Historically, each of these steps could be carried out via a separate company, and the toll paid by the originating (or in some cases the receiving) caller would be split among the three providers. In the United States, the long-distance connection between the two local telephone company offices was furnished by the Bell System, until that was dismantled in 1984 with the mandated splitting of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) for anti-trust reasons. Since then, especially with the two largest remaining companies – AT&T (the same name, but quite different equipment and service) and Verizon), if the same company provides all three components it keeps the entire charge (toll) paid by the customer. Otherwise, the money received is divided; this is known as intercarrier compensation (ICC) and is intended to keep the telecommunications system functioning, by having every phone company receive compensation for the use of its network.