products other manufacturing businesses were making and selling. Competition was a one-way street. Other companies could use Bell facilities and discoveries to benefit their business, but AT&T was forbidden to start any new enterprise that might be construed as taking advantage of its size, skill, and knowledge. Big and powerful though it was, the 22 Bell operating companies were not the only ones in the business. At the time, almost 1500 independent companies provided service to some 35 million sub- scribers. The 1982 Consent Decree did not apply to these companies, but they were impacted in many ways because of working relation- ships with various parts of the Bell System. 1983 was a year of planning and preparing for January 1, 1984. This was the date of start of business for the Bell Systems' 22 operating companies. Each entity was organized under one of the seven newly created regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs). *Carterfone and Carterfone Decision. Carterfone is a device that enables acoustic coupling between a telephone and a mobile or two-way radio. Strongly objected to by the Bell System, only a few thousand were ever made. Brought before the FCC, it provoked a landmark decision in 1968 when the Commission ruled that not only Carterfones, but also other acoustically coupled devices that were not owned or provided by the telephone company could be connected to the public telephone network if they were privately beneficial and not publicly harmful. The ruling led to establishment of Part 68 of the FCC's Rules. See Newton, Harry. Newton's Telecom Dictionary. New York: CMP Books, 2002. 2 INTERNET AND TELECOM: A BRIEF HISTORY Assets, liabilities, and equity of AT&T were partitioned off into eight new corporate entities. One share of stock was replaced with eight shares of the new entities. A single listing on the New York Stock Exchange turned into eight. AT&T stock now represented equipment manufacturing and long distance businesses. Seven new stock listings including Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSout