GTE Corporation (formerly
General Telephone & Electronics Corporation) was the largest of the "independent" US
telephoneThe telephone is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sound, most commonly the human voice. It is one of the most common household appliances in the developed world, and has long been considered indispensable to business, industry and government...
companies during the days of the
Bell SystemThe Bell System was the AT&T monopoly that provided telephone service in the United States from 1877 to 1984 when it was broken up into separate companies by a Federal mandate....
. It acquired the third largest independent,
Continental TelephoneConTel Corporation was the third largest independent phone company in the United States prior to the 1996 telecom deregulation. It was acquired by GTE in 1991.- History :...
(ConTel) in 1991. They also owned Automatic Electric, a telephone equipment supplier similar in many ways to
Western ElectricWestern Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...
, and Sylvania Lighting, the only non-communications-oriented company under GTE ownership. GTE provided local telephone service to a large number of areas of the U.S. through
operating companiesThe GTE Operating Companies are separate telephone companies within Verizon that provide local telephone service to areas previously served by GTE. The GTE Operating Companies function much like the Bell Operating Companies and were arranged in the GTE corporate structure in the same fashion...
, much like how
American Telephone & TelegraphAT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies...
provided local telephone service through its 22 Bell Operating Companies.
The company also acquired BBN Planet, one of the earliest Internet service providers, in 1997. That division became known as GTE Internetworking, and was later spun off into the independent company Genuity (a name recycled from another Internet company GTE acquired in 1997) as part of the GTE-Bell Atlantic merger that created Verizon.
GTE operated in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
via large interests in subsidiary companies such as BC TEL and Quebec-Téléphone. When foreign ownership restrictions on telecommunications companies were introduced, GTE's ownership was grandfathered. When BC Tel merged with Telus (the name given the privatized
Alberta Government TelephonesAlberta Government Telephones was formed by the Liberal government of Alexander Cameron Rutherford in 1906 following the acquisitions by the government of several independent telephone companies...
(AGT)) to create
BCT.TelusTelus is a national telecommunications company in Canada that provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol , voice, entertainment and video. The company is based in Burnaby, British Columbia...
, GTE's Canadian subsidiaries were merged into the new parent, making it the second-largest telecommunications carrier in Canada. As such, GTE's successor, Verizon Communications, was the only foreign telecommunications company with a greater than 20% interest in a Canadian carrier, until Verizon completely divested itself of its shares in 2004.
In the Caribbean, CONTEL purchased several major stakes in the newly independent countries of the
British West IndiesThe term British West Indies refers to territories in and around the Caribbean which have been or were at one time colonised by the United Kingdom. Collectively these territories are also now known as the Anglophone Caribbean...
(Namely in
BarbadosBarbados , situated just east of the Caribbean Sea, is an independent West Indian Continental Island-nation in the western Atlantic Ocean. For over three centuries Barbados was a colony and protectorate of the United Kingdom; and still currently maintains Queen Elizabeth II as head of state...
,
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to 11,100 km
2. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, and
Trinidad and TobagoThe Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying northeast of the South American country of Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. It shares maritime boundaries with other nations including Barbados to the northeast, Guyana to the...
).
Prior to GTE's merger with Bell Atlantic, GTE also maintained an interactive television service joint-venture called
GTE mainStreetGTE mainStreet, also known as mainStreet USA, was one of the first interactive television projects.Internet style content was available through this television service before the internet was widely accessible. mainStreet started in the mid-1980s and matured technically with rich new content from...
(sometimes also called mainStreet USA) as well as an interactive entertainment and video game publishing operation,
GTE Interactive MediaGTE Interactive Media was founded in 1990 as a unit of GTE. Located in Carlsbad, California, the unit's focus was on developing interactive entertainment products including development and publishing of video games and other entertainment software under the GTE Entertainment brand. The division...
.
History
GTE's heritage can be traced to 1918, when three
WisconsinWisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. states. Located in the north-central United States, Wisconsin is considered part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the...
public utility accountants (John F. O'Connell, Sigurd L. Odegard, and John A. Pratt) pooled $33,500 to purchase the Richland Center Telephone Company, serving 1,466 telephones in the dairy belt of southern Wisconsin. In 1920 the three accountants formed a corporation, Commonwealth Telephone Company, with Odegard as president, Pratt as vice-president, and O'Connell as secretary. Richland Center Telephone became part of Commonwealth Telephone, which quickly purchased telephone companies in three nearby communities. In 1922 Pratt resigned as vice-president and was replaced by Clarence R. Brown, a former Bell System employee.
