  As a telephone user, you want to be able to count on your telephone, to be able to call other telephone users any time, anywhere. You expect reliable service at low cost. The kind of service you expect depends on teamwork—among telephone people in your local company, and among the separate companies that make up the Bell System. That is the way the Bell System is organized to serve you. This is what it contains: A group of operating telephone companies, each known as an Associated Company and each serving its particular territory. One of the finest research and development organizations in the world, Bell Telephone Laboratories. Its work consists of research, development and design in the communications field. It creates apparatus that improves telephone service, makes it more efficient, and keeps its cost low. A supply organization, the Western Electric Company. It manufactures or purchases equipment and supplies for the operating companies on a more economical basis than the individual companies could do for themselves. It distributes equipment and supplies to the various companies. It installs equipment in telephone central offices. A headquarters organization, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. AT&T functions as a general staff for the Bell System, co-ordinating the enterprise and assisting the operating companies. It owns most of the stock of most of the operating companies. It owns nearly all the stock of the Western Electric Company, and it shares with Western Electric the ownership of the Bell Laboratories. In conjunction with the Associated Companies, the AT&T Long Lines Department furnishes long Principal elements of the Bell System AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY SERVICES TO TELEPHONE COMPANIES UNDER LICENSE CONTRACTS PROVIDING INTERCONNECTION BETWEEN AND THROUGH TERRITORIES OF THOSE COMPANIES WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES SUBSIDIARY AND OTHER ASSOCIATED TELEPHONE COMPANIES The organization of the Bell System has grown up in a natural way over a period of many years. The American Bell Telephone Company, predecessor of AT&T, owned the original Bell patents. It licensed local companies to rent Bell telephones to their subscribers. Ownership of the operating companies by the headquarters organization came about because of their need to finance expanding service, and as a means of providing the best service at lowest cost. AT&T bought Western Electric in 1882 because it was the best manufacturer of telephone apparatus and because a dependable source of supplies was essential. The Bell Laboratories stemmed from the shop where Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone. The work of the Laboratories is a continuation, on a much larger scale, of early efforts to discover improvements in the art of telephony. Motor launches pull first segment of the new transatlantic telephone cable toward the Newfoundland shore from HMTS Monarch, world’s largest cable ship. The new underseas cable will link this continent with Great Britain. Long Lines—When you call across the landWithin its own territory your local telephone company provides inter-city service. But when you make a call that crosses the territories of various Bell companies, you are served also by the facilities of the Long Lines Department. This organization is responsible as well for overseas telephone service to points in countries abroad. More than 337,000,000 conversations a year are handled over Long Lines facilities. To handle this volume of conversations and its various other services, Long Lines requires: About 27,000 highly trained telephone employees, including operators, engineers, maintenance men, construction forces, Commercial and Accounting people in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Telephone central office forces in 233 cities and towns. Telephone equipment and plant, including almost 2,400 buildings, in all but one state. About 27,000,000 miles of talking circuits. Nine years after the telephone was invented, when the farthest one Calls to overseas points are handled by operators at three terminals. This Long Lines operator at the overseas switchboard in New York City is putting through a call to Paris. When you call across the seaIn that same year, telephone engineers also made history by establishing experimental radio-telephone connections across the Atlantic between Arlington, Va., near Washington. D. C., to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, as well as to the Hawaiian Islands and Panama. Although World War I delayed the development of overseas service, years of further experimenting and perfecting led, in 1927, to the opening of regular overseas telephone service between the United States and England. Since then service has been extended to more than 100 countries and territories overseas, and it is possible now to reach some 96% of the world’s telephones from any telephone in the United States. Today, overseas conversations take place at the rate of over 1,000,000 a year. Overseas centers in New York, Oakland and Miami furnish the overseas radiotelephone service, handling calls in much the same way as other long distance calls. A Bell Laboratories and a Long Lines engineer check the quality of a full-color picture at a special monitoring position in one of the Bell System television network control centers. Now, to handle more calls and for greater dependability in telephoning between this continent and Great Britain, the first transatlantic cable is being built. Another cable is being built to Alaska, which will be able to carry 36 conversations at a time, and will be immune to atmospheric disturbances that sometimes affect radiotelephone circuits. There is also a new method of radio transmission, called “over-the-horizon,” soon to be introduced between Florida and Cuba. This will provide needed additional telephone channels and will also open up the possibility of television service over the route. Radio and television networksNot everybody realizes that network radio programs go over telephone channels from point of origin to the local radio stations that actually broadcast them. The Bell System’s experience in serving radio networks dates from 1923, when network broadcasting began. Today, in order to link the nation’s radio stations, Long Lines operates about 200,000 miles of program transmission circuits. And within their own territories, the operating telephone companies, too, furnish some program circuits. Bell System scientists pioneered also in sending television images from one place to another, by both wire and radio. The years of experience in serving radio networks have been invaluable in solving the problems of TV network transmission. As of July, 1955, the System linked about 365 TV stations in about 240 American cities. To keep pace with the latest developments, the nationwide TV network has been equipped for color programs, which are available to over 230 stations in about 130 cities. BELL SYSTEM TELEVISION NETWORK ROUTES JULY 1, 1955
