Southern New England Telephone

Infobox_Company
company_name = The Southern New England Telephone Company
company_
company_type = Private (Subsidiary of AT&T)
company_slogan =
foundation = 1878
location = New Haven, CT, USA
key_people =
industry = Telecommunications
num_employees =
products = Local Telephone Service
revenue =
homepage = [http://www.att.com AT&T Home]

The Southern New England Telephone Company (commonly referred to as SNET by its customers) started operations on January 27, 1878 as the District Telephone Company of New Haven. It was the founder of the first telephone exchange, as well as the world's first telephone book. Since its inception, SNET has held a monopoly on most of the telephone services in the state of Connecticut; the only remaining exception is the Greenwich and Byram exchanges where Verizon New York provides telephone service. [AT&T SNET Fairfield County White Pages, Customer Service Guide page 14, "Local Toll-free Calling Areas", August 2006 edition]

Prior to February 1984, AT&T held 16.8% of SNET. Since SNET was only a minority holding of AT&T and not considered a Bell Operating Company, AT&T was not legally required to divest ownership of SNET. It opted to do so after January 1, 1984.

In 1998, SBC Communications, now AT&T, purchased Southern New England Telecommunications, its parent company. SNET and Cincinnati Bell were the only two companies in the old Bell System that AT&T only had a minority stake in; therefore, neither is considered a Bell Operating Company (RBOC). The Southern New England Telephone Company was held by Southern New England Telecommunications Corporation, which SBC had purchased in 1998. Cincinnati Bell is still independent of any RBOC, isolated within AT&T territory.

The Southern New England Telephone Company currently does business as AT&T Connecticut.

On June 1, 2007, AT&T absorbed the operations of Woodbury Telephone into Southern New England Telephone. Woodbury Telephone is now defunct.

Brand history

ee also

* ConnNet

External links

* [http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/speclib/ASC/findaids/SNET/MSS19970122.html History - University of Connecticut Libraries]

References