By the mid-1920s Commonwealth had extended beyond Wisconsin borders and purchased the Belvidere Telephone Company in Illinois. It also diversified into other utilities by acquiring two small Wisconsin electrical companies. Expansion was stepped up in 1926, when Odegard secured an option to purchase Associated Telephone Company of Long Beach, California and proceeded to devise a plan for a holding company, to be named Associated Telephone Utilities Company. An aggressive acquisition program was quickly launched in eastern, midwestern, and western states, with the company using its own common stock to complete transactions.
During its first six years, Associated Telephone Utilities acquired 340 telephone companies, which were consolidated into 45 companies operating more than 437,000 telephones in 25 states. By the time the stock market bottomed out in October 1929, Associated Telephone Utilities was operating about 500,000 telephones with revenues approaching $17 million.
In January 1930 a new subsidiary, Associated Telephone Investment Company, was established. Designed to support its parent's acquisition program, the new company's primary business was buying company stock in order to bolster its market value. Within two years the investment company had incurred major losses, and a $1 million loan had to be negotiated. Associated Telephone Investment was dissolved but not before its parent's financial plight had become irreversible, and in 1933 Associated Telephone Utilities went into receivership.
The company was reorganized that same year and resurfaced in 1935 as General Telephone Corporation, operating 12 newly consolidated companies. John Winn, a 26-year veteran of the
Bell SystemThe Bell System was the AT&T monopoly that provided telephone service in the United States from 1877 to 1984 when it was broken up into separate companies by a Federal mandate....
, was named president. In 1936 General Telephone created a new subsidiary, General Telephone Directory Company, to publish directories for the parent's entire service area.
Like other businesses, the telephone industry was under government restrictions during World War II, and General Telephone was called upon to increase services at military bases and war-production factories. Following the war, General Telephone reactivated an acquisitions program that had been dormant for more than a decade and purchased 118,000 telephone lines between 1946 and 1950. In 1950 General Telephone purchased its first telephone-equipment manufacturing subsidiary, Leich Electric Company, along with the related Leich Sales Corporation.
By 1951, General Telephone's assets included 15 telephone companies operating in 20 states. In 1955 Theodore Gary & Company, the second-largest independent telephone company, which had 600,000 telephone lines, was merged into General Telephone, which had grown into the largest independent outside the Bell System. The merger gave the company 2.5 million lines. Theodore Gary's assets included telephone operations in the
Dominican RepublicThe Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are occupied by two countries...
,
British ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada.The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada...
, and the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
, as well as Automatic Electric, the second-largest telephone equipment manufacturer in the U.S.
In 1959 General Telephone and
Sylvania Electric ProductsSylvania Electric Products was a U.S. manufacturer of diverse electrical equipment, including at various times radio transceivers, vacuum tubes, semiconductors, and mainframe computers...
merged, and the parent's name was changed to General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (GT&E). The merger gave Sylvania - a leader in such industries as lighting,
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
and
radioRadio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, and
chemistryChemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions...
and
metallurgyMetallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
- the needed capital to expand. For General Telephone, the merger meant the added benefit of Sylvania's extensive research and development capabilities in the field of electronics. Power also orchestrated other acquisitions in the late 1950s, including Peninsular Telephone Company in Florida, with 300,000 lines, and Lenkurt Electric Company, Inc., a leading producer of
microwaveMicrowaves are electromagnetic waves with wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300MHz and 300 GHz. This is an extremely broad definition including both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
and data transmissions system.
In 1960 the subsidiary GT&E International Incorporated was formed to consolidate manufacturing and marketing activities of Sylvania, Automatic Electric, and Lenkurt, outside the United States. During the early 1960s the scope of GT&E's research, development, and marketing activities was broadened. In 1963 Sylvania began full-scale production of color television picture tubes, and within two years it was supplying color tubes for 18 of the 23 domestic U.S. television manufacturers. About the same time, Automatic Electric began supplying electronic switching equipment for the U.S. defense department's global communications systems, and GT&E International began producing earth-based stations for both foreign and domestic markets. GT&E's telephone subsidiaries, meanwhile, began acquiring community-antenna television systems (CATV) franchises in their operating areas.
In 1964 GT&E president Leslie H. Warner orchestrated a deal that merged Western Utilities Corporation, the nation's second-largest independent telephone company, with 635,000 telephones, into GT&E. The following year Sylvania introduced the revolutionary four-sided flashcube, enhancing its position as the world's largest flashbulb producer. Acquisitions in telephone service continued under Warner during the mid-1960s. Purchases included Quebec Telephone in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Hawaiian Telephone Company, and Northern Ohio Telephone Company and added a total of 622,000 telephone lines to GT&E operations. By 1969 GT&E was serving ten million telephones.
