WSJ: Telcom Industry Consolidation Graphic

Two companies omitted in the graphic:

Cincinnati Bell and Southern New England Telephone were the only two companies in the old Bell System that were owned independently of AT&T (AT&T held only minority interests in these two companies); therefore, neither was considered a Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC). AT&T held 27.8% interest in Cincinnati Bell before 1984. In 1998, SNET was bought by SBC, an RBOC, but Cincinnati Bell has remained independent.

SNET provided wireline and wireless telephone service in the state of Connecticut untill 1998 when it was bought by SBC which eventually became AT&T.

Cincinnati & Suburban Bell (which was shortened to Cincinnati Bell) had exclusive rights to the Bell franchise within a 25-mile (40-km) radius of Cincinnati. It provides wireline and wireless service in Cincinnati and parts of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

 

They omitted New England Telephone, as well. They served all of New England, except Conneticut, and then merged with New York Telephone (forget if that was the exact name), to form the NYNEX (New York New England Exchange) that is listed.

 

Is it me, or do people miss the company that was acquired? In my case when CenturyTel took over Embarq, everything went down. My heart goes out to the Qwest folks out west. Also, folks I know who had BellSouth aren't so fond of AT&T... kinda sad to see the HQ move from Atlanta to Dallas... at least the wireless division (of the vestiges thereof) is in Atlanta.

Or when Alltel was bought by Verizon, lots of folks missed them.

Oh well, that's life.

 

I'm so glad I got away from Qworst 10 years ago. If Qwest was bad then it's likely to be worse than ever under CenturyLink. Service also went down the terlet when FairPoint took over from Verizon in the northern New England states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Joe Nacchio who gloated about Qwest taking USWest is now serving 6 years in jail for his financial shenanigans with the books on of USWest