fbpx
Wikipedia

GTE

December 29, 2022

For other uses, see GTE (disambiguation).

GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982),[1] was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing further back than that, until 2000, when it was acquired by Bell Atlantic; the combined company took the name Verizon.

GTE Corporation
TypePublic company
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1934; 88 years ago (1934)
Defunct2000; 22 years ago (2000)
FateAcquired by Bell Atlantic
SuccessorVerizon Communications
HeadquartersStamford, Connecticut, U.S.
ProductsTelephone, internet, television
SubsidiariesGTE Southwest
CODETEL
Verizon California
Verizon Florida
Verizon North
Verizon South
Hawaiian Telephone
Puerto Rico Telephone
WebsiteGTE.com

The Wisconsin-based Associated Telephone Utilities Company was founded in 1926; it went bankrupt in 1933 during the Great Depression, and was reorganized as General Telephone in 1934.[2] In 1991, it acquired the third largest independent, Continental Telephone (ConTel).[3] It owned Automatic Electric, a telephone equipment supplier similar in many ways to Western Electric, and Sylvania Lighting, the only non-communications-oriented company under GTE ownership. GTE provided local telephone service to many areas of the U.S. through operating companies, much as American Telephone & Telegraph provided local telephone service through its 22 Bell Operating Companies.

The company 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) to satisfy Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements regarding the GTE-Bell Atlantic merger that created Verizon.[4]

GTE operated in Canada 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 Telephones (AGT)) to create BCT.Telus, 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.[5]

In the Caribbean, CONTEL purchased several major stakes in the newly independent countries of the British West Indies (namely in Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago).[6][7][8]

Prior to GTE's merger with Bell Atlantic, GTE also maintained an interactive television service joint-venture called GTE mainStreet (sometimes also called mainStreet USA) as well as an interactive entertainment and video game publishing operation, GTE Interactive Media.[9][10][11]

History

In 1918, Wisconsin public utility accountants Sigurd L. Odegard, John A. Pratt, John F. O'Connell bought the Richland Center Telephone Company for over US$30,000 (equivalent to $540,465 in 2021) in Wisconsin. In 1920, the three accountants formed Commonwealth Telephone Company as the parent of Richland Center Telephone. Odegard was named president, Pratt vice-president, and O'Connell secretary. In 1922, Clarence R. Brown took over as vice-president when Pratt left the company that year.[12]

Commonwealth Telephone expanded across southern Wisconsin, and made its first purchase outside the state later in the decade when it bought Belvidere Telephone Company in Illinois. It also acquired two electric utilities in Wisconsin. In 1926, the company bought Associated Telephone Company in Long Beach, California. Later that year, Commonwealth Telephone and Associated Telephone merged as Associated Telephone Utilities.

From 1926 to 1933, Associated Telephone Utilities bought over 300 telephone companies across the United States. During this time period, Associated Telephone Investment Company was created in 1930 as a branch of Associated Telephone Utilities. By 1933, both Associated Telephone Utilities and its branch went out of business due to financial losses.

General Telephone

In 1935, General Telephone Corporation was established with John Winn as president. The following year, the company created General Telephone Directory Company as a division. During World War II, General Telephone helped install phone service for military facilities. From 1946 to 1950, General Telephone obtained over 100,000 telephone lines and bought out Leich Electric Company.

General Telephone's holdings included 15 telephone companies across 20 states by 1951, when Donald C. Power was named president of the company under chairman and long-time GT executive Morris F. LaCroix, replacing the retiring Harold Bozell (president 1940 – 1951). Power proceeded to expand the company through the 1950s principally through two acquisitions.

