Official Regional Bell Operating Companies link: http://www.bell.com/rbocs.htm*
Note: bell.com has not been keeping their site up-to-date, and reflects disused Bell Operating Company logos and company information, as many of the various Bells have merged.
Web pages put together so far on the individual Bell Operating Companies:
Note: As of January 1, 2012, there are only four Bell Operating Companies left: AT&T, CenturyLink, Cincinnati Bell, and Verizon. AT&T and Bell South having merged, and Qwest acquired by CenturyLink. We don’t know of a central source of information about the mergers and other changes. However, we did receive some information as shown below at the end of this page from Mark J Cuccia which does a very good job of updating us on what happened to the Baby Bells after 1983. Also, click HERE to view a chart puttogether by Freepress.net showing the changes that have occurred in the Regional Bell Operating Companies over the years. Also, it must be noted that the landline assets that Verizon has divested to Frontier in the last few years are not classified as being part of any RBOC, as frontier is an independent phone company.
It makes you wonder when the last Bell name will disappear - replaced by some abstract name like Verizon and the last Bell logo will be replaced by some abstract symbol which means nothing to those of us who remember the quality service that the Bell name and logo represented for over 100 years… Remember when AT&T was told by the courts that as of 1984 they could no longer use the Bell name (except for Bell Labs) and they came up with the “death star” logo? The Baby Bells weren’t forced to change their logos but some were quick to do so - and they didn’t do much better at coming up with a new one than AT&T did! The only companies that still use the Bell name are Bell Canada and Cincinnati Bell, with Verizon using the Bell logo on payphones only.
The Porticus Centre has no personal financial investment or employment in any of these companies.
DISCLAIMER: All logos shown below are trademarks of the Regional Bell Operating Companies or others. These companies are not affiliated with this web site. See Trademarks and Copyrights.
If you have photos of your local Bell company’s buildings or vans, trucks, etc., we will post them here for you.
Before the divestiture of the BELL SYSTEM on January 1, 1984, there were 22 Bell Operating Companies owned by AT&T:
Click on image above to enlarge
Click HERE for 1977 map of the Bell System
Click HERE for a 1974 map of the Bell System
Bell Telephone Company of Nevada
Is managed by the RBOC AT&T West
Illinois Bell Telephone Company
Is managed by the RBOC AT&T Midwest
Indiana Bell Telephone Company
Is managed by the RBOC AT&T Midwest
Michigan Bell Telephone Company
Is managed by the RBOC AT&T Midwest
Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company (Mountain Bell)
Is managed by the RBOC CenturyLink
New England Telephone & Telegraph Company
Formerly managed by the RBOC NYNEX. Due to a merger, it is now managed by the RBOC Bell Atlantic now known as Verizon.
New Jersey Bell Telephone Company
Is managed by the RBOC Verizon.
Northwestern Bell Telephone Company
Is managed by the RBOC CenturyLink
Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company
Is managed by the RBOC CenturyLink
Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company
Is managed by the RBOC AT&T West.
South Central Bell Telephone Company
Is managed by the RBOC AT&T South.
Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company
Is managed by the RBOC AT&T South
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company
Is managed by the RBOC AT&T Southwest
The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania
Is now known as Bell Atlantic - Pennsylvania now known as Verizon.
Is managed by the RBOC Bell Atlantic now known as Verizon.
The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company
The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland
Is now known as Bell Atlantic - Maryland now known as Verizon.
Is managed by the RBOC Bell Atlantic now known as Verizon.
The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia
Is managed by the RBOC Bell Atlantic now known as Verizon.
The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia
Is managed by the RBOC Bell Atlantic now known as Verizon.
The Diamond State Telephone Company
Is managed by the RBOC Bell Atlantic now known as Verizon.
The New York Telephone Company
Formerly managed by the RBOC NYNEX. Due to a merger, it is now managed by the RBOC Bell Atlantic now known as Verizon.
The Ohio Bell Telephone Company
Is managed by the RBOC AT&T Midwest
Wisconsin Telephone Company
Is managed by the RBOC AT&T Midwest
1922 Postcard showing Wisconsin Telephone Company building in Racine, Wisconsin. Contributed by Brad Morrison.
In addition to these afore-listed companies AT&T also had partial ownership in the following four companies.
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Bell Telephone Company of Canada (Bell Canada) (AT&T owned 2% interest before 1975)
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Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company (AT&T owned 27.8% interest before 1984)
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Southern New England Bell Telephone Company, now known as AT&T Connecticut (AT&T owned 16.8% interest before 1984)
And Then Along Came Divestiture . . .
