RBOCs

RBOCs
(US) Local Telco
(US) IXCs
Canadian Carriers
Other Carriers

Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs)

The big split:

Since the split of the Bell monopoly in the 1980s, many regional companies have either bought out competing Bells, or themselves been purchased by larger entities. Here is the list of RBOCs after regional consolidation in the early 1990s immediately following the split:

Ameritech
Bell Atlantic
BellSouth
Cincinnati Bell Telephone
Nevada Bell
New England Bell
NYNEX
Pacific Bell (Pacific Telecom or PacTel)
Southwestern Bell Telephone
Southern New England Telephone (SNET)
USWest

Other companies such as GTE, Alltel, Williams and Century Telephone also provided local service in scattered areas between the territories of the 'Baby Bells'

Reassembling the puzzle:

In the mid and late 1990s, industry consolidation through mergers and acquisitions reduced the number of corporations that handled local phone service. This was facilitated with the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which promised equal access to local and long-distance service to any company willing to open their local market to competition. Since large corporations could afford to do that more easily, Bells merged or were acquired to accomplish that goal. The remaining RBOCs today are:

BellSouth
Broadwing
(contains the former assets of Cincinnati Bell)
Qwest
(covers the territory formerly served by USWest)
SBC Corporation
(comprised of the former assets of Ameritech, Nevada Bell, PacTel, SNET and Southwestern Bell)
Verizon
(the merged entities of Bell Atlantic, who had purchased NYNEX, who had acquired New England Bell and GTE Communications)

The changes are far from over, however. With Qwest in financial trouble and a shaky overall telecom market, due in large part to current economic conditions and soft demand for 'traditional' telecom services, more shifting of telecommunications assets is assured.

	RBOC Headlines
		SBC Exits Canadian Telecom Market 06/28/02 In a press release, SBC Comm. Inc. announced that Bell Canada Holdings Inc. has repurchased from an SBC subsidiary, a portion of SBC's interest in Bell Canada Holdings Inc., for approximately US$870 million. The companies have also entered into an agreement which gives SBC the right to sell its remaining 16-percent interest in Bell Canada Holdings Inc. to BCE for a one-month period beginning on Jan. 3, 2003. SBC Ameritech purchased the minority interest in Bell Canada Holdings Inc. from BCE Inc. in June 1999 for US$3.4 billion in cash.