you see this AT&T chart?: http://www.freepress.net/content/atthistory

It reminded me of yours.