Under the terms of the consent decree signed by AT&T, the company was required to divest itself completely from the ownership of all of these companies by January 1, 1984. These Bell Operating Companies were then grouped together with at least two Bell Operating Companies in each group to form seven “Regional Bell Operating Companies” which is often abbreviated as “RBOCs”. An interesting look at the financial and other data related to the formation of the “Holding Companies” can be viewed by clicking HERE.
Above map courtesy of AT&T archives - Sheldon Hochheiser, PRCRP
The original seven RBOCs were:
(now part of AT&T)
Ameritech was originally composed of these Bell Operating Companies:
originally provided service to the states of:
-
Illinois
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Indiana
-
Michigan
-
Ohio
-
Wisconsin
-
(merged in 2000 with GTE and is now called Verizon)
Bell Atlantic was originally composed of these Bell Operating Companies:
-
-
-
-
The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Companies(four separate Corporations – with one president and a centralized staff):
-
-
-
-
Bell Atlantic originally provided service to the states of:
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Maryland
-
Virginia
-
West Virginia
-
Washington D.C.
-
(now part of AT&T)
BellSouth was originally (and still is) composed of these Bell Operating Companies:
BellSouth originally provided service to the states of:
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North Carolina
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South Carolina
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Georgia
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Florida
-
Alabama
-
Louisiana
-
Mississippi
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Tennessee
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Kentucky
-
(merged in 1997 with Bell Atlantic - now
called Verizon)
Nynex was originally composed of these two Bell Operating Companies:
- (also operated in one or two eastern counties of Connecticut. The rest of Connecticut was SNET, an independent company (now owned by SBC)
Nynex originally provided service to the states of:
- New York
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- New Hampshire
- Vermont
- Rhode Island
(now part of
AT&T) *
Pacific Telesis Group was originally composed of these Bell Operating Companies:
- (not listed in Appendix A of the Modified Final Judgement)
Pacific Telesis Group originally provided service to the states of:
- California
- Nevada
NOTE: Bell of NV similar to Diamond State - so small it was managed by Pac. Tel. Each of those two small companies [also C&P of Washington DC] was a separate corporation for regulatory purposes.
(now part of AT&T)
Southwestern Bell Corporation was originally composed of this Bell Operating Company:
Southwestern Bell Corporation originally provided service to the states of:
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Texas
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Oklahoma
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Kansas
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Missouri
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Arkansas
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(merged in 2000 with Qwest,
and Qwest was acquired in 2011 by CenturyLink.now called
Lumen Technologies)
US West was originally composed of these three Bell Operating Companies:
US West originally provided service to the states of:
- Washington
- Oregon
- Malheur Bell (Ontario, Oregon)
- Montana
- North Dakota
- South Dakota
- Minnesota
- Idaho
- Iowa
- Wyoming
- Nevada
- Nebraska
- Utah
- Colorado
- Arizona
- New Mexico
SBC dropped the Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell, Pacific Telesis, and Ameritech names on December 10, 2002. Click HERE to read a newspaper article on this change in SBC. In November 2005, SBC Communications, Inc. purchased AT&T Corp.
The seven RBOCs were granted the right to:
- Provide local service
- Publish Yellow Pages directories
- Provide Directory Assistance services
- Use the Bell symbol
- Direct Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) now called Telcordia], research and development facilities
The corporate changes that have taken place since then are a bit confusing, but we have a chart which helps sum it up pretty well. Click HERE to view his chart.
The following was sent by Paul Wills.
It’s a satire on what the new Baby Bells were
to be called after divestiture of the Bell System.
Click on the image below for enlarged view as PDF file.
Some other satire names given to the newly formed Baby Bells are:
-
US West = US Worst
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Taco Bell is what they called Telmex after Southwestern Bell purchased an interest in it when it was privatized. (thanks to Roger Conklin for this info.)
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Bell Atlantic = Bell Frantic. “And before that, when it was known as New Jersey Bell, I called it ‘New Jersey Dumb-Bell’” (thanks to Fred Dieckmann for this info.)
The following information was sent by Mark J Cuccia.
“This is something was posted to misc.transport.road in a recent HUGE thread about “Bell” and “Standard Oil” and the parallels of theirdevelopment, history, rise and power, and what has happened since each wasdis-membered by the Federal Govt.In this post, I summarize what has happened and current developments ofthe dismembered elements of the one-time Bell System. Maybe this will helpout in keeping track…
Mark J. Cuccia
---------- Forwarded message ———-
Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2000 18:52:44 -0500
From: Mark J. Cuccia
Newsgroups: misc.transport.road
Subject: (Re) BOC Names and Logos - and a re-capitulation of what hasbecome of the Bell System entities
Joe Isham ([email protected]) wrote:
\Mark J Cuccia ([email protected]) wrote
\Southwestern Bell Telephone Company - the original and ONLY BOC of
\Southwestern Bell Corporation in 1984, seems to be the ONLY member
\of the SBC family still using the “Bell” logo
\They have dropped the Bell logo as of August. Currently SWB uses
\just the words “Southwestern Bell” and the “SBC Global Network”
\logo.
