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 1983 logo of AT&T | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1983 |
| Successor | Lucent Technologies |
AT&T Technologies, Inc., was created by AT&T in 1983 in preparation for the breakup of the Bell System, which became effective as of January 1, 1984. It assumed the corporate charter of Western Electric Co., Inc.
AT&T (originally American Telephone &Telegraph Company), after divesting ownership of the Bell System, restructured its remaining companies into three core units. American Bell, Bell Labs and Western Electric were fully absorbed into AT&T, and divided up as an umbrella of several specifically focused companies held by AT&T Technologies, [1] including:
From January 1, 1984, until mid-1986, AT&T Technologies continued to manufacture telephones that had been made before 1984 by Western Electric under the Western Electric marking. "Bell System Property - Not For Sale" markings were eliminated from all telephones, replaced with "AT&T" in the plastic housing and "Western Electric" in the metal telephone bases.
Bell logos contained on the bottom of Trimline bases were filled in, leaving a giant lump next to "Western Electric".
Toward the end of the Bell System, Western Electric telephones contained much more computer technology and more plastic over metal, since advances in electronics and manufacturing processes made it possible, and there was no longer the need to produce heavy duty, long-lasting telephones. In 1985, the 2220 Trimline was heavily modified, including a touch-tone/pulse dial switch, eliminating the need for the 220 rotary phone, foreshadowing what was to come for other AT&T telephones. The 1985 Trimline, like other new telephones introduced after the AT&T breakup, was marked "AT&T TECHNOLOGIES - MADE IN U.S.A." IC chips, used in these updated "electronic" telephones used WExxx model number nomenclature.
In 1986, AT&T closed the Western Electric Indianapolis Works plant, and Trimline and other residential telephone production was moved overseas. Production of the residential models of the 2500/2554 telephones were shifted overseas as well, both marketed under the "Traditional 100" brand. The 500/554 rotary phones ended production as they were no longer needed. A new Design Line telephone was introduced and produced overseas as well, and many variations of single line telephone sets were manufactured over the years. AT&T Technologies kept the Shreveport Works open, and Princess & 2500/2554 business model production continued in the U.S. Also multiline key telephone systems, such as the Merlin and the Spirit systems were manufactured there. Formerly Shreveport manufactured payphones.
Any phone made overseas by AT&T Technologies no longer had Western Electric markings, except for plugs on modular telephone cords whose clips were marked with "WE" initials. Telephones made overseas by AT&T Technologies were produced in Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, and China. Telephones produced at these plants were also marked with "Custom Manufactured in (country) by AT&T"; Chinese made telephones were marked "Custom Manufactured in China for AT&T".
Residential telephone production was shifted back to North America in 1993 when AT&T opened established a subsidiary in Mexico and built a telephone plant. As a result, "WE" markings on modular telephone plugs were replaced with "HHE" or "ECI", marking the end of any Western Electric branding whatsoever on any part of an AT&T telephone. In 1994, AT&T discontinued production of the Princess telephone.
AT&T announced in 1995 that it would split into three companies: a manufacturing/R&D company, a computer company, and a services company. NCR, Bell Labs and AT&T Technologies were to be spun off by 1997. In preparation for its spin-off, AT&T Technologies was renamed Lucent Technologies. Lucent was completely spun off from AT&T in 1996.
Bell Labs is an American industrial research and scientific development company. Researchers from there are credited with the development of radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the photovoltaic cell, the charge-coupled device (CCD), information theory, the Unix operating system, and the programming languages B, C, C++, S, SNOBOL, AWK, AMPL, and others. Ten Nobel Prizes and five Turing Awards have been awarded for work completed at Bell Laboratories.
Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was established on September 30, 1996, through the divestiture of the former AT&T Technologies business unit of AT&T Corporation, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs.
A rotary dial is a component of a telephone or a telephone switchboard that implements a signaling technology in telecommunications known as pulse dialing. It is used when initiating a telephone call to transmit the destination telephone number to a telephone exchange.
The Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company that operated from 1869 to 1996. A subsidiary of the AT&T Corporation for most of its lifespan, Western Electric was the primary manufacturer, supplier, and purchasing agent for all telephone equipment the Bell System from 1881 until 1984, when the Bell System was dismantled. Because the Bell System had a near-total monopoly over telephone service in the United States for much of the 20th century, Western Electric's equipment was widespread across the country. The company was responsible for many technological innovations, as well as developments in industrial management.
