Each Baby Bell owned and operated all of the local telephone lines for a given geographic area. 예를 들어 북동부의 벨 아틀란틱, 캘리포니아의 퍼시픽 벨, 텍사스의 사우스웨스턴 벨이 그러했습니다. But the Telecommunications Act of was supposed to change all of that, opening up each region to competition.