消失的贝尔系统: AT&T 垄断拆分

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分类专栏： signals and systems 文章标签： Bell System

于 2024-08-06 01:41:53 首次发布

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The Breakup of the Bell System 贝尔系统的解体

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Forty years ago this month, the federal government settled a lawsuit with American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T), prompting the breakup of one of the largest and most powerful monopolies of the 19th and 20th centuries. The shift gave rise to many local providers—which, in an ironic twist of fate, began to merge into larger, more powerful regional providers and finally into once-again national networks, albeit controlled by several major players rather than just one. Regardless of its long-term effects, the results of the January 8, 1982, settlement forever changed the way that we communicate in the United States and how we view the modern tech monopoly. Learn more about AT&T’s monopoly history and the breakup of the Bell System below.
四十多年前，联邦政府与美国电话电报公司（AT&T）达成了和解，促使 19 世纪和 20 世纪最大、最强大的垄断企业之一解体。这种转变催生了许多本地供应商 —— 具有讽刺意味的是，它们开始合并为更大、更强大的区域供应商，并最终再次成为全国性网络，尽管由几个主要参与者控制，而不仅仅是一个。无论其长期影响如何，1982 年 1 月 8 日和解的结果永远改变了我们在美国的交流方式以及我们如何看待现代技术垄断。在下面了解更多关于 AT&T 的垄断历史和贝尔系统的解体。

Becoming a Monopoly 成为垄断者

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Before we get into the how and why of the AT&T monopoly breakup, which was then known as the Bell System, let’s go over a little bit of historical context, starting with the invention of the telephone. The U.S. Patent Office awarded the first patent for the telephone to Alexander Graham Bell in March 1876, though historians have debated for years whether credit for the invention should go to Graybar founder Elisha Gray instead. (Bell and Gray filed similar patents at the same time, and Bell narrowly beat Gray through a story of intrigue and alleged bribery.)
在我们深入探讨 AT&T 垄断解体的方式和原因之前，当时被称为贝尔系统，让我们回顾一下历史背景，从电话的发明开始。美国专利局于 1876 年 3 月将电话的第一项专利授予了亚历山大・格雷厄姆・贝尔（Alexander Graham Bell），尽管历史学家多年来一直在争论该发明的功劳是否应该归于 Graybar 的创始人 Elisha Gray。（贝尔和格雷同时申请了类似的专利，贝尔通过一个阴谋诡计和涉嫌贿赂的故事以微弱优势击败了格雷。

Bell’s father-in-law, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, formed the Bell Telephone company the following year. The American Bell Telephone Company came just a few years later. Finally, in 1885, the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) was formally incorporated to provide long-distance service across the United States. Soon, all of American Bell’s capitalization was transferred to AT&T. AT&T became the parent company under which the Bell system housed many of its arms, including research and development (Bell Labs), local and long-distance telecommunications, telegraph (Western Union), and manufacturing (Western Electric).
贝尔的岳父加德纳・格林・哈伯德（Gardiner Greene Hubbard）于次年成立了贝尔电话公司。几年后，美国贝尔电话公司（American Bell Telephone Company）问世。最后，在 1885 年，美国电话电报公司（AT&T）正式成立，以提供美国各地的长途服务。不久，美国贝尔公司的所有资本都转移到了 AT&T。 AT&T 成为母公司，贝尔系统拥有许多部门，包括研发（贝尔实验室），本地和长途电信，电报（西联）和制造业（西部电气）。

AT&T was truly a vertically integrated organization that, for many years, flexed its considerable might to bully and acquire smaller regional companies. As AT&T worked to consolidate its control over the nationwide telephone system throughout the 20th century, it became the target of several monopoly and antitrust lawsuits. In 1913, under threat by the Justice Department, AT&T agreed to sell its controlling stake in Western Union and seek government approval before acquiring more independent phone companies. Other major milestones included the Eisenhower administration’s 1956 decision to drop an antitrust suit against the behemoth and allow it to keep Western Electric (its manufacturing arm) in return for staying out of the computer business. Over the next 20 years, AT&T continued to grow its telephone business, ultimately reaching 90 percent of households in the U.S.
AT&T 确实是一个垂直整合的组织，多年来，它利用其强大的影响力来欺压和收购较小的地区公司。在 20 世纪，AT&T 努力巩固对全国电话系统的控制，并成为多个垄断和反垄断诉讼的目标。在 1913 年，在司法部的威胁下，AT&T 同意出售其在西联电报公司的控股权，并在收购更多独立电话公司之前寻求政府批准。其他主要里程碑包括艾森豪威尔政府在 1956 年决定撤销对这一巨头的反垄断诉讼，并允许其保留西电（其制造部门），作为回报，AT&T 承诺不进入计算机业务。在接下来的 20 年里，AT&T 继续扩大其电话业务，最终覆盖了美国 90% 的家庭。

