History
Prior to the Bell System divestiture on January 1, 1984, American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) through its Bell System companies held a natural monopoly for telephone service within the United States. AT&T owned the local loop, including the telephone wiring within the customer premises and the customer telephone equipment. A similar arrangement existed with smaller, regional telephone companies such as GTE.
As a result of deregulation of the telephone system, unbundling of the local loop, and lawsuits by companies wishing to sell third-party equipment to connect to the telephone network, there was a need to delineate the portion of the network which was owned by the customer and the portion owned by the telephone company or the common carrier. Where the portions meet is called the demarcation point.
Read more about this topic: Demarcation Point
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”
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“Like their personal lives, women’s history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others.”
—Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
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