AT&T Archives: The Phone Boom of the 1950s

For more from the AT&T Tech Channel, visit During World War II, not only were a vast majority of the Bell System’s facilities and resources diverted to the war effort, but customers’ reliance on and acceptance of a nationwide telephone network also increased dramatically. Demand for new domestic telephone service during the war was huge, and the Bell System had no supply to fulfill those requests. To catch up to the demand when the war ended, the Bell System had to amp u