le of the 20th century, VAULT CAREER LIBRARY 2005 Vault Inc. Vault Guide to the Top Telecom Employers telephone access was approaching 100 percent. Yet the relationship between the monopolist and its regulators was frequently an uneasy one. Ma Bell starts a family After a close scrape with the law in a 1949 antitrust lawsuit, as well as the introduction of long-distance competition in 1969, the Bell System once again became the subject of regulatory scrutiny in 1974. After years of legal haggling, the suit was finally settled in 1982 when AT&T agreed to sell off its holdings, creating seven regional phone companies that would provide local service within their respective regions. AT&T kept its long-distance service and telephone equipment manufacturing businesses, allowing the "Baby Bell" companies to operate those local telephone exchanges as independent companies. The regulators reasoned that while monopoly protection was still warranted at the local level, competition for AT&T would both benefit consumers and stimulate innovation. (January 2005 marked a family reunion for AT&T and one of its former Baby Bells. That month, SBC announced an agreement in which SBC will acquire AT&T. The transaction combines AT&T's global systems capabilities, corporate and government business, and Internet protocol (IP)-based business with SBC's local exchange, broadband and wireless solutions.) Overnight, AT&T was transformed. The long-distance business became fiercely competitive, with rivals MCI and Sprint steadily eroding AT&T's market share. Yet while prices fell, volume exploded. The increased demand for data communications helped keep AT&T financially strong. The company began a series of high-profile acquisitions, buying computer manufacturer NCR for $7.3 billion in 1991 and McCaw Cellular for $11.5 billion in 1994. McCaw, the largest cellular provider at the time, would be renamed AT&T Wireless. Breakup #2 AT&T's second massive restructuring was announced in 1995. This time, however, it was voluntary. First, AT&T's telec