GTE

(Redirected from General Telephone and Electronics)

'General Telephone and Electronics' ('GTE') was the largest of the "independent" US telephone companies during the days of the Bell System. It acquired the second largest independent, Continental Telephone (ConTel) in 1991.^[1] They also 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 a large number of areas of the U.S. through operating companies, much like how AT&T provided local telephone service through its 22 Bell Operating Companies.
The company also acquired BBN Planet, one of the earliest Internet service providers, in the late 1990s. That division became known as GTE Internetworking, and was later spun off into the independent company Genuity (a name recycled from a company BBN Planet had acquired before the merger with GTE) as part of the GTE-Bell Atlantic merger that created Verizon.
GTE operated in Canada via controlling interest in subsidiary companies such as BC TEL and Quebec-Téléphone.
Its former Canadian subsidiaries have combined with the former Alberta Government Telephones (AGT) to create TELUS, the second largest telecommunications carrier in Canada.
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).^[2][3][4]
It was an in-joke among GTE employees that the company's initials stood for "Great Telephone Experiment", and "Good Times Everyday".
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).^[5][6][7]

Contents

Merger with Bell Atlantic

Retained by Verizon

Sold/transferred

References

Merger with Bell Atlantic

Bell Atlantic bought GTE on June 30, 2000, renaming itself Verizon Communications. The seven GTE operating companies retained by Verizon are now collectively known as 'Verizon West' division of Verizon (including east coast service territories). Six others were sold off:

Retained by Verizon

★ Verizon California, Inc.

★ Verizon Florida, Inc.

★ Verizon Northwest, Inc.

★ Verizon South, Inc.

★ GTE Southwest, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Southwest

★ Verizon North, Inc.

★ Contel of the South, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Mid-States

Sold/transferred

★ GTE Alaska Inc., sold to ATEAC

★ GTE Arkansas, Inc. sold to CenturyTel

★ GTE Hawaiian Telephone Company, Inc., later Verizon Hawaii, Inc., sold to The Carlyle Group in 2005

★ Micronesian Telecommunications

★ GTE Midwest Inc., sold to CenturyTel

★ Contel of Minnesota, Inc., sold to Citizens Communications

★ GTE of Iowa - Spun off to Iowa Telecom

★ Verizon Dominicana (CODETEL), sold to América Móvil

★ Telecomunicaciones de Puerto Rico d/b/a Puerto Rico Telephone, assets sold to América Móvil

★ GTE Electronic Systems to General Dynamics

References

1. [1]
2. Telecommunications in The Caribbean Felipe M Noguera
3. Cable & Wireless Barbados: Early History
4. Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago - Corporate History
5. Daniels Cablevision launches GTE Main Street. (package of interactive information services) Linda Haugsted
6. CREATIVE MULTIMEDIA AND GTE MAIN STREET STRIKE PARTNERSHIP; New agreement will deliver CD-ROMs over subscribers' TV sets.
7. Sale of Cerritos Cable System Expected Soon Mike Farrell