Sad! :(
Yes, I just took a look at the SBC (“touchtone-star” and figure-8/sine-wave “swoosh”) Coporate website, www.sbc.com, which has links to:
- Ameritech (full circle oval “swoosh”),
- Southwestern Bell (SBC Corporate logo),
- Nevada Bell, Pacific Bell, (it looks like the 1984 => SBC-takeover
Pacific*Telesis corporate for Pac*Bell/CA and NV*Bell doesn’t “exist” at allanymore; both NV*Bell and Pac*Bell use the “touchtone-star"in a square, like a touchtone key/button),- and “semi-BOC” SNET/CT (triple concentric semi-circle/oval"swooshes”)
NONE of them, neither corporate, nor the “BOCs” that it holds, usethe “Bell” logo of 1970->today.
(20% of Bell Canada, which itself holds a lot of Canadian telcooperations or has joint ventures with MTS in Manitoba, was purchasedby Ameritech, now part of SBC, about two years ago; and Bell Canadastopped using ANY version of a “Bell” logo circa 1975)
But SBC seems to be the ONLY remaining entity of the 1984-RBOCcorporations that still lists individual names of other RBOCs itbought out or their operating companies! Every other RBOC (or mergedRBOCs) have consolidated all of their BOC/local names, at least for"public” marketing purposes.
So, here is a re-capitualtion of the various different parts of the(at one time) Bell System, as they now exist today:
- SBC , and Bell Canada (described above)
- VeriZon (once known as Bell Atlantic/NYNEX, and GTE);
VeriZon name to be used in the US, Telus (from GTE and AGT) name to beused in Canada; I don’t know about GTE/VeriZon operations outside ofthe continental US or Canada - such as Hawaii, Saipan, DominicanRepublic -- if they intend to hold on to their shares/operations orspin-them-off, and if they do intend to keep them, is the VeriZon namegoing to eventually replace the GTE-Hawaiian Telephone name, theGTE-Micronesia name, or the (GTE)Codetel name ???; GTE has beenselling-off / spinning-off many of its smaller US local telcooperations in preparation for GTE + BA/NYNEX = VeriZon)
- BellSouth , Qwest/US-West:
The former Southern Bell and South Central Bell names no longer exist(at least for “public” marketing purposes)… likewise, Mountain Bell,Northwestern Bell, and Pacific Northwest Bell names disappeared into(corporate) US-West about ten years ago, but US-West did adopt the"Bell" logo for both corporate, and for the “public” BOC name when itdropped the local names…
In recent years, Frontier/Global-Crossing, and (LCI)Qwest seemed tobe courting BOTH BellSouth and US-West. Qwest has only recently sincetaken over US-West, and the “Bell” logo is gone too. BellSouth DOEScontinue to use the “Bell” logo (it appeared on the corporate logowhen in 1995, South Central Bell and Southern Bell names wereconsolidated into the corporate BellSouth name)…
I only recently discovered that BellSouth does own something like 20%of Qwest. BellSouth’s LD-resale of 1+ coin at BellSouth payphonesand its 1-800-BELL-SOU(th) card/operator services it is “pushing”(which is _NOT_ the REAL BellSouth “TOPS” LATA operator/card services)is actually a resale of Qwest (but I don’t know who you get on1-800-BELLSOU(th) from (former) US-West territory, due to the gov’tstipulations on the US-West/Qwest merger.
Also, BellSouth and US-West seemed to have become _VERY_ friendly and"similar" to/with _each_other_ in the past three years.
If there is ever a “consolidation” of Qwest/US-West with BellSouth,which name will continue to be used? Will the “Bell” logo still besued? If it is BellSOUTH and US-_WEST_ merged, would this be SBC? :-)
(i.e., _South_ from BellSouth + _West_ from US-West givingSouthWestern Bell !! :-)
And another point for telco historian/teckies – BellSouth andUS-West never really had _ANY_ Panel or #1XB local switching, EXCEPTfor LIMITED Panel (only two central offices in Atlanta installed inthe late 1920’s or early 1930’s), and Panel/#1XB in the Seattle Metroarea when Pacific NW Bell was still part of Pacific Tel (& Tel).
In the early 1960’s, Pac-NW-Bell was split out of Pacific Tel (& Tel)as its own unique AT&T-owned BOC (similar to SCBell splitting fromSo.Bell in the late 1960’s), and in 1984, Pac-NW-Bell was put underUS-West, now Qwest…
Well, there was some Panel/#1XB in Omaha NE (actually the VERY firstPanel switch in the US was in Omaha), and that was NWBell->USWest->
Qwest.
