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Old 09-22-2006, 06:31 PM   #22
geodood
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joepole
Yep, Bell Labs was part of AT&T until the breakup, at which point it became part of Western Electric (which changed its name to AT&T Bell Labs or something similar). It also kind of sort of split into Belcore, which provided Bell Labs-like services to the RBOCs, but neither company has been anywhere near as important/influential as Bell Labs was back in the day.

They didn't just invent the transistor there, they invented UNIX (and c), lasers, faxes, and wireless networking, just to name a few things.

By the way, Bell Labs became Western Electric, which became AT&T Bell Labs, which spun off into Lucent, which sucks now and is being bought by Alcatel.
Your telecom knowledge is considerable! We should have drinks! My telco experiences are more "post 1996" but I do love the old lore. Yea it's sad how Lucent spun downhill. Alcatel, has a pretty good name as I recall. I think all the original BellSouth DSLAM's were Alcatel, but I could be wrong. Isn't Alcatel a UK company?

You must work for a wireless company or Centurytel, or Bellsouth or something.
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