In March 1970 GT&E's
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
headquarters was bombed by a radical antiwar group in protest of the company's participation in defense work. In December of that year the GT&E board agreed to move the company's headquarters to Stamford, Connecticut.
After initially proposing to build separate satellite systems, GT&E and its telecommunications rival,
American Telephone & TelegraphAT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies...
, announced in 1974 joint venture plans for the construction and operation of seven earth-based stations interconnected by two satellites. That same year Sylvania acquired name and distribution rights for
PhilcoPhilco, the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company , was a pioneer in early battery, radio and television production as well as former employer of Philo Farnsworth, inventor of cathode ray tube television.Philco's rise to the top of radio makers was an amazing feat...
television and stereo products. GTE International expanded its activities during the same period, acquiring television manufacturers in Canada and Israel and a telephone manufacturer in Germany.
In 1976 newly elected chairman Theodore F. Brophy reorganized the company along five global product lines: communications, lighting, consumer electronics, precision materials, and electrical equipment. GTE International was phased out during the reorganization, and GTE Products Corporation was formed to encompass both domestic and foreign manufacturing and marketing operations. At the same time, GTE Communications Products was formed to oversee operations of Automatic Electric, Lenkurt, Sylvania, and GTE Information Systems. In 1979, another reorganization soon followed under new president Theodore F. Vanderslice. GTE Products Group was eliminated as an organizational unit and GTE Electrical Products, consisting of lighting, precision materials, and electrical equipment, was formed. Vanderslice also revitalized the GT&E Telephone Operating Group in order to develop competitive strategies for anticipated regulatory changes in the telecommunications industry.
GT&E sold its consumer electronics businesses, including the accompanying brand names of Philco and Sylvania in 1980, after watching revenues from television and radio operations decrease precipitously with the success of foreign manufacturers. Following AT&T's 1982 announcement that it would divest 22 telephone operating companies, GT&E made a number of reorganization moves.
In 1982 the company adopted the name GTE Corporation and formed GTE Mobilnet Incorporated to handle the company's entrance into the new cellular telephone business. In 1983 GTE sold its electrical equipment, brokerage information services, and cable television equipment businesses. That same year, Automatic Electric and Lenkurt were combined as GTE Network Systems.
GTE became the third-largest long-distance telephone company in 1983 through the acquisition of Southern Pacific Communications Company. At the same time, Southern Pacific Satellite Company was acquired, and the two firms were renamed GTE
SprintA sprint is a sharp burst of forward movement.Sprint may refer to:*Sprint , a type of short race in athletics*Sprint, a major Cellular and Tier 1 telecommunications company in the United States originally called Sprint until July 2005...
Communications Corporation and GTE
SpacenetSpacenet, Inc. is a provider of VSAT satellite-based data network services as well as hybrid satellite/terrestrial networks and network management services...
Corporation, respectively. Through an agreement with the Department of Justice, GTE conceded to keep Sprint Communications separate from its other telephone companies and limit other GTE telephone subsidiaries in certain markets. In December 1983 Vanderslice resigned as president and chief operating officer.
In 1984 GTE formalized its decision to concentrate on three core businesses: telecommunications, lighting, and precision metals. That same year, the company's first satellite was launched, and GTE's cellular telephone service went into operation; GTE's earnings exceeded $1 billion for the first time. In 1986, GTE acquired Airfone Inc., a telephone service provider for commercial aircraft and railroads, and Rotaflex plc, a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of lighting fixtures.
Beginning in 1986 GTE spun off several operations to form joint ventures. In 1986 GTE Sprint and United Telecommunication's long-distance subsidiary, U.S. Telecom, agreed to merge and form US Sprint Communications Company, with each parent retaining a 50 percent interest in the new firm. That same year, GTE transferred its international transmission, overseas central office switching, and business systems operations to a joint venture with Siemens AG of Germany, which took 80 percent ownership of the new firm. The following year, GTE transferred its business systems operations in the United States to a new joint venture, Fujitsu GTE Business Systems, Inc., formed with Fujitsu Limited, which retained 80 percent ownership.
In 1988 GTE divested its consumer communications products unit as part of a telecommunications strategy to place increasing emphasis on the services sector. The following year GTE sold the majority of its interest in US Sprint to United Telecommunications and its interest in Fujitsu GTE Business Systems to Fujitsu.
In 1989 GTE and AT&T formed the joint venture company AG Communication Systems Corporation, designed to bring advanced digital technology to GTE's switching systems. GTE retained 51 percent control over the joint venture, with AT&T pledging to take complete control of the new firm in 15 years.
