nce ser- vice and finally, for local service, the Bell System's strong but inflexible structure became its weakness. The layers of management made it difficult to reach a deci- sion quickly. The uniformity of products and procedures throughout the United States prevented different parts of the or- ganization from responding to conditions in the local marketplace. The tariffing of all services required that the Bell System obtain approval from each state's public utilities commission prior to offering a new service. Brand new Custom Calling Services avail- able from home telephones were introduced in 1969: Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Speed Calling and Three Way Calling. More than thirty years later, the local telephone companies are still of- fering these same four services as "advanced" capabilities. And the business office is still pretty much the same as it was in the late sixties. The main difference is that customer records are now accessed by computer instead of paper files. As monopolies, the Bell System telephone companies were regulated cost-based businesses. If they wanted to raise rates, they had to obtain approval from the government regulatory bodies and first had to make a case for why the rate increase was needed. The notion of making large profits did not exist, since it was not permitted. Thus, the Bell System was not the best training ground for the development of entrepreneurial skills. Many years after the AT&T divestiture of the Bell System companies and the de- regulation of the telecommunications industry, some employees of the former Bell System companies still think of their business as it was. They have been challenged to adjust it to keep up with the changing marketplace and increased competition. The Telecom Handbook < 307 HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Getting back to the telephone company business office in the 1970's, if customers hinted that they were going to buy their own telephone system, we had a special "hot line" number to call to report this immediately. Someone from the telephone