The Trimline telephone is a series of telephones that was produced by Western Electric, the manufacturing unit of the Bell System. These telephones were first introduced in 1965 and are formally referred to as the No. 220 Hand Telephone Sets. The Trimline was designed by Henry Dreyfuss Associates under the project direction of Donald Genaro; the firm had produced the previous post-war desktop telephone types for the American Telephone & Telegraph Company.
This timeline of the telephone covers landline, radio, and cellular telephony technologies and provides many important dates in the history of the telephone.
The Ericofon is a one-piece plastic telephone created by the Ericsson Company of Sweden and marketed through the second half of the 20th century. It was the first commercially marketed telephone to incorporate the dial and handset into a single unit. Because of its styling and its influence on future telephone design, the Ericofon is considered one of the most significant industrial designs of the 20th century by Phaidon. It is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In Sweden, the Ericofon is known as the cobra telephone for its resemblance to a coiled snake.
Automatic Electric Company was an American telephone equipment supplier primarily for independent telephone companies in North America, but also had a worldwide presence. With its line of automatic telephone exchanges, it was also a long-term supplier of switching equipment to the Bell System, starting in 1919. The company was the largest manufacturing unit of the Automatic Electric Group. In 1955, the company was acquired by General Telephone and Electronics (GT&E). After numerous reorganization within GTE, the company's assets came under the umbrella of Lucent in the 1990s, and subsequently part of Nokia.
The Western Electric model 500 telephone series was the standard domestic desk telephone set issued by the Bell System in North America from 1950 through the 1984 Bell System divestiture. The successor to the model 302 telephone, the model 500's modular construction compared to previous types simplified manufacture and repair and facilitated a large number of variants with added features. Touch-tone service was introduced to residential customers in 1963 with the model 1500 telephone, which had a push-button pad for the ten digits. The model 2500 telephone, introduced in 1968, added the * (asterisk) and # (pound) keys.
VTech Innovation, L.P., doing business as Advanced American Telephones, is a telephone manufacturing company.
Design Line, also known as Deco-Tel, is a brand name that AT&T has used for several of its specialty telephone designs to fulfill the demand by customers for more variety in telephone models.
The Princess telephone was introduced by the Bell System in 1959. It was a compact telephone designed for convenient use in the bedroom, and contained a light-up dial for use as a night-light. It was commonly advertised with the slogan "It's little...It's lovely...It lights", which was suggested by Robert Karl Lethin, an AT&T employee.
QLT Consumer Lease Services, formerly AT&T Consumer Lease Services, is a New Jersey-based telephone equipment leasing company. The company provides telephone leasing services to residences and small businesses in the United States. These services include next business day replacement of the leased product for any reason.
Alcatel–Lucent S.A. was a multinational telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel SA and U.S.-based Lucent Technologies, the latter being a successor of AT&T's Western Electric and a holding company of Bell Labs.
Western Electric's Reading Works in Berks County, Pennsylvania was a manufacturer of integrated circuit and optoelectronic equipment for communication and computing. The work force grew to nearly 5,000 by 1985 making the Reading, Pennsylvania, facility one of Berks County's largest industrial employers. As a part of Western Electric and the Bell System, it changed its masthead many times during its life.
The rotary machine switching system, or most commonly known as the rotary system, was a type of automatic telephone exchange manufactured and used primarily in Europe from the 1910s. The system was developed and tested by AT&T's American engineering division, Western Electric, in the United States, at the same time when Western Electric was also developing the Panel switch. When AT&T selected the Panel System for large American exchanges, development and sales of the No. 7-A Machine Switching System, its formal commercial name, were transferred to Western Electric's international division in Belgium. In Europe and other continents the system was met with considerable commercial success.
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 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 and employed over one million people.
The International Bell Telephone Company (IBTC) of Brussels, Belgium, was created in 1879 by the Bell Telephone Company of Boston, Massachusetts, a precursor entity to the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), initially to sell imported telephones and switchboards in Continental Europe.
Donald M. Genaro is a retired American industrial designer. He was president of Henry Dreyfuss Associates up to 1994. He has been recognized by The New York Times for his contribution to industrial design.
The Contempra is a telephone designed and produced by Northern Electric beginning in 1967. Contempra was the first phone designed in Canada, previous Canadian sets having been designed in the US for Western Electric and built under licence.
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