<P> The history of AT&T dates back to the invention of the telephone itself . The Bell Telephone Company was established in 1879 by Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone . Bell also established American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885, which acquired the Bell Telephone Company and became the primary phone company in the United States . This company maintained a monopoly on telephone service in the United States until anti-trust regulators split the company in 1982 . </P> <P> AT&T Corporation was eventually purchased by one of its Baby Bells, the former Southwestern Bell, in 2005 and the combined company became known as AT&T Inc . </P>

Who founded the company that eventually became at&t