Before AT&T was broken up in 1984 by court order, the Bell System referred to AT&T and all the Bell Telephone companies that were part of it, but had separate names to provide a regional flavor ...

The system connects with 20,000,000 telephones in the U.S., controlling nearly 75% of them. It is linked with 9,000,000 telephones in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Europe, 86% of the world’s total.