The Breakup of the Bell System: How Telephones Got Caught in Between

Telephones Caught in Between

In the early 1980s, the American telephone industry underwent a chaotic transformation. This article explores the shift from leased, centrally-managed telephones to customer-owned devices, focusing on the Customer Premises Equipment. It examines why AT&T leased phones, the technical and economic reasons behind the practice, and how deregulation and the divestiture of the Bell System changed the relationship between phone companies and consumers, leaving behind a legacy of telephones as consumer electronics.