The History of

AT&T
The history of AT&T is in large measure the history of the
telephone in the United States. AT&T's roots stretch back to
1875, with founder Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the
telephone. During the 19th century, AT&T became the parent
company of the Bell System, the American telephone
monopoly. The Bell System provided what was by all accounts
the best telephone service in the world. The system broke up
into eight companies in 1984 by agreement between AT&T
and the U.S. Department of Justice. From 1984 until 1996
AT&T was an integrated telecommunications services and
equipment company, succeeding in a newly competitive
environment. Today, AT&T is a global networking leader,
focused on delivering IP-based solutions to enterprise and
government customers. Additionally, as AT&T pivots away
from traditional consumer services, the company continues to
offer consumers and small businesses a breakthrough
alternative to traditional services Voice over IP.
A Brief History:
Origins
The AT&T Corp., formerly known as the
American Telephone and Telegraph
Corporation, is as old as the telephone itself.
The company that became AT&T began in 1875, in an arrangement
among inventor Alexander Graham Bell and the two men, Gardiner
Hubbard and Thomas Sanders, who agreed to finance his work. Bell
was trying to invent a talking telegraph -- a telephone. He succeeded,
earning patents in 1876 and 1877. In 1877, the three men formed
the Bell Telephone Company to exploit the invention. The first telephone
exchange, operating under license from Bell Telephone, opened in New
Haven, CT in 1878. Within three years, telephone exchanges existed in
most major cities and towns in the United States, operating under
licenses from what was now the American Bell Telephone Company. In
1882, American Bell acquired a controlling interest in the Western
Electric Company, which became its manufacturing unit. Gradually,
American Bell came to own most of its licensees. Collectively the
enterprise became known as the Bell System.

The American Telephone and Telegraph Company was incorporated on

March 3, 1885 as a wholly owned subsidiary of American Bell, chartered
to build and operate the original long distance telephone network.
Building out from New York, AT&T reached its initial goal of Chicago in
1892, and then San Francisco in 1915. On December 30, 1899, AT&T
acquired the assets of American Bell, and became the parent company of
the Bell System. Because signals weaken as they travel down telephone
wires, building a national network required several inventions. Loading
coils, invented independently at AT&T and elsewhere (1899), allowed the
network to be built out to Denver. The first practical electrical amplifiers,
devised at AT&T (1913) made transcontinental telephony possible.
Until Bell's second patent expired in 1894, only Bell Telephone and
its licensees could legally operate telephone systems in the United
States. Between 1894 and 1904, over six thousand independent
telephone companies went into business in the United States, and
the number of telephones boomed from 285,000 to 3,317,000.
Many previously unwired areas got their first telephone service, and
many others got competing companies. But the multiplicity of
telephone companies produced a new set of problems -- there was
no interconnection, subscribers to different telephone companies
could not call each other. This situation only began to be resolved
after 1913.
A Brief History: Early International
In the early 1900s, AT&T engaged in businesses that ranged
Activity
well beyond the national telephone system. Through the
Western Electric Company, its manufacturing subsidiary, AT&T
affiliated and allied companies around the world manufactured
equipment to meet the needs of the world's telephone
companies. These firms also sold equipment imported from
the United States. By 1914, International Western Electric
Company locations included Antwerp, London, Berlin, Milan,
Paris, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Budapest, Tokyo, Montreal,
Buenos Aires, and Sydney.
In 1925, Walter Gifford, newly elevated to the presidency of AT&T,
decided that AT&T and the Bell System should concentrate on its
stated goal of universal telephone service in the United States.
He therefore sold the International Western Electric Company to
the newly formed International Telephone and Telegraph
Company (ITT) for $33 million in 1925, retaining only AT&T's
interests in Canada. Although AT&T retreated from international
manufacture, it retained an international presence through its
drive to provide global telephone service to customers in the U.S.

