As a telephone user, you want to be able to count on your telephone, to be able to call other telephone users any time, anywhere. You expect reliable service at low cost. The kind of service you expect depends on teamwork—among telephone people in your local company, and among the separate companies that make up the Bell System. That is the way the Bell System is organized to serve you. This is what it contains: ■ A group of operating telephone companies, each known as an Associated Company and each serving its particular territory. ■ One of the finest research and development organizations in the world, Bell Telephone Laboratories. Its work consists of research, development and design in the communications field. It creates apparatus that improves telephone service, makes it more efficient, and keeps its cost low. ■ A supply organization, the Western Electric Company. It manufactures or purchases equipment and supplies for the operating companies on a more economical basis than the individual companies could do for themselves. It distributes equipment and supplies to the various companies. It installs equipment in telephone central offices. ■ A headquarters organization, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. AT&T functions as a general staff for the Bell System, co-ordinating the enterprise and assisting the operating companies. It owns most of the stock of most of the operating companies. It owns nearly all the stock of the Western Electric Company, and it shares with Western Electric the ownership of the Bell Laboratories. In conjunction with the Associated Companies, the AT&T Long Lines Department furnishes long distance telephone service and other communication services over its lines and radio relay channels. [Illustration: _Principal elements of the Bell System_] AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY SERVICES TO TELEPHONE COMPANIES UNDER LICENSE CONTRACTS AND OPERATION OF LONG-DISTANCE LINES PROVIDING INTERCONNECTION BETWEEN AND THROUGH TERRITORIES OF THOSE COMPANIES WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY MANUFACTURING, PURCHASING, DISTRIBUTING AND CENTRAL OFFICE INSTALLATION FOR THE BELL SYSTEM BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT WORK FOR THE BELL SYSTEM (INCLUDING WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY) SUBSIDIARY AND OTHER ASSOCIATED TELEPHONE COMPANIES PROVIDE TELEPHONE SERVICES AND FACILITIES WITHIN THEIR RESPECTIVE TERRITORIES WITH THE AID OF SERVICES RECEIVED FROM THE AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY UNDER LICENSE CONTRACTS