American Telephone and Telegraph, Inc.
<company, telecommunications, Unix, C> (AT&T) One of the largest US
telecommunications providers. Also noted for being the birthplace of the Unix
operating system and the C and C++ programming languages.
AT&T was incorporated in 1885, but traces its lineage to Alexander Graham Bell
and his invention of the telephone in 1876. As parent company of the former Bell
System, AT&T's primary mission was to provide telephone service to virtually
everyone in the United States. In its first 50 years, AT&T established
subsidiaries and allied companies in more than a dozen other countries. It sold
these interests in 1925 and focused on achieving its mission in the United
States. It did, however, continue to provide international long distance
service.
The Bell System was dissolved at the end of 1983 with AT&T's divestiture of the
Bell telephone companies.
AT&T split into three parts in 1996, one of which is Lucent Tecnologies, the
former systems and equipment portion of AT&T (including Bell Laboratories).
See also 3DO, Advanced RISC Machine, Berkeley Software Distribution, Bell
Laboratories, Concurrent C, Death Star, dinosaurs mating, InterNIC, System V,
Nawk, Open Look, rc, S, Standard ML of New Jersey, Unix International, Unix
conspiracy, USG Unix, Unix System Laboratories.
AT&T Home.
(2002-06-21)
Nearby terms:
American National Standards Institute « American
Society of Mechanical Engineers « American Standard
Code for Information Interchange « American
Telephone and Telegraph, Inc. » American Wire
Gauge » America On-Line, Inc. » America's Multimedia
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