This is a list of United States telephone companies.

Regional Bell Operating Companies

The

Regional Bell Operating Companies The Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC) are the result of '' United States v. AT&T'', the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against the former American Telephone & Telegraph Company (later known as AT&T Corp.). On January 8, 1 ...

(RBOCs) are the result of the break-up of the

Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hundr ...

in 1984. After numerous mergers, asset sales, and renamings since the break-up, these are the current successor RBOCs: * AT&T Inc.: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin *

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas ...

: Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia *

CenturyLink Lumen Technologies, Inc. (formerly CenturyLink) is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, that offers communications, network services, security, cloud solutions, voice, and managed services. The company is ...

: Bell System (RBOC) lines (from Qwest) in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming. Also serves non-Bell System ILEC areas in parts of those states as well as Florida and Nevada. Other non-RBOC states were sold to Brightspeed in 2022. *

Frontier Communications Frontier Communications Parent, Inc. (known as Citizens Utilities Company until May 2000 and Citizens Communications Company until July 31, 2008) is an American telecommunications company. The company previously served primarily rural areas and s ...

: Mixture of some RBOC lines (see below) and non-Bell System ILEC areas (e.g. GTE areas acquired from Verizon) covering the vast majority of lines in Connecticut and West Virginia, as well as parts of Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. Remaining RBOC map

Other major incumbent local exchange carriers

In the following states and regions, the primary local carrier ( ILEC) is not an RBOC: *

, in addition to its role as the RBOC in the areas of 14 states gained from its acquisition of

Qwest Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western and midwestern U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dako ...

, CenturyLink serves other rural, suburban, and smaller city local exchanges, as well as most of the

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

metropolitan area, covering a total of 16 states. Operations in 20 other states were sold to Brightspeed in 2022. *

, in addition to its role as the RBOC for West Virginia, now serves mainly rural and some suburban and smaller city areas in 27 other states (many formerly part of the GTE ILEC system purchased from Verizon). It also purchased AT&T's landline business in Connecticut in 2013, though these are not considered an RBOC, as the Southern New England Telephone Company, from which they descend, was a franchisee of the Bell System, and not subject to the same regulations after the Bell System breakup. * Windstream, founded in 2006 with the spinoff of Alltel's wireline division and simultaneous merger with Valor Telecom, serves mainly rural areas in 29 states. *

Consolidated Communications Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc., doing business as Consolidated Communications, is an American broadband and business communications provider headquartered in Mattoon, Illinois. The company provides data, internet, voice, managed an ...

, in addition to access lines in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, in Northern New England which it gained from its acquisition of

FairPoint FairPoint Communications, Inc. was headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and operated communication services in 31 markets in 17 states, mostly in rural areas. FairPoint services include local and long distance phone service, data, Interne ...

, also serves rural areas in a combined total of 22 states. *

Telephone and Data Systems Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. is a Chicago-based telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in ...

, (through its subsidiary TDS) serves mainly rural areas in parts of 36 states. *

Cincinnati Bell Cincinnati Bell, doing business as Altafiber (typeset as altafiber), is a regional telecommunications service provider based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It provides landline telephone, fiber-optic Internet, and IPTV services through ...

, which serves the greater

Cincinnati area The Cincinnati metropolitan area and also known as the Cincinnati Tri-State area, or Greater Cincinnati) is a metropolitan area centered on Cincinnati and including surrounding counties in the U.S. states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. The a ...

, and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

due to its acquisition of

Hawaiian Telcom Hawaiian Telcom, Inc., is the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) or dominant local telephone company, serving the state of Hawaii. In 2005, Hawaiian Telcom Holdco, Inc., was formed by The Carlyle Group, following its purchase of the Hawaiian ...

was not included in the Bell System breakup of 1984 because the former AT&T held only a minority stake in that company. *

, in addition to its role as a RBOC in its areas retained in the East, serves former GTE areas in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

. Verizon formerly served ex-GTE areas in parts of California, Florida and Texas before selling to Frontier Communications in 2016. *

Claro Puerto Rico Claro Puerto Rico is one of the largest telecommunications services company in Puerto Rico. It is headquartered in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, and has operated for almost a century offering voice, data, long distance, broadband, directory publishin ...

, which serves every exchange in Puerto Rico, has been owned by the international telecommunications giant

América Móvil América Móvil is a Mexican telecommunications corporation headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the 7th largest mobile network operator in terms of equity subscribers and one of the largest corporations in the world. América Móvil is a ...

since in 2007.*

, which serves every exchange in Puerto Rico, has been owned by the international telecommunications giant

since in 2007. Many other individual communities or smaller regions are also served by non-RBOC companies.

Notes

{{United States telephone companies Telephone companies, List of United States * United States telephone

Regional Bell Operating Companies

Other major incumbent local exchange carriers

See also

Notes