Is Bell owned by AT&T?
Although Bell does not currently belong to AT&T, Bell Canada, and AT&T have had a complicated financial connection for many years. The two telecom behemoths' historical connection is briefly summarized below.
Bell System and AT&T: Historical perspectives
In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell created the telephone; in 1877 he founded the Bell Telephone Company. The Bell Corporation bought many of these early telephone firms in the following several years and essentially became the exclusive phone supplier in the United States.
Founded in 1899 as a Bell Telephone Company affiliate to run and build the long-distance telephone network of the United States, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) was AT&T gradually started to integrate the Bell System, the collection of Bell-owned enterprises, in the next years. Moreover, AT&T became Bell System's parent corporation throughout the 1920s.
For decades, Americans had a monopoly in phone services. AT&T oversaw a chain of regional Bell operating businesses when the company was Bell System. This arrangement made long-distance national phone service accessible as well as local options.
The Bell System's disintegration reveals how much more competitive the telecoms landscape is now.
The U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division launched an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T and Bell System affiliates in 1974. Legal struggle over many years eventually resulted in the dismantling of the monopoly; AT&T consented.
The 1984 divestment plan claimed that AT&T lost local phone operations and was left with long-distance services and communications equipment manufacture. Seven new companies—one of which was Bell Canada—were formed from the division of the regional Bell operating businesses. Bell Canada became a separate business after this essentially clinched it for the AT&T alliance spanning many decades.
The Aftermath and Attempted Mergers
Bell Canada tried to rebuild itself on the Canadian telecom scene using a string of mergers and acquisitions in the 1990s and early 2000s. It acquired, for example, mobile phone company Aliant and telecom equipment company Northern Telecom.
Early in the 2000s, talks of combining AT&T with BCE, the parent firm of Bell Canada Enterprises, surfaced. However the dot-com collapse completely ruined the concept, and US authorities' resistance made the suggested merger ineffective.
Though Bell Canada and AT&T provide various services to their clients nowadays, they are different businesses with no affiliation whatsoever. In their respective nations, Bell Canada and AT&T remain major participants in the telecoms sector.
The present state of Bell together with AT&T
With the Bell, Virgin Mobile, Lucky Mobile, and Bell Media brands, Bell Canada and its connected businesses now rank among the biggest communications firms in Canada providing broadband, TV, and wireless internet service. Known as BCE, Bell's parent corporation has a market valuation of over 59.74 billion (CAD).
It is also interesting to note that AT&T still has among the biggest worldwide communications assets right now. AT&T itself has a market valuation of over $150 billion and has recently been purchasing significant media assets like DirecTV and WarnerMedia, even though it was split off and is no part of the regional Bell firms anymore.
In essence, Bell Canada and AT&T have been linked historically; both businesses share the "Bell" moniker derived from Alexander Graham Bell; Bell has been a distinct entity from AT&T for over forty years. Now that Bell Canada is owned by BCE and AT&T has been compelled to separate its Bell System holdings among other things, it is still a telecommunication and media powerhouse. Though currently, the two businesses have no relationship whatsoever, they have certain joint agreements wherein they sometimes provide some of their products to one another's consumers.
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