The
breakup of the Bell System was mandated on January 8, 1982, by an agreed
consent decree providing that
AT&T Corporation would, as had been initially proposed by AT&T, relinquish control of the
Bell Operating Companies that had provided local telephone service in the United States and Canada up until that point. This effectively took the monopoly that was the
Bell System and split it into entirely separate companies that would continue to provide telephone service. AT&T would continue to be a provider of
long distance service, while the now independent
Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) would provide local service, and would no longer be directly supplied with equipment from AT&T subsidiary
Western Electric.