Ever wonder how your telephone company relates to other telecommunication companies? Think that AT&T's monopoly was successfully broken up by the Feds back in the 80s? And do you know what Sprint was originally named after?
Here's a look at the (convoluted) family tree of telephone companies. You'd be surprised at finding out who actually owns whom: Link (large pic)
Western Electric gear is quite collectible. As much of their gear was built to be leased, it was built to very high standards to reduce servicing requirements.
It's worth including, I think, given that Western Electric was a *huge* company for a while and even ventured into the personal computer market.