Ma-bell

Ma Bell AKA Bell Telephone Company

[related: AT&T, Alexander Graham Bell, Elisha Gray, Hacktiverting]

Multi-faceted techno-communications conglomerate founded in 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell. At its commercial height in the early 1980's, Ma Bell consisted of over 60 subsidiaries, employed over one million people, and was valuated at almost half-a-trillion dollars - greater than the GDP of the entire continent of Africa at the time. Throughout the majority of the 20th century, the company had a complete monopoly on phone service throughout the United States, in part owing to the arcane patent regulations present at its founding ^[1]. In 1982, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ/FBI) filed an extensive, but largely inept antitrust lawsuit against the Bell Telephone Company, causing the company to splinter into seven independent companies - commonly referred to as "Baby Bells" - including the widely visible AT&T. Through a variety of semi-legal and purposefully opaque channels, these subsidiaries remained controlled by a shadow central entity referred to as Bell Systems or, informally and most commonly, Ma Bell. The conglomerate's reach extended into a number of high profile corporate partnerships, including Memorex and Knight Ridder, as well a tumultuous on-again/off-again relationship with its primary competitor, the AI-giant IBM.

Despite its federal divestiture, Ma Bell functioned as both an essentially lawless extension of the United States government (DOJ/FBI and CIA) throughout the latter half of the 20th century, acting in its own self-interest to protect various assets and eliminate its corporate competitors and various civilian threats.

The purported FBI-assisted infiltration of Knight Ridder in order to sabotage the launch of the videotext-based digital mall Spectre Complex following the termination of an exclusive deal with AT&T's ill-fated Sceptre console.
Anti-IBM back-end dealings related to the Pentagon's unwise and ill-fated approval of COBOL as the semi-official business computer language system of the United States government - a dictum that inadvertently laid the groundwork for Y2K/Millennium Rift.

Central to Ma Bell's self-protective efforts was its collusion with the United States government to upend and undermine the efforts of various hacking, phreaking, and phracking communities - an effort that, at times, involved the subsequent hiring of targeted hackers post-incarceration4. The company's cold war with civilian hackers began in the 1950's with the advent of automation of their telephone switchboards - a system based on relatively easily decipherable and replicable signal tones. Over the second half of the 20th century, Ma Bell lodged countless lawsuits and shadow prosecutions, including but no limited to the following:

Suing the hacker vagabond Captain Crunch using evidence gained via FBI surveillance, prior to his ill-advised hiring by competitor IBM.
The surveillance of Joybubbles, a blind phone phreaker with perfect pitch, beginning at the age of 9.
The massive and far-reaching prosecution of over 150 civilian phreakers following the public release of the Bell System Technical Journal – a supposed leak later revealed to be a simple in-house clerical error.
The prosecution of [[ramparts-magazine|Ramparts], a far left Catholic magazine, by the FBI following its publishing of various long distance calling schematics.
The attempted illegal regulation of T-1 Carrier lines in New York City to prevent access by the various hacking groups that frequented the @Cafe including the Legion of Doom and Masters of Deception.
The alleged corporate sabotage of the charmingly lawless start-up DSP MindVox following an absurdly lucrative but sequentially refused Ma Bell buyout offer.
The FBI surveillance and professional blacklisting of writer Studs Terkel following his attempted litigation of Ma Bell's public release of phone records.
The false charging of Phiber Optik in the company's Global Server Network Crash.
The absurd and widely discredited Operation SunDevil: a COINTEL-led operation leading to the prosecution of Steven Jackson Games and its employee Loyd Blankenship, an active hacker and member of the Legion of Doom.
The vindictive, intentional sabotage of Cinemax's late-night Skinemax programming line-up post-acquisition from competitor Time-Warner Satellite Productions (WASP)6.

↑ E.G. Alexander Graham Bell filed his original "phonautograph" patent, a flimsy document consisting almost entirely of rudimentary hand drawn diagrams, mere minutes before Elisha Gray filed a robust application outlining a telephone that employed a water transmitter. The attendant patent officer awarded Bell patent, inadvertently sharing Gray's caveat document in the process. Bell later amended his patent, including additional hand drawings depicting core aspects of Gray's design. As a result, Bell essentially laid legal claim to both the invention of the telephone generally and Gray's ideas

[1] E.G. Alexander Graham Bell filed his original "phonautograph" patent, a flimsy document consisting almost entirely of rudimentary hand drawn diagrams, mere minutes before Elisha Gray filed a robust application outlining a telephone that employed a water transmitter. The attendant patent officer awarded Bell patent, inadvertently sharing Gray's caveat document in the process. Bell later amended his patent, including additional hand drawings depicting core aspects of Gray's design. As a result, Bell essentially laid legal claim to both the invention of the telephone generally and Gray's ideas

[1]