AT&T Divestiture (Bell System Breakup)

Under a 1982 consent decree settling a U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit, AT&T's Bell System monopoly on American telephone service was broken up on January 1, 1984, into AT&T itself and seven independent regional Baby Bell companies. Often called the largest corporate breakup in history at the time, it ended a decades-long telephone monopoly and opened U.S. long-distance and equipment markets to competition, reshaping the American telecommunications industry.