Re: Cincinnati Bell and SNET (was Cingular & at&t)

>> While it is true that pre-divestiture AT&T owned less than 50% of
>> Cincinnati Bell and Connecticut's SNET (Southern New England Tel), and >> that Judge Greene treated each one "separately" for the 1984 >> divestiture, AT&T did consider both to be "Bell" telcos prior to >> 1984. Both of them were fully able to participate in Western Electric >> and Bell Labs licensing, patents, trademarks, products, technology, >> etc. Both of these "partially AT&T held" telcos also used the "Bell" >> logo all throughout the pre-1984 "Bell System" history. > I believe that the AT&T's ownership and influence was strong enough > that those companies appeared to be just like other Bell companies. > Despite the Bell Systems very extensive standardization* there were > differences between the individual companies and even within a > company. Part of this came from state PUC mandates. In terms of > business office computerization, some companies used Univac, some used > IBM and obviously not a standard set of commercial (billing, payroll) > software.

I can assure you that Cincinnati Bell and SNET were well aware that they were "associated" companies, not subsidiaries. SWBT had a program, at least in certain departments, to send managers to AT&T in New York for a month for a sort of familiarization and to understand what AT&T headquarters did.

Of course, some of the AT&T groups didn't know exactly what to do with these visitors, but several times I was given the assignment of calling the different companies to give them instructions or information.

The responses from Cincinnati Bell and SNET were significantly different than those of the other Bell companies, which were owned all or almost all by AT&T. Cincinnati Bell and SNET would simply thank you for the information and might or might not do what AT&T wanted.

What defined a "Bell company" was the "license agreement," in which AT&T granted the associated company the right to use the "Bell" name and patents and various other rights and obligations. (I was the keeper of a good deal of historical information and documentation about Bell in Oklahoma, and I came across the original "license agreement" dating from 1904 or 1905 making the Pioneer Telephone Company, formerly an independent company, a Bell company under the name of Pioneer Telephone and Telegraph Company. This was concurrent with the acquisition of Pioneer by AT&T.)

Cincinnati Bell, SNET and Bell of Canada were the three companies that had the "license agreement" with AT&T but were not owned and controlled by AT&T. Eventually AT&T's ownership of Bell Canada fell to 4 per cent or less; for Cincinnati Bell and SNET I believe it was a little higher but both companies were public companies with stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com