With an increasing emphasis on telecommunications, in 1989 GTE launched a program to become the first cellular provider offering nationwide service and introduced the nation's first rural service area, providing cellular service on the Hawaiian island of
KauaiKauai or Kauai is the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago and the 21st largest island in the United States...
. The following year GTE acquired the Providence Journal Company's cellular properties in five southern states for $710 million and became the second largest cellular-service provider in the United States.
In 1990 GTE reorganized its activities around three business groups: telecommunications products and services, telephone operations, and electrical products. That same year, GTE and
ContelConTel Corporation was the third largest independent phone company in the United States prior to the 1996 telecom deregulation. It was acquired by GTE in 1991.- History :...
Corporation announced merger plans that would strengthen GTE's telecommunications and telephone sectors.
Following action or review by more than 20 governmental bodies, in March 1991 the merger of GTE and Contel was approved. Over half of Contel's $6.6 billion purchase price, $3.9 billion, was assumed debt. When Charles Lee succeeded James (Rocky) L. Johnson to become CEO in 1992, his first order of business was reduction of that obligation. He sold GTE's North American Lighting business to a Siemens affiliate for over $1 billion, shaved off local exchange properties in
IdahoIdaho is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans." Idaho was admitted to the Union on 3 July 1890 as the 43rd state....
,
TennesseeTennessee is a state located in the Southeastern United States. According to the 2008 census, it has a population of 6,214,888, an increase of nearly 9.5% since 2000. Tennessee is the 14th fastest growing state in the US and is ranked 17th by population. It is ranked 36th by total land area. In...
,
UtahUtah is a western state of the United States. It was the 45th state admitted to the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80 percent of Utah's 2,736,424 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering around Salt Lake City. In contrast, vast expanses of the state are nearly uninhabited, making...
, and
West VirginiaWest Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast...
to generate another $1 billion, divested its interest in
SprintA sprint is a sharp burst of forward movement.Sprint may refer to:*Sprint , a type of short race in athletics*Sprint, a major Cellular and Tier 1 telecommunications company in the United States originally called Sprint until July 2005...
in 1992, and sold its GTE
SpacenetSpacenet, Inc. is a provider of VSAT satellite-based data network services as well as hybrid satellite/terrestrial networks and network management services...
satellite operations to
General ElectricThe General Electric Company, or GE , is a multinational American technology and services conglomerate incorporated in the State of New York. In 2009, Forbes ranked GE as the world's largest company...
in 1994.
The
Telecommunications Act of 1996The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first major overhaul of United States telecommunications law in nearly 62 years, amending the Communications Act of 1934.-Prior regime:...
, promised to encourage competition among local phone providers, long distance services, and cable television companies. Many leading telecoms prepared for the new competitive realities by aligning themselves with entertainment and information providers. GTE, on the other hand, continued to focus on its core operations, seeking to make them as efficient as possible.
Among other goals, GTE's plan sought to double revenues and slash costs by $1 billion per year by focusing on five key areas of operation: technological enhancement of wireline and wireless systems, expansion of data services, global expansion, and diversification into video services. GTE hoped to cross-sell its large base of wireline customers on wireless, data and video services, launching Tele-Go, a user-friendly service that combined cordless and cellular phone features. The company bought broadband spectrum cellular licenses in Atlanta, Seattle, Cincinnati and Denver, and formed a joint venture with SBC Communications to enhance its cellular capabilities in Texas. In 1995, the company undertook a 15-state test of video conferencing services, as well as a video dialtone (VDT) experiment that proposed to offer cable television programming to 900,000 homes by 1997. GTE also formed a video programming and interservices joint venture with
AmeritechAT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly Ameritech Corporation is a U.S. telecommunications company that arose out of the 1984 AT&T divestiture...
Corporation,
BellSouthBellSouth Corporation is an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S...
Corporation, SBC, and
The Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company , often simply known as Disney, is the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world, known for its family-friendly products...
in the fall of 1995. Foreign efforts included affiliations with phone companies in
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
,
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the
Dominican RepublicThe Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are occupied by two countries...
,
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
and
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. The early 1990s reorganization included a 37.5 percent workforce reduction, from 177,500 in 1991 to 111,000 by 1994. Lee's fivefold strategy had begun to bear fruit by the mid-1990s. While the communication conglomerate's sales remained rather flat, at about $19.8 billion, from 1992 through 1994, its net income increased by 43.7 percent, from $1.74 billion to a record $2.5 billion, during the same period.
