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The year of proved pivotal for Bell Atlantic's future. A long-awaited ruling in the federal courts gave the company a sweet victory; a federal judge finally ruled in favor of the Baby Bells to offer long-distance services. Bell Atlantic wasted little time, becoming the first Baby Bell to jump into the long-distance market by recruiting customers in Florida, Illinois, North and South Carolina, and Texas in early Another major development in was the announcement that Bell Atlantic and NYNEX would merge and become the nation's second-largest telephone company.
Though the official announcement came as a surprise to few rumors had been swirling for months , the deal was at once controversial and ironic—once-struggling Baby Bells were beginning to rival their old parent company. Soon after news of the merger was made public, a new operating unit called Bell Atlantic Internet Solutions debuted, giving customers in Washington, D.
The new company's assets serviced 25 percent of the overall U. By early the new Bell Atlantic had The company was also the world's largest publisher of both print and electronic directories, with over 80 million distributed annually. In March , the largest merger in the history of the telecommunications industry united two former U. Designed to take advantage of the two companies' complementary businesses, the merger strengthened GTE's assets in two of its three major areas of operations: telephone service and telecommunications products.
From the outset, John F. O'Connell, Sigurd L. Odegard, and John A. Pratt worked under the guiding principle that better telephone service could be rendered to small communities if a number of exchanges were operated under one managing body. The first two decades of operation involved numerous acquisitions and growth. By the company resurfaced as General Telephone Corporation, operating 12 newly consolidated companies.
John Winn, a year veteran of the Bell System, was named president. In 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 , telephone lines between and In General Telephone purchased its first telephone equipment manufacturing subsidiary, Leich Electric Company, along with the related Leich Sales Corporation.
The merger gave Sylvania; a leader in such industries as lighting, television and radio, and chemistry and metallurgy; 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. That same year Sylvania acquired name and distribution rights for Philco television and stereo products.
In , the company reorganized along five global product lines: communications, lighting, consumer electronics, precision materials, and electrical equipment. Another reorganization followed in In GTE sold its electrical equipment, brokerage information services, and cable television equipment businesses. GTE became the third-largest long-distance telephone company in through the acquisition of Southern Pacific Communications Company.
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 GTE formalized its decision to concentrate on three core businesses: telecommunications, lighting, and precision metals.
Beginning in GTE spun off several operations to form joint ventures. 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. In , the company organized its telephone companies around a single national organization headquartered in the Dallas, Texas area. In , GTE divested its consumer communications products unit as part of a telecommunications strategy to place increasing emphasis on the services sector.
With an increasing emphasis on telecommunications, in 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 Kauai. In GTE reorganized its activities around three business groups: telecommunications products and services, telephone operations, and electrical products.
Following action or review by more than 20 governmental bodies, in March the merger of GTE and Contel was approved. GTE Corporation ranked as the world's third-largest publicly owned telecommunications company in With over 20 million telephone access lines in 40 states, the communications conglomerate was America's leading provider of local telephone services.
GTE's strategy for the mid- to lates focused on technological enhancement of wireline and wireless systems, expansion of data services, global expansion, and diversification into video services. While important, that move was eclipsed by the merger with GTE announced later that same year.
Through that transition, the two former competitors were expected to integrate telephone and mobile-cellular operations and capitalize on business unit similarities in the field of satellitecommunications as well as in communications systems and services targeting government entities. The long-heralded telecommunications bill, expected to go into effect in , 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. In a sweeping reorganization effort was launched that was characterized by Telephony magazine as "easily one of the nation's largest re-engineering processes. GTE hoped to cross-sell its large base of wireline customers on wireless, data and video services by 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 the company undertook a state test of videoconferencing services, as well as a video dialtone VDT experiment that proposed to offer cable television programming to , homes by The early s reorganization included a The fivefold strategy had begun to bear fruit by the mids.
By GTE Corporation ranked as the world's third-largest publicly owned telecommunications company. The year would be as pivotal as in the telecommunications industry.
The Telecommunications Act was designed to meet the needs of communications for the new century. By this time communications had invaded all aspects of life: wireless, television, computer, the Internet, commerce, education, and research. Until then the communications industry had consisted of telephone service.
Broadcast, electricity, and computing had their own industries. The new law eradicated these boundaries. The Telecommunications Act allowed for any company to compete in any industry. Electric companies could provide Internet access if they wanted. Cable bills could be consolidated with phone bills. The heart of the Telecommunications Act was to allow more competition among communications providers.
This also meant that different companies could offer different parts of a phone service, and consumers could choose which company they wanted to pay for each part for "local" versus "long" distance. The concept was not new; what was new was the advent of advanced equipment and technology that allowed such industries to meld.
The Telecommunications Act not only allowed for companies to interconnect—it required it. Because of the available technology and the freedom to offer more services, phone companies began massive restructuring and acquisitions. The wireless division got underway first; the Verizon moniker and logos appeared soon after. The re-branding and melding of the two companies was a formidable task; when the merger was first announced in July Bell Atlantic operated in 13 Mid-Atlantic states and encompassed local telephone service, video, Internet, and wireless divisions.
GTE had wireless, Internet, video, local telephone, and long-distance service in 28 mostly western states.
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