Bell Telephone Laboratories - Find New Ways to Use the Phone |
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America's interstate highway system and telephone system are often named as two of the most important factors in building an economy that reigned over the rest of the world. Together, they constituted a monumental logistical synergy that enables planning and implementing coast-to-coast transportation of goods and services that could exploit local concentrations of talent and resources and have the capability of distributing it across the country and around the world quickly and cheaply. Bell Telephone Laboratories (Labs) ran many advertisements in print, on radio, and on television pitching the major role it played in the big scheme of things. One statement in this promo appearing in a 1949 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine encourages telephone users to discover new ways to utilize the equipment. Facsimile (fax) was already in a primarily experimental mode, but shortly thereafter it became a fundamental way of exchanging documents quickly when land and air mail was not fast enough. Xerox introduced the first commercially available fax machines in 1964 (LDX - Long Distance Xerography). Once personal computers became readily available in the 1980s, modems facilitated data exchange via telephone lines, opening up another boom in phone line usage. There was a time in the middle to late 1990s during the Tech Boom when a newly formed mass of online "day traders" dominated phone lines by having dedicated second (and third or more) circuits to their homes, which resulted in some people not even being able to get a single line activated when moving to a new location. I know about that personally after having to wait nearly two months one time in 1996(7?) just for primary phone service to my house because there were no available circuits. The Future Holds Great Promise
The people of America have put billions of dollars of their savings into building their telephone system. They have learned more and more ways to use the telephone to advantage, and have continuously encouraged invention and initiative to find new paths toward new horizons. They have made the rendering of telephone service a public trust; at the same time, they have given the telephone companies, under regulation, the freedom and resources they must have to do their job as well as possible. In this climate of freedom and responsibility, the Bell System has provided service of steadily increasing value to more and more people. Our policy, often stated, is to give the best possible service at the lowest cost consistent with financial safety and fair treatment of employees. We are organized as we are in order to carry that policy out. Bell Telephone Laboratories lead the world in improving communication devices and techniques. Western Electric Company provides the Bell operating companies with telephone equipment of the highest quality at reasonable prices, and can always be counted on in emergencies to deliver the goods whenever and wherever needed.
Similarly, the financial good health of the Bell System over a period of many years has been to the advantage of the public no less than the stockholders and employees. It is equally essential and in the public interest that telephone rates and earnings now and in the future be adequate to continue to pay good wages, protect the billions of dollars of savings invested in the System, and attract the new capital needed to meet the service opportunities and responsibilities ahead. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done in the near future and the System's technical and human resources to do it have never been better. Our physical equipment is the best in history, though still heavily loaded, and we have many new and improved facilities to incorporate in the plant. Employees are competent and courteous. The long-standing Bell System policy of making promotions from the ranks assures the continuing vigor of the organization. With these assets, with the traditional spirit of service to get the message through, and with confidence that the American people understand the need for maintaining on a sound financial basis the essential public services performed by the Bell System, we look forward to providing a service better and more valuable in the future than at any time in the past. We pledge our utmost efforts to that end. Leroy A. Wilson, President American Telephone and Telegraph Company. (From the 1948 Annual Report.)
Bell Telephone Laboratories Exploring and Inventing, Devising and Perfecting, for Continued Improvements and Economies in Telephone Service
Posted October 5, 2021 |
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