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 Baby Bells.
A competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), in the United States and Canada, is a telecommunications provider company competing with other, already established carriers, generally the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC).
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.
A naked DSL, also known as standalone or dry loop DSL, is a digital subscriber line (DSL) without a PSTN service — or the associated dial tone. In other words, only a standalone DSL Internet service is provided on the local loop.
Cellular One is the trademarked brand name that licenses services used by several cellular service providers in the United States. The brand was sold to Trilogy Partners by AT&T in 2008 shortly after AT&T had completed its acquisition of Dobson Communications. Cellular One was originally the trade name of one of the first mobile telephone service providers.
Alltel Wireless was a wireless service provider, primarily based in the United States. Before acquisitions by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, it served 34 states and had approximately 13 million subscribers. As a regulatory condition of the acquisition by Verizon, a small portion of Alltel was spun off and continued to operate under the same name in six states, mostly in rural areas. Following the merger, Alltel remained the ninth largest wireless telecommunications company in the United States, with approximately 800,000 customers. On January 22, 2013, AT&T announced they were acquiring what remained of Alltel from Atlantic Tele-Network for $780 million in cash.
The breakup of the Bell System was mandated on January 8, 1982, by an agreed consent decree providing that AT&T Corporation would, as had been initially proposed by AT&T, relinquish control of the Bell Operating Companies that had provided local telephone service in the United States and Canada up until that point. 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.
Hawaiian Telcom, Inc., is the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) or dominant local telephone company, serving the state of Hawaii. In 2005, Hawaiian Telcom Holdco, Inc., was formed by The Carlyle Group, following its purchase of the Hawaiian Telecom Inc. assets of Verizon Communications. On July 2, 2018, Cincinnati Bell purchased Hawaiian Telcom Holdco, Inc. for $650 Million,
Frontier Communications Corporation is an American telecommunications company. The company previously served primarily rural areas and smaller communities, but now also serves several large metropolitan markets.
Windstream Holdings, Inc., also doing business as Windstream Communications or Windstream, is a provider of voice and data network communications, and managed services, to businesses in the United States. The company also offers residential broadband, phone and digital TV services to consumers within its coverage area. It is the ninth largest residential telephone provider in the country with service covering more than 8.1 million people in 21 states.
FairPoint Communications, Inc. was headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and operated communication services in 31 markets in 17 states, mostly in rural areas. FairPoint services include local and long distance phone service, data, Internet, broadband, television, business communications solutions and fiber services. FairPoint, along with Frontier Communications, had been at the forefront of acquiring Verizon landline operations.
SBC Telecom, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Small Business is a CLEC owned by AT&T that offers local telephone service outside the AT&T Bell Operating Company regions. It was formed in 1999 following provisions that required SBC Communications to offer telephone service outside its boundaries in order to get approval to merge with Ameritech.
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company, Delaware-registered but headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world’s largest telecommunications company, and the second largest provider of mobile telephone services. As of 2020, AT&T was ranked 9th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations, with revenues of $181 billion.
Matrix Telecom, Inc., operating as Matrix Business Technologies, Trinsic, Powered by Matrix, Excel Telecommunications and various other niche brands is a United States telecommunications firm that provides voice and data services to consumers and small and medium businesses as well as multi-location distributed enterprise markets. The firm also provides wholesale voice services to the telecommunications, wireless and cable industries.
Lumen Technologies 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 S&P 500 index and the Fortune 500. 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.
AT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T Inc. that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies.
Pac-West Telecomm, Inc. is a privately owned wholesale telecommunications carrier headquartered in Oakland, California, United States. Founded in 1980, the company is one of the few wholesale-focused competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC) in the United States and provides origination services to thirty-one states, with service areas on the West coast, Texas, and in the Northeast.
TruConnect, formally known as TruConnect Mobile, is an American mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that sells mobile hotspots and smartphones and 3G/4G LTE mobile data plans and prepaid cell phone talk & text plans on T-mobile's network. TruConnect was the first prepaid broadband provider in the U.S. to offer a pay-as-you-go, portable Wi-Fi service plans. The only Lifeline provider (ETC) headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. TruConnect uses either Sprint or T-Mobile's network depending on location.
