Related Research Articles
GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing further back than that, until 2000, when it was acquired by Bell Atlantic; the combined company took the name Verizon.
The Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC) are the result of United States v. AT&T, the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against the former American Telephone & Telegraph Company. On January 8, 1982, AT&T Corp. settled the suit and agreed to divest its local exchange service operating companies. Effective January 1, 1984, AT&T Corp.'s local operations were split into seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies known as the Baby Bells.
Pacific Telesis Group was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies, sometimes also referred to as "RBOCs" or "Baby Bells", created in 1983 in preparation of the breakup of AT&T as a holding company for Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell, Pacific Telesis International and several other non-regulated companies including PacTel Mobile Services and PacTel InfoSystems. It was acquired by SBC Communications in 1997.
British Columbia Telephone Company and later BC Tel was the legal operating name for the telephone company operating throughout the province of British Columbia, Canada. For most of its history, BC Tel served as one of several regional monopolies in Canada. In 1985 the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruled to once again allow competition in long-distance telephone service. In 1998, BC Tel merged with Telus to become the second largest telecommunications company in Canada.
The breakup of the Bell System was mandated on January 8, 1982, by a consent decree providing that AT&T Corporation would, as had been initially proposed by AT&T, relinquish control of the Bell Operating Companies, which had provided local telephone service in the United States. This effectively took the monopoly that was the Bell System and split it into entirely separate companies that would continue to provide telephone service. AT&T would continue to be a provider of long-distance service, while the now-independent Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), nicknamed the "Baby Bells", would provide local service, and would no longer be directly supplied with equipment from AT&T subsidiary Western Electric.
Wisconsin Bell, Inc. is the name of the Bell Operating Company serving Wisconsin. It is owned by AT&T through AT&T Teleholdings, originally known as Ameritech.
Embarq Corporation was the largest independent local exchange carrier in the United States, serving customers in 18 states and providing local, long-distance, high-speed data and wireless services to residential and business customers. It had been formerly the local telephone division (LTD) of Sprint Nextel until 2006, when it was spun off as an independent company. Embarq produced more than $6 billion in revenues annually, and had approximately 18,000 employees. It was based in Overland Park, Kansas.
Verizon South, Inc. is a Verizon operating company providing local telephone services to portions of Virginia and North Carolina in the United States.
Frontier Midstates, Inc. is a telephone operating company of Frontier Communications serving Indiana and Michigan. It was originally owned by Contel, and later purchased by GTE, Verizon, and then sold to Frontier.
Lumen Technologies, Inc. is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, that offers communications, network services, security, cloud solutions, voice, and managed services. The company is a member of the Fortune 500 and the S&P 500 index until 2023. Its communications services include local and long-distance voice, broadband, Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), private line, Ethernet, hosting, data integration, video, network, public access, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), information technology, and other ancillary services. Lumen also serves global enterprise customers across North America, Latin America, EMEA, and Asia Pacific.
CenturyTel of Central Indiana, Inc., is a telephone operating of CenturyLink providing local telephone services to the communities of Brookston, Battle Ground, and Kempton in Indiana. The company was founded in 1954 as the Central Indiana Telephone Company Incorporated, later changing its name to Century Telephone of Central Indiana, Inc., in 1996, and then to its current name in 1998.
Embarq Missouri, Inc. is a telephone operating company providing local telephone services in Kansas and Missouri owned by CenturyLink.
CenturyLink of Florida, Inc. is a telephone operating company providing local telephone services in Florida owned by Lumen Technologies.
CenturyLink of Minnesota, Inc. is a telephone operating company providing local telephone services in Minnesota.
Brightspeed of Northcentral Ohio, Inc., is a telephone operating company owned by Brightspeed that provides local telephone service in Ohio, including Amherst, Lorain, and Vermillion.
CenturyTel of the Gem State, Inc. is a telephone operating company providing local telephone services in Idaho and northern Nevada owned by CenturyLink.
CenturyTel of Colorado, Inc. is a telephone operating company owned by CenturyLink that provides local telephone service in Colorado, including Pagosa Springs. The company is separate from CenturyTel of Eagle and Qwest Corporation, the other telephone companies CenturyLink owns in Colorado.
Pacific Telecom, Inc., originally Telephone Utilities, Inc. and now CenturyTel of the Northwest, Inc., was an independent telephone company that owned over 600,000 telephone lines in 12 states prior to its acquisition by CenturyTel.
CenturyTel of Eagle, Inc. is one of the CenturyLink operating companies in Colorado. The company was formed in 1928 as The Eagle Valley Telephone Company and originally served Eagle, Rio Blanco, and Routt counties in Colorado.