In 1955, Theodore Gary & Company became a part of General Telephone and allowed the company to hold over 2 million telephone lines after the company merge. It also had a subsidiary, named the General Telephone and Electric Corporation, formed in 1930 with the Transamerica Corporation and British investors to compete against ITT.[13]

In 1959, Sylvania Electric Products merged into General Telephone and was renamed to General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (GT&E). Power also obtained the purchases of multiple companies. such as Lenkurt Electric Company, Inc and Peninsular Telephone Company. In 1960, GT&E International Incorporated was created as a branch company. Power was named C.E.O. and chairman in 1961, making way for Leslie H. Warner, formerly of Theodore Gary, to become president. Simultaneously, GT&E went on to buy Community Antenna Television providers.

In 1964, Western Utilities Corporation became part of GT&E. Additional purchases during the 1960s included Hawaiian Telephone Company and Northern Ohio Telephone Company. At the end of the decade, ten million GT&E phones were active.

 
KarTrak Automated Car Identification system on a caboose in Florida

In the late 1960s, GT&E joined in the search for a railroad car Automatic Car Identification system. It designed the KarTrak optical system, which won over other manufacturer's systems in field trials, but ultimately proved to need too much maintenance. In the late 1970s the system was abandoned.

After a 1970 bomb attack to the company's headquarters in New York City, the company relocated to Stamford, Connecticut for their new headquarters. In 1971 GT&E undertook an identity change and became simply GTE, while Sylvania Electric Products became GTE Sylvania.[14] The same year, Donald C. Power retired and Leslie H. Warner became chairman of the board. Theodore F. Brophy was brought in as president.

In 1974, GTE worked with American Telephone & Telegraph in a project to create satellite stations. A few years later, the company's international branch was replaced by a GTE products company in 1976. Their products company remained until 1979. In 1979, GTE purchased Telenet to establish a presence in the growing packet switching data communications business. GTE Telenet was later included in the US Telecom joint venture.

1980s

In December 1983 Vanderslice stepped down as the company's president and chief operating officer.

 
A manhole cover featuring the company logo in Hillsboro, Oregon

In April 1988, after the retirement of Theodore F. Brophy, James L. "Rocky" Johnson was promoted from his position as president and chief operating officer to CEO of GTE; he was appointed chairman in 1991.[15]

1990s

In April 1992, James L. "Rocky" Johnson retired after 43 years at GTE, remaining on the GTE board of directors as chairman Emeritus. Charles "Chuck" Lee was named to succeed Johnson. In 1994, Lee sold the company's satellite provider, Spacenet, to General Electric and Contel of Maine to Oxford Networks, which placed the company into a newly created subsidiary, Oxford West Telephone.[12]

Merger with Bell Atlantic

 
Original Verizon logo introduced at the time of the acquisition

Bell Atlantic merged with GTE on June 30, 2000, and named the new entity Verizon Communications. The GTE operating companies retained by Verizon are now collectively known as Verizon West division of Verizon (including east coast service territories). The remaining smaller operating companies were sold off or transferred into the remaining ones. Additional properties were sold off within a few years after the merger to CenturyTel, Alltel, and Hawaiian Telcom. On July 1, 2010, Verizon sold many former GTE properties to Frontier Communications.[16] Other GTE territories in California, Florida, and Texas were sold to Frontier in 2015 and transferred in 2016, thus ending Verizon's landline operations outside of the historic Bell Atlantic footprint.[17] Verizon still operates phone service in non-Bell System areas in Pennsylvania under Verizon North, and in non-Bell System areas in Virginia and Knotts Island, North Carolina under Verizon South.

Operating companies

Prior to the merger with Bell Atlantic, GTE owned the following operating companies in the US:[18]

Following the merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic, some of these companies and/or access lines have been sold off to other companies, such as Alltel, ATEAC,[19] The Carlyle Group, CenturyTel, Citizens/Frontier Communications, and Valor Telecom.