In 1927, AT&T inaugurated commercial transatlantic telephone

service to London using two-way radio. Initially, these calls cost
seventy-five dollars (U.S.) each (for three minutes.) Service
spread to other countries, both via London and through direct
radio links. Radio-telephone service to Hawaii began in 1931, and
to Tokyo in 1934. Telephone service via available radio technology
was far from ideal: it was subject to fading and interference, and
had strictly limited capacity. In 1956, service to Europe moved to
the first transatlantic submarine telephone cable, TAT-1.
Transpacific cable service began in 1964.
A Brief History: The Bell System
For much of its history, AT&T and its Bell System functioned as
a legally sanctioned, regulated monopoly. The fundamental
principle, formulated by AT&T president Theodore Vail in 1907,
was that the telephone by the nature of its technology would
operate most efficiently as a monopoly providing universal
service. Vail wrote in that year's AT&T Annual Report that
government regulation, "provided it is independent,
intelligent, considerate, thorough and just," was an
appropriate and acceptable substitute for the competitive
marketplace.
The United States government accepted this
principle, initially in a 1913 agreement known as
the Kingsbury Commitment. As part of this
agreement, AT&T agreed to connect non-
competing independent telephone companies to
its network and divest its controlling interest in
Western Union telegraph. At several later points,
as political philosophy evolved, federal
administrations investigated the telephone
monopoly in light of general antitrust law and
alleged company abuses. One notable result was
an anti-trust suit filed in 1949, which led in 1956
to a consent decree signed by AT&T and
Department of Justice, and filed in court, whereby
AT&T agreed to restrict its activities to the
regulated business of the national telephone
system and government work.
Over the years AT&T's Bell System provided what
was by all accounts the best telephone system in
the world. The system made steady progress
towards its goal of universal service, which came
in the twenties and thirties to mean everyone
should have a telephone. The percentage of
American households with telephone service
reached fifty percent in 1945, seventy percent in
1955, and ninety percent in 1969. Much of the
leadership came by application of science and
technology developed at AT&T's Bell Telephone
Laboratories subsidiary.
In the late 1940s, new technologies appeared that provided alternatives
to copper wires for long-distance telephone transmission. AT&T opened
its first microwave relay system between the cities of New York and
Boston in 1948, and over the succeeding three decades added
considerable microwave capacity to its nationwide long-distance
network. In 1962, AT&T placed the first commercial communications
satellite, Telstar I, in orbit, offering an additional alternative especially
suited to international communications. Technological changes
elsewhere in the system offered parallel alternatives. The transition
from electromechanical to electronic components permitted new, more
powerful, and eventually less expensive customer premises and
network equipment. Another result of these new technologies was to
lower the technological barriers to entry by would-be competitors to the
Bell System. Slowly, over several decades, the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC), the regulatory agency which oversees
telecommunications in the United States, allowed some competition
using these technologies at the edges of the network. By the mid-
1970s, competition had advanced to general long-distance service.

The changes in telecommunications during these years eventually led

to an antitrust suit by the U.S. government against AT&T. The suit began
in 1974 and was settled in January 1982 when AT&T agreed to divest
itself of the wholly owned Bell operating companies that provided local
exchange service. This would, the government believed, separate those
parts of AT&T (the local exchanges) where the natural monopoly
argument was still seen as valid from those parts (long distance,
manufacturing, research and development), where competition was
appropriate. In return, the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to lift the
constraints of the 1956 decree. Divestiture took place on January 1,
1984, and the Bell System was dead. In its place was a new AT&T and
seven regional Bell operating companies (collectively, the RBOCs.)
THE PRODUCTS

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Samsung Gear S3
AT&T Announces API Platform to Boost
New Tools Help Developers Create Innovative Apps that Will Run More Efficiently, Save Battery Life and Bring Apps to New 'Screens'

