USA Telecom List

AT&T History

  • 1879: Founded Bell Telephone Co.
  • 1880: Renamed to American Bell Telephone Co.
  • 1885: Founded American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T)
  • 1899: AT&T bought assets of American Bell Telephone Co.
  • 1918: US Govt. nationalized entire telecommunications industry, with national security as the stated intent.
  • 1934: 1934 Telecommunications Act
    • Public utility commissions regulated intrastate service while . . .
    • Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulated interstate service.
    • AT&T also controlled 22 Bell Operating Companies which provided local telephone service to most of the US.
  • 1982-1984: settlement of US v. AT&T, a 1974 US DOJ antitrust suit; divested into 9 Regional Bell Operating Cos. (RBOCs):
    1. Ameritech
    2. Bell Atlantic
    3. BellSouth
    4. Cincinnati Bell
    5. NYNEX
    6. Pacific Telesis
    7. Southwestern Bell
    8. Southern New England Telephone (SNET)
    9. US West
  • 1994: AT&T purchased McCaw Cellular, for $11.5 billion
  • 1996: 1996 Telecommunications Act (TCA) and equal access regs to allow other LD phone cos. to access wireline networks at non-discriminatory rates
  • 2001: AT&T spun off AT&T Wireless as a private co. in world’s largest IPO
  • 2001: AT&T spun off AT&T Broadband which was subsequently acquired by Comcast
  • 2001: AT&T Wireless merged with Cingular Wireless operating as Cingular
  • 2004: U.S. Govt. closed equal access for LD phone cos. to access the wireline networks at non-discriminatory rates
  • 2007: Cingular renamed to AT&T Mobility

Three Remaining Baby Bells

LEC = Local Exchange Carrier

1. AT&T Inc., (formerly Southwestern Bell Corp.), a holding company

  • Subsidiary AT&T Corp.
  • Subsidiary AT&T Teleholdings, Inc. (former RBOCs Ameritech and Pacific Telesis)
    • LEC Illinois Bell
    • LEC Indiana Bell
    • LEC Michigan Bell
    • LEC Pacific Bell
    • LEC Nevada Bell
    • LEC Ohio Bell
    • LEC Wisconsin Bell
  • Subsidiary BellSouth (former RBOCs BellSouth and Southwestwern Bell)
    • LEC BellSouth (including Southern Bell & South Central Bell)
    • LEC Southwestern Bell
  • Subsidiary AT&T Mobility
  • Many other Subsidiaries not listed

2. Verizon Communications Inc., a holding company

  • Subsidiary NYNEX LLC (former RBOC NYNEX)
    • LEC Verizon-New England (Verizon-NE)
    • LEC Verizon-New York (Verizon-NY)
  • LEC Verizon-Delaware (Verizon-DL)
  • LEC Verizon-Maryland (Verizon-MD)
  • LEC Verizon-New Jersey (Verizon-NJ)
  • LEC Verizon-Pennsylvania (Verizon-PA)
  • LEC Verizon-Washington, DC (Verizon-DC)
  • LEC Verizon-Virginia (Verizon-VA)
  • Subsidiary Verizon Wireless
  • Many other Subsidiaries not listed

3. CenturyLink, Inc., a holding company

  • Subsidiary Qwest Communications International, Inc., a holding company (acquired and merged with US WEST in 2000)
  • Subsidiary Qwest Services Corporation, a holding company
  • LEC Qwest Corp., (formerly Mountain Bell, Northwestern Bell, Pacific Northwest Bell)

Other Independent Bell Operating Companies

1. Cincinnati Bell, Inc., a holding company

  • LEC Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company LLC
  • Note: AT&T owned 27.8% before 1984; was left separate in the 1984 break-up

2. Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc., a holding company

  • LEC FairPoint Communications, Inc., holding company sold to Consolidated in 2017
    • LEC Northern New England Telephone Operations LLC. (formed when Verizon-NE sold lines in Maine and New Hampshire in 2008)
    • LEC Telephone Operating Company of Vermont LLC, (formed when Verizon-NE sold lines in Vermont in 2008)

3. Frontier Communications Corp., a holding company

  • Frontier Communications ILEC Holdings, Inc., holding company (created by Verizon and sold to Frontier in 2010)
  • LEC Frontier West Virginia, Inc., (formerly C&P Telephone of West Virginia)

4. LEC Southern New England Telephone Company,

  • Note: AT&T owned 16.8% before 1984; was left separate in the 1984 break-up