Backgrounder
In today's rapidly changing business environment, many of the most exciting innovations are being spearheaded by AT&T Labs, the long-respected research and development arm of AT&T.
History
The year was 1901...the beginning of a new century. Twenty-five years earlier, Alexander Graham Bell made his historic first call to his assistant, Watson, capping the exciting invention of the telephone. While Bell Telephone prospered in the years following the phone's invention, the company was not alone in the market. By the turn of the century, well over 10,000 rival telephone companies had sprung up to compete for a share of the rapidly growing voice communications marketplace.
The founders of the Bell System quickly rose to meet this competitive threat and to unify communications within the United States. They recognized the need to work toward a concept of universal service that would ultimately allow a caller to pick up a telephone and reach another person anywhere in the world, efficiently and cost-effectively. They began to work toward this concept by making strategic acquisitions and supporting global standards. The founders also realized that to overcome the technological obstacles that were certain to arise in this new industry, they needed a commitment to a long-term research and development effort that would be second to none in the industry. To achieve this, the Bell System established Bell Labs in 1925.
Throughout the next seven decades, Bell Labs was responsible for some of the world's major inventions across a broad spectrum of technologies, including the transistor, the field of Information Theory, the solar cell, and the communications satellite.
In 1996, as part of the "tri-vestiture" that saw AT&T divest its equipment and computer businesses, AT&T inherited the divisions of Bell Labs that focused on the areas of computing, information, and communication science, and the name changed to AT&T Labs. While the name may have changed, AT&T Labs' commitment remains, to create the innovations that drive the AT&T global network to the cutting edge and technologies to transform AT&T and the industry.
Many technologies that AT&T Labs pioneered fueled the "IT Revolution" of the late 1990's. With the new millennium came a renewed interest and appreciation for AT&T's sound business practices and AT&T Labs' legacy of world-class research and innovation. Through the economic uncertainty at the outset of the 21st century, AT&T Labs has been a consistent provider of products and services in areas ranging from IP network management and optical technology to automatic speech recognition and next-generation text-to-speech products.
The research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs continue to give AT&T a significant competitive advantage. Other companies can also take advantage of the expertise at AT&T Labs by licensing technologies and patents from the Labs' impressive portfolio.