Regional Bell Operating Companies RBOCs

In 1984, due to divestiture, AT&T consolidated its 22 Bell operating companies into 7 Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs). These companies would be in charge of all local telephony services.

The RBOCs were:

• NYNEX
• Bell Atlantic
• Bell South
• Southwestern Bell
• Pacific Telesis
• Ameritech
• US West

Once the RBOCs were established, three large Independent Telephone Companies (ITCs) appeared. These three companies were formed through purchases of smaller independent companies by larger ones.

These companies were:

• General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) - Stanford
• United Telephone Systems, Inc. - Kansas City
• Continental Telecom Inc. - Atlanta.

Additionally, other Independent companies still operated pin remote areas.

After a further series of buy-outs and mergers, four RBOCs remained:

Southwestern Bell Communications: Result of the merger of Southwestern Bell, Pacific Telesis, Southern New England Telephone and Ameritech.

Verizon: Result of a merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX that became Bell Atlantic. Bell Atlantic purchased General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) and renamed it to Verizon.

Qwest: Result of the purchase of US West by Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) carrier Qwest.

Bell South: The same Bell company that started the industry. It is now divided into different regions, such as Bellsouth, Southwestern Bell, etc.

Competitive Local Exchange Carrier

CLECs

As geographic areas were established for the regional bell operating companies (RBOCs), independent (non-Bell) local service providers were also allowed to operate in these areas. These companies are known as CLECs (competitive local exchange carrier). The inclusion of these companies in each geographic region assigned to the RBOCs was done in the hope of fostering competition in the local market.