Yes, our phones were rented,
but we could keep them when we moved if we wanted to if they were a desk type, or a phone co. tech. would come and remove your wall mounted phone and re install it at your new address. They almost never broke.
Western Electric was the equipment manufacturer, also an AT&T division.
The phone I mentioned above is called the "noteworthy" model. Mine is touchtone dial. They also came rotary dial first.
Central zone switching offices were also ran by AT&T.
Each state had it's own Bell Telephone division.
Outlying rural areas had General Telephone service and GTE telephones. The phone styles were different from AT&T phones.
Before 1983, long distance charges ran about 6 cents per minute. Also, circle calling was offered with different zones according to where people you called most often lived.
Certain prefix (first 3 numbers) zones could call a larger local area no extra charge, but a "zone call" though not long distance, may have cost as much as long distance.
After the AT&T break up, you kept your local line service, according to your state but had to choose from other long distance carriers such as MCI, Ameritech, etc.
The new divisions were Ameritech for the Mid west and Great lakes, Bell South, Souhtwestern Bell, etc. You still got your phones from your local company, but eventually, phones were sold at retail stores. Most being imported from Japan, etc.
I never had a lower phone bill following the break up.
Personally, I think it was all a rigged money grab scheme to reboot the former AT&T shares of stock at lower IPO's and have then all go up from there.
Those with a lot of AT&T shares were earning big dividends under the MA Bell monopoly.
Remember, follow the money. Many older AT&T employees were retiring about that time also. My uncle, a WW2 gunner in Germany worked there from 1945 to 1984. He gave me the low down.
He knew how all the trunk lines worked and ran. He and his team spliced in the phone systems for skyscrapers from under ground, and in the buildings.
