“Connecting Changes Everything.” At AT&T, that isn’t just a line – it’s our calling. For 150 years, connecting people has been at the heart of what we do.
Next month, we’ll celebrate a pivotal milestone: 150 years since our founder, Alexander Graham Bell, made the first phone call. His startup, Bell Telephone Company, was created a year later, and eventually became American Telephone & Telegraph.
When you look across that full arc of history, the transformation is remarkable. What began with a single call has grown into massive volumes of data moving across networks every second – powering everything from everyday check-ins and life-changing announcements to urgent, time-sensitive decisions. In fact, today, calls make up a small portion of the traffic carried on our network, as text messages, data and video dominate modern communications. In 2025, approximately three times more texts than calls traveled over our network.
But here’s what hasn’t changed: we often notice connectivity most when we don’t have it. When the power goes out. When a storm hits. When someone needs help right now.
That’s why I’m especially proud of the work AT&T has done over the decades to not only keep our customers connected, but support first responders and emergency service providers, helping communities stay connected in the moments that matter most. That work continues today.
AT&T now serves roughly 100 million customers, and we’re continuing to invest to help lead the next era of advanced connectivity. We’re investing at historic levels - $145 billion between 2021 and 2025 (including capital investment and acquisitions of wireless spectrum) to deliver unmatched coverage. With AT&T, you’ll get the connectivity you depend on, the deals you want, and the prompt service you deserve, guaranteed or we make it right. While others try to catch up, we’re not slowing down.
A lot has changed over the decades, but one thing remains true: AT&T is driven by a culture of service and a commitment to putting our customers first. Period. Alexander Graham Bell still inspires us today to create new, faster and better ways to connect. The best is yet to come.
In the spirit of celebrating 150 years of connection, here are a few historic “firsts” made possible by AT&T.
A look back at our legacy
- In 1915, the first commercial trans-continental telephone call between New York and San Francisco.
- In 1927, the first commercial trans-Atlantic call.
- In 1962, Vice President Lyndon Johnson answered the first satellite call, with an AT&T executive on the other end of the line.
- In 1968, AT&T established the first 911 system to improve emergency response times.
- In 1969, President Richard Nixon called Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon.
- In the early 1970s, researchers at Bell Telephone Laboratories combined room-temperature lasers with ultrapure glass fibers developed at Corning to produce the first fiber-optic telephone cable – transmitting information with light instead of electricity. Today, fiber optics are core to almost all advanced telecommunications infrastructure.
- In 2017, AT&T partnered with the federal government to build FirstNet—America’s public safety network. Today, FirstNet covers more first responders than any other network,* giving them priority and preemption and innovative mission critical technologies when they need them the most.
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