References

  1. ^ "Bell Atlantic and GTE Pick Post-Merger Name". The New York Times. April 4, 2000. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  2. ^ "GTE Corporation". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
  3. ^ "Investor Relations – Verizon".
  4. ^ "Bell Atlantic and GTE Chairmen Praise FCC Merger Approval". Verizon. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  5. ^ . TELUS News Release. December 14, 2004. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved September 8, 2008.
  6. ^ Felipe M Noguera. "Telecommunications in The Caribbean".
  7. ^ . Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved June 8, 2007.
  8. ^ . Archived from the original on August 20, 2008. Retrieved June 8, 2007.
  9. ^ Linda Haugsted (December 7, 1992). . Multichannel News. Archived from the original on May 16, 2011.
  10. ^ "Creative Multimedia and GTE Main Street Strike Partnership; New agreement will deliver CD-ROMs over subscribers' TV sets". Business Wire. May 30, 1995.
  11. ^ Mike Farrell (May 24, 2004). "Sale of Cerritos Cable System Expected Soon". Multichannel News.
  12. ^ a b "GTE Corporation – Company History". Fundinguniverse.com. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
  13. ^ "Business & Finance: Transamerica into Telephones", Time, October 20, 1930.
  14. ^ "Company History". Vintage Sylvania. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
  15. ^ Ramirez, Anthony (December 13, 1991). "Business People; President of GTE Is Named Chairman". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 29, 2020.
  16. ^ FCC Internet Services Staff. "Corporate History – Verizon Communications (formerly GTE Corporation)". Fcc.gov. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
  17. ^ "Verizon must slash $375M in costs to stay on even keel following Frontier sale, Jefferies says". FierceTelecom.
  18. ^ Affiliated Interest Agreement – Advice No. 26. Verizon Northwest, Inc. Exhibit 1.
  19. ^ "News Releases – Verizon News".

External links

  • GTE.com (Archive)
  • ‘Birthplace of GTE’ historical marker in Richland Center, Wisconsin

