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 distance telephone service and other communication services over
its lines and radio relay channels.
[Illustration: _Principal elements of the Bell System_]