 in a normal analog phone or fax machine. Most home phone lines are POTS lines. RBOC (pronounced are-bock) is short for Regional Bell Operating Company. In 1875, Alexander Graham Bell (and two others who agreed to finance his inventions) started the Bell Telephone Company. Bell Telephone later became known as the Bell System as it acquired controlling interests in other companies such as Western Electric. In 1885, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) was incorporated to build and operate the U.S.'s original long-distance tele- phone network. In 1899, AT&T acquired Bell. For almost 100 years, AT&T and its Bell System operated as a legally sanctioned, though regulated, monopoly, building what was by all accounts the best telephone system in the world. In 1984, however, a judge-citing antitrust monopoly issues-broke up AT&T's Bell System, known as Ma Bell. The resulting seven companies were known as the RBOCs, or, more commonly, the Baby Bells. AT&T remained a long- distance carrier, or IXC, during the divestiture. However, the Telecommunications Chapter 19: Telecom Nomenclature Deregulation Act of 1996 allowed RBOCs (also called LECs) and long-distance companies to sell local, long-distance, and international services, making these lines very fuzzy. Each of the original seven companies was given a region in which it was allowed to do business. The regions are shown in Figure 19-6. US West Ameritech NYNEX Bell Atlantic Pacific Bell (Pac Bell) BellSouth Southwestern Figure 19-6. RBOC regions Most of the original RBOCs are now part of SBC, which also acquired AT&T, bringing the entire dizzying affair one step closer to a monopoly again. Here's what's become of the seven original RBOCs: Bell Atlantic Bell Atlantic merged with NYNEX in 1996 to become Verizon. Southwestern Bell Southwestern Bell changed its name to SBC in 1995. SBC acquired PacBell in 1996, and has subsequently acquired Ameritech, Southern New England Telecommunications, and AT&T. SBC adopted the name AT&T following the acquisition of that company. NY