December 29, 2022
other, uses, disambiguation, corporation, formerly, general, telephone, electronics, corporation, 1955, 1982, largest, independent, telephone, company, united, states, during, days, bell, system, company, operated, from, 1926, with, roots, tracing, further, ba. For other uses see GTE disambiguation GTE Corporation formerly General Telephone amp Electronics Corporation 1955 1982 1 was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System The company operated from 1926 with roots tracing further back than that until 2000 when it was acquired by Bell Atlantic the combined company took the name Verizon GTE CorporationTypePublic companyIndustryTelecommunicationsFounded1934 88 years ago 1934 Defunct2000 22 years ago 2000 FateAcquired by Bell AtlanticSuccessorVerizon CommunicationsHeadquartersStamford Connecticut U S ProductsTelephone internet televisionSubsidiariesGTE SouthwestCODETELVerizon CaliforniaVerizon FloridaVerizon NorthVerizon SouthHawaiian TelephonePuerto Rico TelephoneWebsiteGTE comThe Wisconsin based Associated Telephone Utilities Company was founded in 1926 it went bankrupt in 1933 during the Great Depression and was reorganized as General Telephone in 1934 2 In 1991 it acquired the third largest independent Continental Telephone ConTel 3 It owned Automatic Electric a telephone equipment supplier similar in many ways to Western Electric and Sylvania Lighting the only non communications oriented company under GTE ownership GTE provided local telephone service to many areas of the U S through operating companies much as American Telephone amp Telegraph provided local telephone service through its 22 Bell Operating Companies The company 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 to satisfy Federal Communications Commission FCC requirements regarding the GTE Bell Atlantic merger that created Verizon 4 GTE operated in Canada via large interests in subsidiary companies such as BC Tel and Quebec Telephone 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 Telephones AGT to create BCT Telus 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 5 In the Caribbean CONTEL purchased several major stakes in the newly independent countries of the British West Indies namely in Barbados Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago 6 7 8 Prior to GTE s merger with Bell Atlantic GTE also maintained an interactive television service joint venture called GTE mainStreet sometimes also called mainStreet USA as well as an interactive entertainment and video game publishing operation GTE Interactive Media 9 10 11 Contents 1 History 1 1 General Telephone 1 2 1980s 1 3 1990s 2 Merger with Bell Atlantic 3 Operating companies 4 References 5 External linksHistory EditIn 1918 Wisconsin public utility accountants Sigurd L Odegard John A Pratt John F O Connell bought the Richland Center Telephone Company for over US 30 000 equivalent to 540 465 in 2021 in Wisconsin In 1920 the three accountants formed Commonwealth Telephone Company as the parent of Richland Center Telephone Odegard was named president Pratt vice president and O Connell secretary In 1922 Clarence R Brown took over as vice president when Pratt left the company that year 12 Commonwealth Telephone expanded across southern Wisconsin and made its first purchase outside the state later in the decade when it bought Belvidere Telephone Company in Illinois It also acquired two electric utilities in Wisconsin In 1926 the company bought Associated Telephone Company in Long Beach California Later that year Commonwealth Telephone and Associated Telephone merged as Associated Telephone Utilities From 1926 to 1933 Associated Telephone Utilities bought over 300 telephone companies across the United States During this time period Associated Telephone Investment Company was created in 1930 as a branch of Associated Telephone Utilities By 1933 both Associated Telephone Utilities and its branch went out of business due to financial losses General Telephone Edit In 1935 General Telephone Corporation was established with John Winn as president The following year the company created General Telephone Directory Company as a division During World War II General Telephone helped install phone service for military facilities From 1946 to 1950 General Telephone obtained over 100 000 telephone lines and bought out Leich Electric Company General Telephone s holdings included 15 telephone companies across 20 states by 1951 when Donald C Power was named president of the company under chairman and long time GT executive Morris F LaCroix replacing the retiring Harold Bozell president 1940 1951 Power proceeded to expand the company through the 1950s principally through two acquisitions In 1955 Theodore Gary amp Company became a part of General Telephone and allowed the company to hold over 2 million telephone lines after the company merge It also had a subsidiary named the General Telephone and Electric Corporation formed in 1930 with the Transamerica Corporation and British investors to compete against ITT 13 In 1959 Sylvania Electric Products merged into General Telephone and was renamed to General Telephone amp Electronics Corporation GT amp E Power also obtained the purchases of multiple companies such as Lenkurt Electric Company Inc and Peninsular Telephone Company In 1960 GT amp E International Incorporated was created as a branch company Power was named C E O and chairman in 1961 making way for Leslie H Warner formerly of Theodore Gary to become president Simultaneously GT amp E went on to buy Community Antenna Television providers In 1964 Western Utilities Corporation became part of GT amp E Additional purchases during the 1960s included Hawaiian Telephone Company and Northern Ohio Telephone Company At the end of the decade ten million GT amp E phones were active KarTrak Automated Car Identification system on a caboose in FloridaIn the late 1960s GT amp E joined in the search for a railroad car