Opinion ID: 543181
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Breakup of AT & T

Text: 60 On January 1, 1984, AT & T divested itself of its 22 local exchange telephone companies--the Bell Operating Companies or BOCs--as part of a settlement of the government's 1974 antitrust suit against AT & T. United States v. AT & T, 552 F.Supp. 131 (D.D.C.1982), aff'd, 460 U.S. 1001, 103 S.Ct. 1240, 75 L.Ed.2d 472 (1983); see also United States v. Western Elec. Co., 569 F.Supp. 990 (D.D.C.1983); United States v. Western Elec. Co., 569 F.Supp. 1057 (D.D.C.) aff'd, 464 U.S. 1013, 104 S.Ct. 542, 78 L.Ed.2d 719 (1983). Upon divestiture, the 22 BOCs were grouped into seven independent regional holding companies. 11 The district court retained jurisdiction to approve implementation of the MFJ, 12 to enforce its terms, and to entertain future requests for removal or modification of the decree's restrictions. 61 Under the MFJ, AT & T retained its long-distance telephone operations, its CPE manufacturing business, and Bell Laboratories. AT & T, now divested of the BOCs, was free to enter virtually all other facets of the marketplace, including data processing. The divested BOCs were restricted generally to providing local exchange telephone service and other natural monopoly service[s] actually regulated by tariff. 552 F.Supp. at 227-28. Under the MFJ, the BOCs could not provide inter-exchange telephone service, or offer information services, a category that substantially overlaps, but may not be identical to, the FCC's enhanced services. 13 Id. at 227. 62 The antitrust court initially left open the question whether the BOCs should conduct their unregulated activities through separate corporate subsidiaries. In accepting the MFJ, the court found that issue more appropriately a concern of regulatory agencies such as the FCC. 552 F.Supp. at 193 n. 251. In a subsequent order, the antitrust court imposed corporate separation as a condition on the grant of waivers that permitted a company to engage in non-communications-related activities. United States v. Western Elec. Co., 592 F.Supp. 846, 870-71 (D.D.C.1984), appeal dismissed, 777 F.2d 23 (D.C.Cir.1985). In 1988, the antitrust court permitted the BOCs to offer voice messaging services, voice storage and retrieval and electronic mail services--all of which are enhanced services under the FCC's definitions. United States v. Western Elec. Co., 714 F.Supp. 1, 22 (D.D.C.1988), aff'd in part, rev'd on other grounds, 900 F.2d 283 (D.C.Cir.1990) (per curiam).