The Regional Bell operating companies (RBOC) are the result of the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT&T. On January 8, 1982, AT&T settled the suit and agreed to divest ("spin off") its local exchange service operating companies in return for a chance to go into the computer business. Effective January 1, 1984, AT&T's local operations were split into seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies known as "Baby Bells"
After the Modification of Final Judgment, the resulting Baby Bells were originally:
Additionally, there was one comparably-sized independent (non-Bell) company of note, GTE, and two smaller independent companies, Cincinnati Bell and Southern New England Telephone (SNET). SNET has since been acquired by SBC Communications.
These companies have since merged, leaving only 4 regional telephone companies in the United States. After the 1984 breakup, part of AT&T's Bell Labs was split off into Bellcore, which would serve as an R&D and standards body for the seven Baby Bells.
- In 1997, NYNEX was acquired by Bell Atlantic, which later, in 2000, merged with GTE to form Verizon.
- In 1998, Southwestern Bell changed its name to SBC Communications and acquired Pacific Bell and Ameritech. In February 2005, SBC announced its plans to acquire former parent company AT&T for over $16 Bln.
- In 2000, US West was merged into Qwest, a fiber optic company.
- BellSouth is the only RBOC that remains as originally conceived, and is the only company that still carries the "Bell" name. BellSouth still uses the last Bell logo, designed in 1969 by Saul Bass.
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