A Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) was a corporate entity created as result of the antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice against the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1974 and settled in the Modification of Final Judgment on January 8, 1982.
AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly known as Ameritech Corporation, was an American telecommunications company that arose out of the 1984 AT&T divestiture. Ameritech was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies created following the breakup of the Bell System. Ameritech was acquired in 1999 by SBC Communications, which subsequently acquired AT&T Corporation in 2006, becoming the present-day AT&T.
Southern New England Telecommunications Corporation (SNET) started operations in 1986 as the holding company for The Southern New England Telephone Company. Prior to 1986, The Southern New England Telephone Company had been a minority holding of AT&T until February 1986, when AT&T withdrew its 23% holding. SNET then became its own company, operating a telecommunications sales division, Sonecor Systems Division, which began operations on January 1, 1983, and sold equipment in competition with AT&T before the Bell System divestiture. SNET also operated SNET America, which sold long-distance services to Southern New England Telephone customers within Connecticut.
The Pacific Bell Telephone Company (Pac Bell) is a telephone company that provides telephone service in California. The company is owned by AT&T through AT&T Teleholdings, and, though separate, is now marketed as “AT&T”. The company has been known by a number of names during which its service area has changed. The formal name of the company from the 1910s through the 1984 Bell System divestiture was The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. As of 2002, the name “Pacific Bell” is no longer used in marketing, although Pacific Bell is still the holder of record for the infrastructure of cables and fiber through much of California.
The monopoly position of the Bell System in the U.S. was ended on January 8, 1982. AT&T Corporation proposed by in a consent decree to relinquish control of the Bell Operating Companies, which had provided local telephone service in the United States. 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.
Verizon New York, Inc., formerly The New York Telephone Company (NYTel), was organized in 1896, taking over the New York City operations of the American Bell Telephone Company.
SNET America, Inc. is a long-distance telephone company owned by Frontier Communications that serves Connecticut with customers in other states. It competes to provide long-distance service for SNET customers. SNET America was formed by Southern New England Telecommunications Corp. in 1993 to compete with other long-distance carriers within Connecticut. SNET America does business as Frontier Communications. It is not affiliated with Frontier Communications Online and Long Distance or Citizens Communications of America, the other core long-distance units of Frontier.
This history of the telephone chronicles the development of the electrical telephone, and includes a brief overview of its predecessors. The first telephone patent was granted to Alexander Graham Bell in 1869.
The Woodbury Telephone Company was a telephone company that served the Connecticut towns of Woodbury, Southbury, Bethlehem, and parts of Roxbury and Oxford. In 1997, Woodbury Telephone was acquired by Southern New England Telecommunications. In 1998, SNET merged with SBC Communications and Woodbury Telephone, the 75th largest independent telephone carrier in the United States, continued as a separate operating company under Southern New England Telephone.
YP Connecticut Information Services LLC, originally SNET Information Services, Inc., was the directory publishing arm of Southern New England Telecommunications. It is currently owned by YP Holdings and publishes telephone directories for Southern New England Telephone customers under the YP Real Yellow Pages name.
Americast was a cable alternative broadcast joint venture of five telephone companies: SBC, BellSouth Corporation, Ameritech Corporation, GTE Corporation and SNET. The Walt Disney Company's Disney Televenture subsidiary was a programming partner. No standard delivery technologies was chosen for Americast with cable, direct-broadcast satellite and microwave as options for partner companies to use.
Morris Franklin Tyler was an American telephone industry pioneer, lawyer, and professor of law.
The Telephone Exchange Building is a historic building at 23 Union Street in downtown Norwich, Connecticut, behind Norwich Town Hall. Built in 1906-07, it was the first purpose-built telephone exchange utility building in the city, and is a little-altered example of period exchanges built by the Southern New England Telephone Company. The building now houses city offices. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 28, 1983.
The Bell Telephone Building, located at 920 Olive Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, was built in 1889 for the purposes of housing the switchboard and local headquarters of the Bell Telephone Company. The building served as the main telephone exchange for St. Louis from its construction until 1926, and it is the oldest extant telephone building in St. Louis.
The Eli, formerly the Southern New England Telephone Company Administration Building, is a skyscraper at 227 Church Street in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. Completed in 1938, it is the city's finest example of Art Deco architecture, and was headquarters to the Southern New England Telephone Company (SNET), which oversaw the building of the state's telephone networks. Designed by Douglas Orr and Roy W. Foote, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
Leoni W. Robinson (1851-1923) was a leading architect in New Haven, Connecticut.
Hubbell & Benes was a prominent Cleveland, Ohio architectural firm formed by Benjamin Hubbell and W. Dominick Benes in 1897 after the pair departed from Coburn, Barnum, Benes & Hubbell. Their work included commercial and residential buildings as well as telephone exchange buildings, the West Side Market and Cleveland Museum of Art. Before teaming up, they worked for Coburn and Barnum. Benes was Jeptha Wade’s personal architect and designed numerous public buildings, commercial buildings, and residences for him including the Wade Memorial Chapel.
The Southern New England Telephone Company (SNET), doing business as Frontier Communications of Connecticut, is a local exchange carrier owned by Frontier Communications.
George Willard Coy was an American mechanic, inventor and entrepreneur. He ran the first commercial telephone exchange in 1878 and was involved in the production of the first telephone directory.