But Panel/#1XB _flourished_ in more urban metro areas of NYNEX/BA,Ameritech, the SF-Oakland Bay area (Pac*Bell), St.Louis MO and Kan.Cy
MO (and I would guess KC-Kansas) which would be SWBell…
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Semi-BOC Cincinnati Bell (a “Broadwing” Company) still has the name"Bell" as well as the 1970’s->today “Bell” logo:www.cincinnatibell.com
-
AT&T
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Lucent Technologies (which includes Bell Labs)
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Telcordia (was once known as Bellcore, Bell Communications Research,formed in 1983 as the Central Services Organization out of the BellSystem, to be a “central point-of-contact” and “co-ordinating” unit,owned equally by all seven 1984 RBOCs, each owning 1/7th of Bellcore.Bellcore started out in 1983/84 with “permanent” employees who camefrom the BOCs - mostly Jersey Bell, NYTel, Bell of PA; AT&T-WECO;
AT&T-Long-Lines, AT&T-HQ, and Bell Labs; The BOC/RBOCs, except forCincinnati Bell and SNET/CT which didn’t really own any parts ofBellcore, had “rotating / tour-of-duty” employees at Bellcore;Bellcore/Telcordia’s main offices/locations are all over NJ, thebiggest being in Piscataway NJ in offices once used by AT&T/WECO/Bell-Labs; Bellcore used the “Bell” logo until a few years ago whenSAIC bought out the shares from the RBOCs and then changed the name toTelcordia Technologies; SAIC = Scientific Applications InternationalCorporation. Bellcore/Telcordia still does the TRA - Traffic RoutingAdministration which it took over from AT&T as of 1984; Bellcore,prior to name change to Telcordia, used to be the NANPA - NorthAmerican Numbering Plan Administration; NANPA went over toLockheed-Martin in late 1997, but then went to Warburg-Pincus’ Neustarin late 1999; Bellcore/Telcordia still does co-ordination for otheraspects of North American telephony/industry; the Telcordia logo istwo “swoosy” letter ‘Ts’; SAIC also has the contract for the CanadianNumbering Administration for Canada-specific numbering/dialingco-ordination, but the CNA still has to work closely withTelcordia-TRA and Neustar-NANPA, and other US/Canada telco industrybodies, some which were formed out of what the old Bell System did).
Some other bodies formed out of the old Bell System include:
- NECA (National Exchange Carriers’ Association) in Whippany NJ (in anold Bell Labs / WECO / AT&T building);- and ATIS (the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions,which manages the industry standards forums) located in DC.
US(I)TA, the United States (Independent) Telephone Association is whatthe old industry assocication body for the non-Bell telcos in the US,and not really part of the Bell System, altho’ they did interface withAT&T for technical/standards inter-operations… In 1984, the ‘I’ forIndependent was dropped, and membership was extended to the (R)BOCs.USTA still is in existance, located in DC.
SO…..
It appears that only BellSouth (itself, and not Qwest/US-West),and (semi-BOC) Cincinnati Bell are the ONLY former members of what wasonce known as “The Bell System” that still use the “Bell” logo ofthe 1970’s->forward, although some of SBC’s holdings still includethe “Bell” word in their names (Pacific, Nevada, Southwestern), whileeverything else using the “Bell” name and/or logo has disappeared.(Well, there’s still the “Bell” name in Bell Canada and its operationsnorth-of-the-border…)
Yes, it looks like “Bell” has gone the way of “Standard”…(Standard Oil).While growing up in the 1960’s/70’s here in New Orleans, I’doccasionally heard the name “Standard Oil” referenced, but I reallyhadn’t known that Esso (including Enco) and Humble were really the"original" Standard Oil (of New Jersey). Of course, I did see roadmapsissued by American/Amoco which had “Standard” written in the r/w/boval/torch/flame, and maps issued by Chevron which had “Standard"written above the r/w/b chevrons… and it always confused me.
BTW, note who most of the more dominant “Baby Standards” used(patriotic) all-American Red/White/Blue in their logos:
Esso/Enco/Humble/etc =Exxon (S.O.NJ), taking over Mobil
Chevron/SoCal/etc =Chevron (S.O.CA)
Mobil/Socony-Vacuum =Mobil (S.O.NY), taken over by Exxon
Amoco/PanAm/Utoco/American/etc=>Amoco (S.O.IN), being taken over by BP
Sohio/Boron (S.O.OH), being taken over by BP
IMO, whether others think it might even be a “good” think, to ME,it is a SAD DAY to think that future generations may never know ofservice-stations / gasoline products / roadmaps / etc. that aren’tknown as “Standard” (or any derivative)… and similarly a SAD dayto lose the “Bell” name and/or logo for a company providing telephoneservice! :(
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