AT&T Divestiture and ‘Baby Bells’ AT&T 资产剥离和 “Baby Bells”

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However, this détente did not last. Steve Coll, the author of The Deal Of The Century: The Breakup Of AT&T, told NPR in a 2019 interview: “As the computer age blossomed and computers increasingly interacted with the phone system to create new opportunities for consumers, the monopoly seemed like an obstacle to innovation, an obstacle to the future.” By 1974, there was again trouble in paradise—this time in the form of a Justice Department lawsuit to break up the organization once and for all.
然而，这种缓和并没有持续下去。《世纪交易：AT&T 的分手》一书的作者史蒂夫・科尔（Steve Coll）在 2019 年的一次采访中告诉 NPR：“随着计算机时代的蓬勃发展，计算机越来越多地与电话系统互动，为消费者创造新的机会，垄断似乎是创新的障碍，是未来的障碍。到了 1974 年，天堂里再次出现了麻烦 —— 这一次是司法部提起诉讼，要求一劳永逸地解散该组织。

In January 1982, in order to bring the nearly eight-year suit to an end, AT&T agreed to break up its local business into seven smaller regional operating companies known as “Baby Bells.” The divestiture process took two years. When it ended in 1984, AT&T retained only long-distance, Bell Labs, and Western Electric.
1982 年 1 月，为了结束这场长达八年的诉讼，AT&T 同意将其本地业务拆分为七家较小的区域运营公司，称为 “Baby Bells”。资产剥离过程花了两年时间。当它在 1984 年结束时，AT&T 只保留了长途，贝尔实验室和西部电气。

The regional companies that resulted from the AT&T monopoly breakup went through a series of mergers and consolidations over the next 25 years. One major landmark during this period was the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which aimed to spur competition by removing regulatory barriers of entry into any communications market for any company. This expanded the ability of local service providers to compete in long-distance markets, removing the safeguards that were in place to keep each Baby Bell in its own fiefdom. One year later, Bell Atlantic—a Baby Bell that served much of the Eastern Seaboard—expanded into New England via a merger with NYNEX (New York/New England Exchange).
在接下来的 25 年里，AT&T 垄断分拆产生的区域性公司经历了一系列的合并和整合。这一时期的一个重大里程碑是 1996 年《电信法》的通过，该法案旨在通过消除任何公司进入任何通信市场的监管壁垒来刺激竞争。这扩大了本地服务提供商在长途市场上竞争的能力，取消了为使每个 Baby Bell 保持在自己的领地而采取的保障措施。一年后，Bell Atlantic—— 一家服务于东海岸大部分地区的 Baby Bells —— 通过与 NYNEX（纽约 / 新英格兰交易所）合并扩展到新英格兰。

Further consolidation continued throughout the late ’90s and early ’00s. The proliferation of wireless as a new and widely adopted technology caused an arms race as companies competed to expand areas of service. The results can be seen today in the handful of national powerhouses that offer a wide variety of telecommunications services, including landlines, wireless, cable, and fiber-optic internet and television.
在整个 90 年代末和 00 年代初，进一步的整合仍在继续。无线作为一种新的和被广泛采用的技术的激增引发了一场军备竞赛，因为公司竞相扩大服务领域。如今，在少数几个提供各种电信服务的国家强国中，可以看到其结果，包括固定电话、无线、有线、光纤互联网和电视。

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Modern Regulatory Relevance 现代监管相关性

In many ways, the industry has come full circle. Instead of one major company that controls most of the market, there are a few heavy hitters, with smaller regional and local players providing service in between. But this is not to say that the breakup of the Bell System has had no lasting effects—the 1982 deal set a precedent that some experts have cited as a potential avenue of exploration with regard to breaking up major tech giants like Google and Meta.
在许多方面，行业已经回归了原点。现在不是一个主要公司控制大部分市场，而是有几个大型企业，以及一些区域和地方公司提供服务。但这并不是说贝尔系统的解体没有留下任何持久的影响——1982年的交易设定了一个先例，一些专家引用这个先例作为探索拆分像谷歌和 Meta 这样的主要科技巨头的潜在途径。

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