The AT&T Corporation, formerly known as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company is the largest telecommunications company in the United States, and a worldwide leader in communications services. Its main businesses include long-distance services, AT&T Wireless Services, AT&T WorldNet services, AT&T Solutions consulting services, and the AT&T Universal Card. Until divestiture, January 1, 1984, AT&T was the parent company of the Bell System. From 1984 until 1996, AT&T was an integrated provider of communications services and products, network equipment and computer systems. On September 20, 1995, AT&T announced that it would be splitting into three companies over the subsequent fifteen months. These companies are: today's AT&T, which provides communication services; Lucent Technologies, a systems and technology company, which provides communications products; and NCR Corp., in the computer business. Lucent became an independent company on October 1, 1996, and NCR became an independent company on December 31, 1996. AT&T was incorporated on March 3, 1885, in New York as a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company. Its original purpose was to manage, and expand the burgeoning toll, or long distance, business of American Bell and its licensees. It continued as the "long-distance company" until December 30, 1899, when in a corporate reorganization, it assumed the business and property of American Bell and became the parent company of the Bell System. In 1982, the United States district court for the District of Columbia announced its decision in the United States versus AT&T, ordering the divestiture of AT&T as delineated in the Modified Final judgment. The divested Regional Bell Operating Companies are now seeking legislation, which would effectively place enforcement of the MFJ into the hands of the Federal Communications Commission.On January 1, 1984, AT&T was divested of its exchange telecommunications operat...
