| | |
| Frontier Communications of Connecticut | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1878 |
| Headquarters | New Haven, Connecticut |
Key people | |
| Products | Local Telephone Service, Broadband |
Number of employees | 2700 |
| Parent | SNET (1986–1998) SBC/AT&T Inc. (1998–2014) Frontier (2014–2026) Verizon (2026-present) |
| Website | http://www.frontier.com/ |
The Southern New England Telephone Company (SNET), doing business as Frontier Communications of Connecticut, is a local exchange carrier owned by Frontier Communications.
It started operations on January 28, 1878, as the District Telephone Company of New Haven, in the U.S. state of Connecticut. [1] It was the founder of the first telephone exchange, as well as the world's first telephone book. Since its inception, SNET has held a monopoly on most of the telephone services in the state of Connecticut; the only remaining exceptions are the Greenwich and Byram exchanges where Verizon New York provides telephone service. [2]
SNET and Cincinnati Bell were the only two companies in the Bell System in which the old AT&T only held a minority stake; at the time of the breakup of the Bell System on January 1, 1984,, AT&T's stake in SNET was 19.6 percent. Therefore, both were considered independents rather than Bell Operating Companies.
SNET was purchased for $4.4 billion in 1998 by SBC Communications, which subsequently purchased the old AT&T, taking its name as the "new" AT&T. Under AT&T, SNET was known as AT&T Connecticut.
In 2006, AT&T merged the operations of SNET into AT&T Teleholdings, formerly Ameritech, making it a subsidiary of the latter.
On June 1, 2007, the operations of Woodbury Telephone were merged into SNET.
On October 24, 2014, Frontier Communications completed its purchase of AT&T's Connecticut operations, including Southern New England Telephone and long-distance unit SNET America, for $2 billion. [3] It was the second former unit of the Bell System to be acquired by Frontier, the first being Frontier West Virginia (originally C&P Telephone of West Virginia) which was purchased from Verizon in 2010.
On September 5, 2024, Verizon announced that it will buy Frontier Communications for $20 billion. The acquisition, when it closes, will see Verizon taking control of Frontier’s operations, including SNET. [4]