Merger with Bell Atlantic
Bell Atlantic merged with GTE on June 30, 2000, renaming itself
Verizon CommunicationsVerizon Communications Inc. is an American broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It was formed in 2000 when Bell Atlantic, one of the Regional Bell Operating Companies, merged with GTE. Prior to its transformation into Verizon, Bell Atlantic...
. The seven GTE operating companies retained by Verizon are now collectively known as
Verizon West division of Verizon (including east coast service territories). Six others were sold off:
Retained by Verizon
- Verizon California, Inc.
- Verizon Florida, Inc.
- Verizon Northwest, Inc.
- Verizon South
Verizon South, Inc. is an entirely separate company of Contel of the South, who now does business as Verizon Mid-States.Verizon South, Inc. is a Verizon operating company serving a former GTE region...
, Inc.
- GTE Southwest
GTE Southwest, Inc. is a Verizon operating company serving a former GTE region. GTE Southwest, at its peak, originally served Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico.Its original name upon founding was State Telephone Company of Texas...
, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Southwest
- Verizon North, Inc.
- Contel of the South
Contel of the South, Inc. is a former ConTel operating company GTE acquired. It did business as GTE Systems of the South. GTE Systems of the South provided service in ConTel regions in Alabama and Georgia....
, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Mid-States
Sold/transferred
- GTE Alaska Inc., sold to ATEAC
- GTE Arkansas, Inc. sold to CenturyTel
CenturyTel, Inc. formerly named Century Telephone Enterprises, Inc. is a United States telecommunications firm, headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana. A member of the S&P 500 index, the company primarily operates as a local exchange carrier and Internet service provider in rural markets in 26 states,...
- GTE Hawaiian Telephone Company, Inc.
Hawaiian Telcom is the incumbent local exchange carrier or dominant local telephone company, serving the state of Hawaii. It was formed in 2005 by The Carlyle Group, following its purchase of the Hawaii assets of Verizon Communications, which was known as Verizon Hawaii, Inc., and previously as...
, later Verizon Hawaii, Inc., sold to The Carlyle Group in 2005
- Micronesian Telecommunications
- GTE Midwest Inc.
GTE Midwest, Inc. was a GTE operating company formed in 1993 upon the split off of GTE local telephone operations from GTE North, Inc. GTE Midwest served Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota, and included the operations of Contel in Iowa and Missouri....
, later Verizon Midwest, Inc., sold to CenturyTelCenturyTel, Inc. formerly named Century Telephone Enterprises, Inc. is a United States telecommunications firm, headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana. A member of the S&P 500 index, the company primarily operates as a local exchange carrier and Internet service provider in rural markets in 26 states,...
- Contel of Minnesota, Inc., sold to Citizens Communications
Frontier Communications Corporation was formerly known as Citizens Communications Corporation. Company stockholders approved changing the name at the annual meeting on May 15, 2008. The name change became effective on July 31, 2008, and the company's stock symbol on the New York Stock Exchange...
- GTE of Iowa - Spun off to Iowa Telecom
Iowa Telecommunications Services, Inc., commonly known as Iowa Telecom, provides local telephone service to former GTE customers in Iowa. Iowa Telecom was founded in 1999 as a partnership between Iowa Network Services and ING Barings. It acquired the assets of GTE Midwest that served Iowa following...
- Verizon Dominicana (CODETEL)
CODETEL is the largest telecommunications company in the Dominican Republic providing local, long-distance, and wireless voice services, together with advanced data services and their new service of IPTV called , to approximately four million customers....
, sold to América MóvilAmérica Móvil is a holding company forming the fourth largest mobile network operator in terms of equity subscribers, the largest corporation in Latin America, and a Fortune 500 company. A venture of Carlos Slim Helú, América Móvil provides services to over 182 million wireless subscribers in the...
- Telecomunicaciones de Puerto Rico d/b/a Puerto Rico Telephone, assets sold to América Móvil
América Móvil is a holding company forming the fourth largest mobile network operator in terms of equity subscribers, the largest corporation in Latin America, and a Fortune 500 company. A venture of Carlos Slim Helú, América Móvil provides services to over 182 million wireless subscribers in the...
- GTE Government Systems to General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation is a U.S. defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world. The company has changed markedly in the post-Cold War era of defense consolidation. The company has four main business segments:...
- GTE Wireless (assets in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, New Mexico, South Carolina and Texas) sold to Alltel
Alltel Corporation was a wireless telecommunications services provider, primarily based in the Southern United States. It was, until its acquisition by Verizon Wireless, the fifth largest wireless telecommunications company in the United States, with 14.7 million customers.At its peak, Alltel...
.