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General Telephone and Electronics
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General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) was the largest of the "independent" US telephone companies during the days of the Bell System. It acquired the third 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 1997. That division became known as GTE Internetworking, and was later spun off into the independent company Genuity (a name recycled from a another Internet company GTE acquired in 1997) as part of the GTE-Bell Atlantic merger that created Verizon.
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, its successor, Verizon Communications, is the only foreign telecommunications company with a greater than 20% interest in a Canadian carrier.
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]
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.[5][6][7]
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
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., later Verizon 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 Government Systems to General Dynamics
- GTE Wireless (assets in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, New Mexico, South Carolina and Texas) sold to Alltel.[8]
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