Other “Custom-tailored” servicesLong Lines and the operating companies also provide extensive private line services—that is, service for customers who have a large enough volume of communications between two or more points to need facilities for their exclusive use, tailored to their individual requirements. The private line services are provided by means of both wire and radio, for a specified period of time and usually on a recurring basis. Many American industries, the press and governmental agencies use these services, which include telephone, teletypewriter, teletypesetter, radio and television network transmission, facsimile and telephotograph. Teletypewriter service transmits typewritten messages from one point to another, whether the sending and receiving machines are in the same building or across the continent. Teletypesetter service, by means of electrical impulses sent over Bell System circuits, makes it possible to set type for newspaper or other publication use speedily and from a distance. Facsimile service reproduces documents, drawings and maps at the distant end and telephotograph service does the same for pictures. “General Staff” services benefit allServing the local communities in their territories is the responsibility of the operating companies. There are, however, general problems shared by all the companies. In order to handle these problems efficiently and at reasonable cost, the operating companies contract with the AT&T Company for those things that a centralized organization can do better and more economically. This contractual relationship is an outgrowth of the original licensing arrangement, in which the first telephone companies obtained instruments for the use of their subscribers. It was founded on the necessities of the business. It exists today for the same reason. To meet this responsibility, AT&T is organized to serve the operating companies in matters of engineering and operation, finance, accounting and law, and to assist them in other ways that may help them in conducting their business. Through AT&T, patent rights covering the results of Bell System research in communications are made available to the operating companies. It is the System’s policy also to make licenses under such patents available to others outside the System on reasonable terms and on a non-exclusive basis. Placed in service by Long Lines, this teletypewriter system is the “nerve center” of a large business having main offices located in many states. Among the many AT&T staff services to the telephone companies are those described as “operation and engineering.” These include the entire range of construction, operation, maintenance, methods and practices. The Besides operation and engineering services, other AT&T groups help the telephone companies devise better business and office routines. Still other groups advise the companies on the most efficient methods in accounting, statistical analyses, public relations and advertising activities, and in all the many other phases of the telephone business. Out of the savings of the manyOne of AT&T’s most important services to the operating telephone companies is financial assistance. This is especially true in periods of rapid growth, like the present. In these times the telephone companies need vast sums of money for equipment and buildings to expand and strengthen the nation’s communications network for defense, and to meet the public demand for telephone service. The money for improving and expanding telephone service comes from people in all walks of life. It comes from the savings of the many, not the wealth of the few. Most of this money is invested in securities of the AT&T Company, which in turn supplies funds to the operating companies. By mid-1955 AT&T was owned by about 1,375,000 people. These owners live in all parts of the country, in large cities, small towns and rural areas. They are truly a cross-section of America. Many AT&T share owners are long-time investors. More than a fourth of them have owned their AT&T stock ten years or more. And over 60 per cent of these have increased their investment during those ten years. About 351,000 of the shareholdings represent two persons—husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers—who have invested savings in their joint names. Besides the direct owners of AT&T, many other people—such as insurance company policy holders and bank customers—help indirectly to finance the business through the AT&T shares held by organizations and trustees. The largest AT&T shareholder is a nation-wide investment firm that holds stock for thousands of customers. Among other institutional holders are some 2,100 churches, 1,100 hospitals and homes, over 1,000 schools and libraries, over 500 foundations and charities. DISTRIBUTION OF A. T. &. T. SHARE OWNERS END OF 1954
More than 200,000 Bell System employees own AT&T stock purchased under payroll sayings plans. Many of these, together with other employees, are now buying shares under the current payroll sayings plan. Such widespread ownership by investors helps make possible the good telephone service you get today. Ideals and aimsThe management of the Bell System recognizes its responsibility to treat fairly telephone users, employees and share owners. It believes that the interests of these three great groups of people are linked closely together. Management’s aim and responsibility is to see that telephone users get the most and best possible service. The cost of service must be as low as may be consistent with good wages and working conditions for employees and with a reasonable return for share owners on their investment in the business. The Bell System believes that the most and best possible service means telephone service for the nation that, so far as possible, is free from imperfections, errors or delays—service that enables anyone, anywhere, to pick up a telephone and talk to anyone else, clearly, quickly, at reasonable cost. Coaxial cable can simultaneously transmit hundreds of telephone conversations and several TV programs. |
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