Vail fought any and all the competition with vigor. Indeed, over the course of twenty years, the Bell Company would fight over 600 lawsuits...and win ALL of them.
Vail also expanded the business from the New England area west to the towns and cities of the United States. Coupled with these new exchanges, he developed long distance service to connect them. Vail left the company in the late 1880s, but returned in the early 1900s to guide the Bell System to even greater successes as a company that provided, "Universal Service" to anyone wanting a telephone.
Although Western Union refused the offer of Hubbard to buy all the rights to the patents in 1876, they now realized their tremendous mistake and in December of 1877, using Elisha Gray's patents set up the American Speaking Telephone Company. This was clearly an infringement on the Bell patents. Western Union had actually commissioned Thomas Edison to help in the venture and he developed a carbon-button transmitter that was superior to the Bell transmitter.