Brand - Licensing, Evolution and Domain Names

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. That was the foundation of the company that would become AT&T - a brand that is now synonymous with innovation in communications.

In 1984, the former AT&T agreed to divest its local telephone operations but retain its long distance, R&D and manufacturing arms. From this, SBC Communications Inc. (first known as Southwestern Bell Corp.) was born.

Twelve years later, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 drove major changes in the competitive landscape. SBC expanded its U.S. presence through a series of acquisitions, including Pacific Telesis Group (1997) and Ameritech Corp. (1999). In 2005, SBC acquired AT&T Corp, creating the new AT&T, a leader in global communications for businesses.

The acquisition of BellSouth in 2006 consolidated ownership of Cingular Wireless. And AT&T led one of the most significant transformations in communications since the invention of the telephone ... the birth of the mobile Internet.

And we haven't stopped. In 2013, we bought Cricket to give customers in the growing prepaid market more access to mobile Internet services. In 2015, we completed our purchase of 2 Mexican wireless companies, lusacell and Nextel Mexico. Today, we're spurring smartphone adoption and on our way to becoming a leading wireless provider in that country, too. And our 2015 acquisition of DIRECTV makes us the world's largest pay TV provider.

This rich history supports our ongoing mission: Connect people with their world, everywhere they live, work and play ... and do it better than anyone else.

Today, we're mobilizing video the way we mobilized the Internet ... securing business communications from the smartphone to the cloud ... and making cars, homes, machines, even cities smarter. And we're looking forward with anticipation to the future.