More than any other invention of the past 150 years, the telephone has transformed how we communicate and conduct business. But how was it invented, and why did it have such a profound impact? We'll explore Alexander Graham Bell's groundbreaking 1875 concept for transmitting sound over an electric wire, his struggles to commercialize the telephone with his father-in-law, Gardiner Hubbard, and his rivalry with inventors Elisha Gray and Thomas Edison. We will also examine the rise and fall of AT&T as a corporate giant and the evolution from wired networks to today's cellular and smartphone technologies.