A RBOC (Regional Bell Operating Company) is a descriptive term for a telephone service provider created by a forced divestiture by the American Telegraph and Telephone Company (AT&T) in 1984. The giant corporation was accused by the Department of Justice of being a monopoly, illegal under the US anti-trust laws.
The accusation was brought in 1982 and AT&T spent over 350 million dollars in litigation before losing its case. Ordered to divest itself of all of its wholly-owned local exchanges, the corporation lost much of its value on the stock market and entered into a period of what many see now as government harassment.
The break-up in 1984, far from making things cheaper for American consumers, saw a steady rise in prices. In all, 164 small local exchanges were created. Seven relatively large ‘Baby Bells’, or regional operating companies, handled most national communications once under the umbrella of AT&T.
Today mergers and sales have resulted in four RBOCs, which face competition from many other providers including cable and wireless providers. Mobile phone and internet service have become major parts of our communication industry.
AT&T lost its business preeminence and kept its presence alive with providing long distance service to customers of local exchanges, who could elect their long distance carrier, and with prepaid phone calling cards. Today the former communications giant is owned by one of its spin-off RBOCs.
Although service providers are fiercely competitive, rates are much higher than in the days of AT&T, and many services have been lost. The days when you could call the operator for free assistance, or even to ask the time, are long gone.
You may be getting your local or your mobile service from an ROBC (Regional Bell Operating Company). The history of achievement and downfall of AT&T is interesting from both a commercial and a political vantage point.