There is a 'modern day' Bell Labs. Look at Air-Gig (for example). I worked with one of the top AT&T inventors (just earned his 200th U.S. Patent).
Nokia Labs owns what was Lucent, which was the direct descendant of Bell Labs.
AT&T is the combination of several "Baby Bells", including Bellsouth. I worked at Bellsouth (Advanced Networks) in the early-mid 90's. Bellsouth was a technology leader among the Baby Bells (but were too cautious buying other Bell's).
Anyway, there were a ton of innovations at Bellsouth, but Marketing was always one of the biggest drivers, as was Finance. And that is what prevented 'Fiber to the Home', and so many other innovations. Tons of great ideas never escaped the labs, because there was no vision for the market, or fear that one technology would cannibalize other existing revenue streams.