Talk:Regional Bell Operating Company

message: One note... Verizon is spinning off its wireline services in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont -- merging them into Fairpoint.com, a company which operates several (smaller) local phone companies. Does this constitute a "new" RBOC? Here is a link regarding this:
press release. I also see that Fairpoint Communications has no dedicated Wikipedia article just yet. (Wouldn't it be interesting if the new AT&T eventually bought Fairpoint?) padawer 23:59, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: There were originally 23 "operating companies" under AT&T before divestiture. When AT&T was split up, they were put together into seven "Regional" Bell operating companies. The two original operating companies that formed the region that was later called BellSouth were South Central Bell and Southern Bell. Within a short time, those names were no longer used in favor of BellSouth for the whole region.Bellvet (talk) 17:59, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

text: Baby bells came from the governments antitrust lawsuit against AT&T in 1984. The court ordered the companies to be split regionally, so that long distance companies like MCI could compete with AT&T-provided long distance. That should be included, yes... Cool Hand Luke 22:28, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: [Untitled]

message: I propose that this page be moved back to Regional Bell operating company.  "Bell" is a proper noun (Alexander Graham's last name), but "operating company" is not.  See WP:NC.  I will leave this notice up for discussion for a while, then post a notice on Wikipedia:Requested moves.  --Russ Blau (talk) 17:19, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Page move 

message: Pardon my ignorance, but are Lucent and Cincinnati Bell represented by other names on that cool drawing?
Lucent was not a RBOC. Lucent - then still called Western Electric - was retained by AT&T until divested itself in the 90's, before its own fragmentation. --Warphammer 04:53, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lucent & Cincinnati Bell ? 

message: Should this page merge into with Bell System Divestiture? They hold similar content, but the Bell System Divestiture name is more appropriate. If this page should merge into Bell System Divestiture, then: Bell System Divestiture should be unstubized and Cincinnati Bell should be included on the map, since it was part of the Bell System--85.130.153.231 06:52, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merger 

message: I wish that someone would help me remember a little cartoon that was floating around the Bell System after divestiture was announced. The country was divided into regions, but none of them had names yet. There was a legal issue that the regional name could use "Bell" but only if there was a geographical modifier. The cartoon assigned names to each region:
NYNEX (northeast) Snow Bell
Bell Atlantic (mid-Atlantic) Liberty Bell
BellSouth (southeast) Southern Bell
Ameritech (midwest) Cow Bell
SBC (southwest) Taco Bell
US West (west) ?????
Pacific Telesis (west coast) Tinker Bell
It's been bothering me for years!Bellvet (talk) 17:59, 6 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The version I saw had Yankee Bell first, Rusty Bell middle, and Dusty Bell for the deserts. Jim.henderson (talk) 14:10, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: So does this mean Taco Bell (SBC/AT&T) and Liberty Bell (Bell Atlantic/Verizon) now rule the world?  Or if they merge, they'd be Taco Liberty Bell?  :D  --RBBrittain (talk) 17:32, 14 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Rusty Dusty Taco & Tinker

message: I believe this article confuses the terms "Regional Bell Operating Company" (RBOC) and "Baby Bell".  IIRC, originally "Baby Bell" meant the seven parent companies created in the divestiture (or today, the three survivors--AT&T, Qwest & Verizon); "RBOC" actually meant the 22 AT&T operating companies that were spun off to the Baby Bells, of which 20 remain, plus Cincinnati Bell & SNET in some contexts.
For clarification of the "20 remain" point:
*US West merged its three RBOCs (Mountain Bell, Northwestern Bell & Pacific Northwest Bell) as "US West Communications" before being taken over by Qwest, which renamed it "Qwest Corporation" (its parent is "Qwest Communications International").
*BellSouth merged its two RBOCs (Southern Bell & South Central Bell) as "BellSouth Telecommunications" long before merging into AT&T; though the BellSouth name has otherwise been phased out, that is still the RBOC's legal name.
*Bell Atlantic renamed its original seven RBOCs (the four C&P Telephones, Bell of Pennsylvania, Diamond State Telephone & New Jersey Bell) "Bell Atlantic (name of state)" ("Bell Atlantic - Washington, D.C." for C&P Telephone in D.C.); as Verizon it changed "Bell Atlantic" to "Verizon" for the seven, while adding "Verizon" in front of the two NYNEX RBOCs' legal names (Verizon New York Telephone & Verizon New England Telephone).
*Though AT&T now uses the DBA name "AT&T (name of state)" for its local services, all eight non-BellSouth RBOCs (plus SNET, which I didn't count) are legally still known by the names they had at divestiture--Pacific Bell (changed from Pacific Telephone at divestiture), Nevada Bell, Southwestern Bell, and "(name of state) Bell" for the five Ameritech RBOCs.  (SBC once spun off Southwestern Bell Texas as a separate RBOC, but AT&T later created Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P. as the RBOC for all five SWB states with SWB Texas, no longer an RBOC, as an immediate parent within AT&T.)  AT&T now uses the "Bell" trademark only in the legal names of certain subsidiaries, including its RBOCs (other than SNET) and SWB Texas.
Malheur Bell and El Paso County Telephone (both independent telcos owned by Qwest) were never counted as RBOCs; I never heard of Malheur Bell till it came out as the last telco using Saul Bass' Bell logo (though redrawn), while I just now heard of Elpasotel.  From their continued independence and Malheur Bell's strange use of Bell trademarks (in addition to its "Saul Bass" logo, its history page has an older Bell System logo modified to read only "Bell"--not "Bell System"; its legal name is actually Malheur Home Telephone Company), I can only assume there are old contracts that say those two cannot be integrated into the Bell System (i.e., Qwest).
If I'm right, either "Baby Bell" should be spun off from this article, or else this article needs to be rewritten to explain the difference between RBOCs (operating subsidiaries) and Baby Bells (their parents).  Since it appears the terms "RBOC" and "Baby Bell" have been confused over the years since divestiture, the latter may be preferable.  --RBBrittain (talk) 17:28, 14 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Point of order: The "Baby Bells" are the "Regional Bell Operating Companies", the 7 holding companies created by the divesture, while the operating subsidiaries transferred from AT&T control to the new Baby Bells were "Local Bell Operating Companies". oknazevad (talk) 15:13, 28 July 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  "RBOC" vs. "Baby Bell"