Innovation and Collaboration with Mobile App

Dallas,Texas,January 09, 2012

Key Facts
Developers
-AT&T* today outlined a series of developer initiatives at the sixth annualAT&T Developer Summit, -- one day
before the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
- AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets Chief Marketing Officer David Christopher announced the new AT&T API
Platform for frictionless access to APIs, or software programming hooks that allow developers to easily incorporate
AT&T services into their applications. Key elements include:
- AT&T support for the development of HTML5 mobile apps with add-that-to-my-bill technology that will make it
easy for developers to monetize their applications through the AT&T bill.
- New tools to help developers create multi-screen apps, including forAT&Ts award-winning U-verseTV service.
- AT&T announcedAT&T Cloud Architect, a developer-centric cloud platform providing storage and infrastructure as-
a-service.
- A new AT&T Application Resource Optimizer tool will allow developers to create apps that operate more efficiently,
reduce data usage, and save battery life.
- AT&T plans to introduce a new AT&T App Store in HTML5 with a fresh format that will benefit developers and
customers underscoring AT&Ts commitment to HTML5 technology.
- The AT&T Developer Summit is a two-day event for software developers to participate in a Hackathon, hear the
latest news on AT&T 4G devices and network and get technical news and marketing insights from industry experts.
Over 2,000 developers are attending.
- All news release and related multimedia content, including a live or archived webcast, are available at
www.att.com/aboutus.
Applications are one of the primary reasons people buy smartphones and tablets, said David Christopher, chief
marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. With that appetite, we need to have the worlds greatest
apps running at their best on our network. Collaborating with developers and supporting their creativity through
the AT&T API Platform and other best-in-class tools is the best way that we can make sure our 100 million-plus
wireless customers have access to the best apps and mobile experience.
AT&T API Platform

The AT&T API Platform will make app development easier than ever by giving
developers access to the APIs they need in one convenient place. When developers
start writing applications, the classes and objects they will need to interface with
AT&T services are already written, and accessible. The platform empowers
innovation through relationships with outside developers, while maintaining AT&Ts
commitment to protecting and maintaining our customers privacy.

The platform will offer in-app billing technology that will allow developers to
receive payment for their apps through the convenience, speed and security of the
AT&T customer bill. The platform is designed to support HTML5 browsers, part of
AT&Ts commitment to the advancement of HTML5 technology.

AT&T U-verse Enabled

Christopher also announced that AT&T is opening upAT&T U-versereceivers to

developers to enable development of multi-screen applications that interact in the
home with U-verse TV, the fastest-growing TV provider in the United States over
the past 11 quarters combined, with 3.6 million subscribers and $7 billion in
annualized revenue as of third quarter 2011.

Were taking the hottest TV product and were marrying it with the hottest mobile
technology, Christopher said. This will create great opportunities for developers
and benefits for our customers.
AT&T Application Resource Optimizer

Another new and exciting AT&T technology made available to developers at the
summit is the Application Resource Optimizer (ARO), a tool that can help applications
run faster, use less power and consume bandwidth more efficiently.

ARO tackles a fundamental coding challenge developers face today finding and
fixing performance and power bottlenecks that detract from a great user experience,
said Jeff Bradley, Senior Vice President, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. But
even if youre not a developer, this matters. ARO can help developers create apps that
conserve battery life, load pages faster and consume network resources in a smarter
way. This reduces the potential for network congestion and can save customers
money on their data plans.

AT&T App Center

Bradley also announced that AT&T plans to launch a new HTML5 Web storefront this
year that will be a fresh approach to discovering new apps for our customers.

More than a short list of categories, this storefront will be a magazine-like collection of
stories, he said.

Bradley invited developers to participate in the App Center beta by signing up at

developer.att.com/appcenter.
Developer-Centric Cloud

AT&T also announced today the coming launch ofAT&T Cloud Architect, an
innovative suite of flexible, integrated cloud services for developers and
internet-centric businesses that allows users to build an online business or run an
application quickly with low operating costs. The platform will support near-real time
ordering, provisioning and scaling, in a fully customizable cloud environment. OS
development options will include LAMP for CentOS, Debian, Fedora and RedHat, as
well as Windows Server options. In the future, AT&T will add a full API framework to
enable developers to fully tap into AT&Ts dynamic cloud.

We understand that developers cloud needs differ significantly from those of AT&T
Business Solutions more traditional customers such as CIOs and IT managers, said
AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan. Developers need the reliability and
stability of our differentiated cloud too, but first and foremost, they need flexibility,
affordability and speed in turning up new services. This is what AT&T Cloud Architect
offers.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company andone of the

most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates AT&T operating
companies are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the
world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nations fastest
mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed
Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile broadband and
emerging 4G capabilities, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of
any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It
also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verseand AT&T |DIRECTV
brands. The companys suite of IP-based business communications services is one of
the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions
and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.
 Members:
GROUP TITANS:
Leslie Rivas
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Jenny Mae Sombilon
Richmark Troy Cuabo
Saraneth Idulsa
Angel Tina Montes
Marnie Sumarago
Kress-Ann Oclarit