AT&T Corp., originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies. During its long history, AT&T was at times the world's largest telephone company, the world's largest cable television operator, and a regulated monopoly. At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, it employed one million people and its revenue was roughly $3 billion annually.
In 2005, AT&T was purchased by Baby Bell SBC Communications for more than $16 billion ($19.4 billion in present-day terms). SBC then rebranded itself as AT&T Inc. Today, AT&T Corporation continues to exist as the long distance subsidiary of AT&T Inc., and its name occasionally shows up in AT&T press releases.
AT&T started with Bell Patent Association, a legal entity established in 1874 to protect the patent rights of Alexander Graham Bell after he invented the telephone system. Originally a verbal agreement, it was formalized in writing in 1875 as Bell Telephone Company.
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation, headquartered at Whitacre Tower in downtown Dallas, Texas. AT&T is the second largest provider of mobile telephone and the largest provider of fixed telephone in the United States, and also provides broadband subscription television services. AT&T is the third-largest company in Texas (the largest non-oil company, behind only ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, and also the largest Dallas company).As of May 2014, AT&T is the 23rd-largest company in the world as measured by a composite of revenues, profits, assets and market value, and the 16th-largest non-oil company.As of 2016, it is also the 18th-largest mobile telecom operator in the world, with over 128.6 million mobile customers.
AT&T was ranked #6 on the 2015 rankings of the world's most valuable brands published by Millward Brown Optimor.
AT&T Inc. began its existence as Southwestern Bell Corporation, one of seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC's) created in 1983 in the divestiture of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (founded 1885, later AT&T Corp.) following the 1982 United States v. AT&T antitrust lawsuit. Southwestern Bell changed its name to SBC Communications Inc. in 1995. In 2005, SBC purchased former parent AT&T Corp. and took on its branding, with the merged entity naming itself AT&T Inc. and using the iconic AT&T Corp. logo and stock-trading symbol.
AT&T (formerly known as, and still commonly referred to as, Pattison) is the southern terminus of SEPTA's Broad Street Line, located at 3600 South Broad Street, at the intersection of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue in the South Philadelphia area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Naming rights for the station were sold in 2010 to AT&T for five years.
The station is located within short walking distance of the Sports Complex. One block east of the station is Citizens Bank Park, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies, and Lincoln Financial Field, the home of the Philadelphia Eagles. AT&T Station is also next to the Wells Fargo Center, the home of the Philadelphia Flyers and Philadelphia 76ers.
The station has an unusually wide and long platform to accommodate crush capacity crowds that occur regularly after events at the Sports Complex. There is an additional, infrequently-used platform on a level immediately beneath the regular service platform which is visible from the gated stairways along the length of the platform.
AT&T refers to several related companies providing telecommunications services: