Southwestern Bell
- For information on the holding company Southwestern Bell Corporation, later SBC Communications, Inc., and now AT&T Inc., see AT&T.
| Company type | Private (Subsidiary of AT&T) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1882 |
| Headquarters | Dallas, Texas, USA |
Key people | Jose Guiterrez, President |
| Products | Local Telephone Service |
| Parent | AT&T (1882-1983) AT&T (1984-present) |
| Website | http://www.att.com/ |
Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P. is a Bell Operating Company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. It does business as AT&T Southwest and other d/b/a names in its operating region.
The company is currently headquartered in Dallas, Texas at One AT&T Plaza.
History
The Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company was officially founded in 1882[1]. It was consolidated under the management of a single management unit of the Bell System with Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company of Texas-Arkansas, Pioneer Telephone and Telegraph Company of Oklahoma, and The Bell Telephone Company of Missouri-also called The Missouri Bell Telephone Company-on March 1, 1912. These companies comprised the "Southwestern System" of the Bell System. The latter 3 companies were legally merged into Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company in 1920, which was renamed Southwestern Bell Telephone Company [2]. Southwestern Bell may have also serviced Louisiana at some point, but some verification will be needed.
The company was often considered the first step of the AT&T corporate "ladder" before the 1984 breakup of that company. While part of the Bell System, it was at times the biggest Bell Operating Company of the 22 AT&T owned.
Changes
Southwestern Bell Corporation
- For current information on SBC, see AT&T.
Following the breakup of AT&T, Southwestern Bell Telephone Company was managed by Southwestern Bell Corporation, which was ironically the smallest of all of the seven "Baby Bells", as it only held one telephone company. Both the holding company, SBC, and Southwestern Bell Telephone itself were often referred to as "Southwestern Bell". In 1995, however, SBC decided to change its corporate name to SBC Communications, Inc. (now AT&T) in order to make itself a national telecommunications company — a move facilitated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. SBC acquired the Pacific Telesis Group in 1997, Southern New England Telecommunications in 1998, and Ameritech in 1999.
In 1996, Southwestern Bell Telecommunications, Inc., an equipment subsidiary of SBC founded in 1984 was merged into Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. It was converted to a limited partnership, resulting in its modern-day name of Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P.
Branding
From its name change in 1920 until 1999, SWBT was branded as Southwestern Bell. In 1999, SBC Communications began to attach its corporate name to the names of the Bell Operating Companies it owned. This change resulted in the Southwestern Bell logo (with the Bell logo) being followed by a divider line with "SBC Global Network" enclosed in a circle with the Pacific Telesis "access" mark. In 2000, the Bell logo was dropped from the mark of Southwestern Bell. In 2001, SBC standardized its operating company branding logos, and placed the SBC corporate logo toward the northwest of the name "Southwestern Bell", and it became known as SBC Southwestern Bell. The Southwestern Bell brand vanished in 2002 when SBC dropped the names of all its operating companies to use "SBC" as a national brand. Since d/b/a names weren't approved until the beginning of 2003, the Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. name remained on phone book covers issed in December 2002 and January 2003.
After d/b/a names were approved, SBC began to officially use the Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P. name conjoined with the following titles:
- d/b/a SBC Arkansas
- d/b/a SBC Kansas
- d/b/a SBC Missouri
- d/b/a SBC Oklahoma
- d/b/a SBC Texas
SBC then created SBC Southwest as a collective d/b/a name for all of Southwestern Bell's operations.
SBC Communications bought AT&T Corp. on November 18, 2005, and changed its name to AT&T Inc. Shortly afterwards, on January 15, 2006, AT&T companies were given new d/b/a names. As a result, officially, Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P. is now joined with the titles:
- d/b/a AT&T Arkansas
- d/b/a AT&T Kansas
- d/b/a AT&T Missouri
- d/b/a AT&T Oklahoma
- d/b/a AT&T Texas
The collective d/b/a name is now AT&T Southwest.
At one time, SBC had organized Southwestern Bell Texas, Inc. as a nominally separate operating company for Texas; however, it was merged into Southwestern Bell Telephone Company as part of its conversion to a limited partnership in 2001.[3] Even when it was separate on paper, Southwestern Bell Texas continued to operate merely as the Texas division of Southwestern Bell Telephone.
Branded products
Southwestern Bell began licensing its name to Conair Corporation shortly after the AT&T breakup, creating the Southwestern Bell Freedom Phone. Conair continues to produce this line of telephones and telephone accessories.[4]
Headquarters
AT&T is now based at One AT&T Plaza in Dallas, TX. AT&T Internet Services is based in River Place in Austin, TX
