About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is one of the largest provider of both local and long distance telephone services, wireless service, and DSL Internet access in the United States with 71.4 million customers. In 2005, "Baby Bell" SBC Communications Inc. purchased former "Ma Bell" AT&T Corporation and then changed the name of the company after the merger to the more iconic AT&T moniker and the T stock-trading symbol (for "telephone").

The current AT&T includes eleven of the original Bell Operating Companies, and the original long distance division. While it reconstitutes much of the former Bell System, AT&T Inc. lacks the vertical integration of the historic AT&T Corp. which prompted the antitrust suit and breakup in 1984.

The company was honored at the 2008 Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for development of coaxial cable technology.

AT&T Inc. was founded in 1983 as Southwestern Bell Corporation, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. It was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies, or "Baby Bells". The company — a holding company for Southwestern Bell Telephone Company was incorporated by AT&T Corporation as a result of U.S. antitrust action against their company in 1983. It took full control of Southwestern Bell Telephone on January 1, 1984.[4]

In 1993, Southwestern Bell Corp. moved its headquarters to San Antonio, Texas, and, during its annual meeting of stockholders in 1995, the company announced that its name would be changed to SBC Communications, Inc. The name change was an effort to reinforce the company's national and global reach and the company stated not only that "SBC" was not an acronym for Southwestern Bell Corporation but also that it did not stand for anything at all.

SBC corporate logo, 1997–2001SBC then proceeded (as permitted by the Telecommunications Act of 1996) to acquire fellow Baby Bell Pacific Telesis, the Regional Bell operating company serving Nevada and California, in 1997 and the former independent Bell System franchise SNET (Southern New England Telephone).

SBC then announced plans to acquire Ameritech, the Regional Bell operating company serving Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, and told the FCC that it would allow competitors access to local markets where it had had a monopoly if the FCC would allow them to acquire Ameritech. The FCC agreed and in May 1998, SBC and Ameritech announced the merger would move forward. After making several organizational changes (such as the sale of Ameritech Wireless to GTE) to satisfy state and Federal regulators, the two merged on October 8, 1999. The FCC later fined SBC Communications $6 million for failure to comply with agreements made in order to secure approval of the merger.

On November 1, 1999, SBC became a part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

SBC corporate logo, 1995–1997; 2001–2005In 2002, SBC ended marketing its operating companies under different names, and simply opted to give its companies different doing business as names based on the state (a practice already in use by Ameritech since 1993), and it gave the holding companies it had purchased d/b/a names based on their general region.

On June 27, 2008, AT&T announced plans to relocate its corporate headquarters to Dallas, Texas.

About West Coast Engineering

For over 23 years, West Coast Engineering (WCE) has been supplying electronics to OEMs, CEMs and distributors worldwide. Located in Hawthorne California, near the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), West Coast Engineering has established itself as a premier independent distributor specializing in providing electronic components for the military, aeronautical, medical, automotive and commercial manufacturing industries. AT&T is one of the hundreds of manufacturers that WCE carries on its linecard.

WCE has the techology and resources to handle any size transaction, no matter how big or small.

Quick Facts

• Founded: 1984
• Headquarters: Hawthorne, CA
• Other Locations: Futain, Shenzhen ▪ China PRC ▪ Brazil

West Coast Engineering is committed to providing the highest quality service to customers with its large diverse inventory stocked in its ISO9001:2000 and ESD compliant 70,000 sq. ft. warehouse. Year after year, West Coast Engineering has been considered a top independent distributor because of its principled reputation built on longstanding relationships with a dedicated customer base.

WCE's strategies differ from any other independent distributors. Listed below are some of the added measures that WCE takes to make sure that OEMs, CEMs and distributors have peace of mind when placing orders for electornic components, selling excess inventory, forming strategic alliances, and purchasing RoHS or
non-RoHS parts.