Southwestern Bell Article Index for
Southwestern
Website Links For
Southwestern
 

Information About

Southwestern Bell





| Information

  Company Name Southwestern Bell Telephone, LP
  Company Logo
  Company Type Holding of AT&T
  Company Slogan
  Foundation 1920
  Location San Antonio, TX , USA
  Key People Jose Guiterrez, President
  Industry Telecommunications
  Num Employees
  Products Local Telephone Service
  Revenue


Southwestern Bell Telephone Company was the D/b/a name of '''Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P.''', the Bell System's telephone operations in Arkansas , Kansas , Missouri , Oklahoma , and Texas adopted in 1920 .


OVERVIEW

Southwestern Bell was one of "crown jewels" of the Bell System , since it was one of the biggest of the 22 wholly-owned Bells AT&T owned, as well as one of the more profitable ones. The company was often considered the first step of the AT&T corporate "ladder" before the 1984 breakup. After the 1984 breakup of AT&T, it was allowed to keep its directory publishing operations, commonly known as "SWBYP'S" (Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages).

Shortly after the 1984 AT&T breakup, Southwestern Bell began licensing its name to Conair, creating Southwestern Bell Freedom Phone. Conair continues to produce the Southwestern Bell Freedom Phone line of telephones.


Changes


Southwestern Bell Corporation

''For current information on SBC, see AT&T .''

After the AT&T breakup in 1984 , Southwestern Bell Telephone Company was managed by Southwestern Bell Corporation , which was ironically the smallest of all of the 7 RBOCs , as it only held 1 telephone company. Both the holding company, SBC, and SWBT often were referred to as one "Southwestern Bell". In 1995 , however, SBC decided to change its corporate name to SBC Communications, Inc. , a decision made to make itself a national telecommunications company. The Telecommunications Act Of 1996 enabled SBC to become a national company, and SBC acquired the Pacific Telesis Group in 1997 ; Southern New England Telecommunications in 1998 , and Ameritech in 1999 .


Branding

After completion of the acquisitions, in 1999 , SBC began to attach its corporate name to the names of the Bell Operating Companies it owned. The first change was "Southwestern Bell" with the Bell logo being followed by a divider line with "SBC Global Network" being 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 decided to drop the old font of Southwestern Bell and "SBC Global Network" altogether, and place the SBC corporate logo in front of the name "Southwestern Bell", with the name beginning under the "C" of SBC. Finally, in 2002 , SBC dropped the names of all its operating companies, simply resulting in "SBC" as a national brand.

As SBC was made a national brand, Southwestern Bell Telephone continued to do business as "Southwestern Bell". In March 2003 , however, SBC began to change its D/b/a names, resulting in Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P. being conjoined with the titles '''d/b/a SBC Arkansas, d/b/a SBC Kansas, d/b/a SBC Missouri, d/b/a SBC Oklahoma''', and '''d/b/a SBC Texas''' in official business. SBC collectively refers to the states SBC covers through Southwestern Bell as SBC Southwest . Only the directory publishing operations retained the "Southwestern Bell" name.

Parent company SBC Communications merged with AT&T Corp. on November 18 , 2005 , and changed its name to AT&T Inc. AT&T companies, on January 15 , 2006 , were allowed to use new AT&T D/b/a names. As a result, 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''', and '''d/b/a AT&T Texas'''.

Even though Southwestern Bell Telephone does business as what may appear as five different companies, SWBT was not split into 5 companies. The 5 AT&T d/b/a names for Southwestern Bell are used in reference to the operations in each state.


HEADQUARTERS

Headquarters for Southwestern Bell Telephone are currently located in San Antonio, Texas , where corporate headquarters for AT&T, Inc. , its parent company, are also located at One AT&T Plaza . Previously before being relocated to San Antonio, TX , Southwestern Bell was headquartered at One Bell Center (now One AT&T Center ) in St. Louis, MO . SWBT retains some offices in St. Louis, such as its Yellow Pages operations.


BRAND HISTORY



SEE ALSO



EXTERNAL LINKS