Automatic Car Identification system It designed the KarTrak optical system which won over other manufacturer s systems in field trials but ultimately proved to need too much maintenance In the late 1970s the system was abandoned After a 1970 bomb attack to the company s headquarters in New York City the company relocated to Stamford Connecticut for their new headquarters In 1971 GT amp E undertook an identity change and became simply GTE while Sylvania Electric Products became GTE Sylvania 14 The same year Donald C Power retired and Leslie H Warner became chairman of the board Theodore F Brophy was brought in as president In 1974 GTE worked with American Telephone amp Telegraph in a project to create satellite stations A few years later the company s international branch was replaced by a GTE products company in 1976 Their products company remained until 1979 In 1979 GTE purchased Telenet to establish a presence in the growing packet switching data communications business GTE Telenet was later included in the US Telecom joint venture 1980s Edit In December 1983 Vanderslice stepped down as the company s president and chief operating officer A manhole cover featuring the company logo in Hillsboro Oregon In April 1988 after the retirement of Theodore F Brophy James L Rocky Johnson was promoted from his position as president and chief operating officer to CEO of GTE he was appointed chairman in 1991 15 1990s Edit In April 1992 James L Rocky Johnson retired after 43 years at GTE remaining on the GTE board of directors as chairman Emeritus Charles Chuck Lee was named to succeed Johnson In 1994 Lee sold the company s satellite provider Spacenet to General Electric and Contel of Maine to Oxford Networks which placed the company into a newly created subsidiary Oxford West Telephone 12 Merger with Bell Atlantic Edit Original Verizon logo introduced at the time of the acquisition Bell Atlantic merged with GTE on June 30 2000 and named the new entity Verizon Communications The GTE operating companies retained by Verizon are now collectively known as Verizon West division of Verizon including east coast service territories The remaining smaller operating companies were sold off or transferred into the remaining ones Additional properties were sold off within a few years after the merger to CenturyTel Alltel and Hawaiian Telcom On July 1 2010 Verizon sold many former GTE properties to Frontier Communications 16 Other GTE territories in California Florida and Texas were sold to Frontier in 2015 and transferred in 2016 thus ending Verizon s landline operations outside of the historic Bell Atlantic footprint 17 Verizon still operates phone service in non Bell System areas in Pennsylvania under Verizon North and in non Bell System areas in Virginia and Knotts Island North Carolina under Verizon South Operating companies EditPrior to the merger with Bell Atlantic GTE owned the following operating companies in the US 18 Contel of Minnesota Inc Contel of the South Inc Alabama Indiana Michigan GTE Alaska Incorporated GTE Arkansas Incorporated GTE California Incorporated Arizona California Nevada GTE Florida Incorporated GTE Hawaiian Telephone Company Inc GTE Midwest Incorporated Iowa Missouri Nebraska GTE North Incorporated Illinois Indiana Michigan Ohio Pennsylvania Wisconsin GTE Northwest Incorporated Idaho Oregon Washington GTE South Incorporated Illinois Kentucky North Carolina South Carolina Wisconsin GTE Southwest Incorporated Arkansas New Mexico Oklahoma Texas GTE West Coast Incorporated California Following the merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic some of these companies and or access lines have been sold off to other companies such as Alltel ATEAC 19 The Carlyle Group CenturyTel Citizens Frontier Communications and Valor Telecom References Edit Bell Atlantic and GTE Pick Post Merger Name The New York Times April 4 2000 Retrieved March 15 2015 GTE Corporation Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved January 2 2014 Investor Relations Verizon Bell Atlantic and GTE Chairmen Praise FCC Merger Approval Verizon Retrieved January 10 2014 Sale of 73 5 million TELUS shares by Verizon completed TELUS News Release December 14 2004 Archived from the original on September 27 2011 Retrieved September 8 2008 Felipe M Noguera Telecommunications in The Caribbean Cable amp Wireless Barbados Early History Archived from the original on September 29 2007 Retrieved June 8 2007 Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago Corporate History Archived from the original on August 20 2008 Retrieved June 8 2007 Linda Haugsted December 7 1992 Daniels Cablevision launches GTE Main Street package of interactive information services Multichannel News Archived from the original on May 16 2011 Creative Multimedia and GTE Main Street Strike Partnership New agreement will deliver CD ROMs over subscribers TV sets Business Wire May 30 1995 Mike Farrell May 24 2004 Sale of Cerritos Cable System Expected Soon Multichannel News a b GTE Corporation Company History Fundinguniverse com Retrieved February 24 2017 Business amp Finance Transamerica into Telephones Time October 20 1930 Company History Vintage Sylvania Retrieved August 28 2014 Ramirez Anthony December 13 1991 Business People President of GTE Is Named Chairman The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved November 29 2020 FCC Internet Services Staff Corporate History Verizon Communications formerly GTE Corporation Fcc gov Retrieved May 15 2012 Verizon must slash 375M in costs to stay on even keel following Frontier sale Jefferies says FierceTelecom Affiliated Interest Agreement Advice No 26 Verizon Northwest Inc Exhibit 1 News Releases Verizon News External links Edit Companies portalGTE com Archive Birthplace of GTE historical marker in Richland Center Wisconsin Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title GTE amp oldid 1107925217, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.