One of the greatest factors in shaping the modern age may well have been the evolution of the telephone industry. The roots of the communication age are found in the history of that evolution, primarily in the United States, and particularly in developments created by one company: American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T).

Early Organization

The telephone industry was not the first to use electricity as the fundamental basis of a communication medium. Telegraphy had been firmly established in the United States and much of the industrialized world before efforts began in the late 1870s to develop telephony as the primary telecommunications industry in the United States. Furthermore, Alexander Graham Bell's technical innovations and U.S. patents in telephony should not overshadow the fact that others deserve as much or more credit for invention of the telephone. Although Europe was slow to adopt...