Pacific Telesis
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Pacific Telesis Group was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies created after the 1984 breakup of AT&T as a holding company for Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell. It was acquired by SBC Communications in 1998.
Pacific Telesis Group was headquartered in San Francisco.
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Local Telephone Operations
Pacific Bell
Image:Pactelephone.gif Image:Pacific bell logo.png The Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company (sometimes simply called Pac Bell) was the name of the Bell System's telephone operations in California. It gained in size by acquiring smaller telephone companies along the Pacific coast, such as Sunset Telephone & Telegraph in 1917. Purchases extended Pacific Telephone's territory into Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho; on July 1, 1961, however, those operations were split off to become Pacific Northwest Bell. Entering into the 1980s, Pacific Telephone had assets valued at $14.5 billion, making it the biggest of any of the 22 Bells AT&T wholly owned, which also made Pacific Telephone one of the "crown jewels" of the operating companies. However, Pacific Telephone was one of the least profitable Bells, due to very tough local telephone regulations in California.
Prior to the AT&T breakup in 1984, AT&T held 89.8% of Pacific Telephone. After the breakup, The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company changed its name back to Pacific Bell Telephone Company. Pacific Telesis also formed Pacific Bell Directory, to publish telephone directories in California and Nevada.
Nevada Bell
Image:Nevadabell logo.gif Bell Telephone Company of Nevada was the Bell System's telephone provider in Nevada. It only provided telephone services to 30% of the state, not including Las Vegas. Because of its small size, Nevada Bell often was managed by Pacific Telephone, which also resulted in Nevada Bell not being listed in Judge Harold Greene's Modification of Final Judgement, stating the breakup of AT&T. After the 1984 breakup, its legal name was shortened to Nevada Bell and it became a holding of Pacific Telesis.
Nicknames
Pacific Telesis is commonly known more as "PacTel", with Pacific Bell more commonly known as "PacBell".
Spinoffs
The paging, cellular and mobile telephone services of Pacific Telesis (PacTel) were spun off in 1994 into a new company called AirTouch Communications (AirTouch), leaving Pacific Telesis with only the landline telephone company. Senior Pacific Telesis management moved to the new company, thus leaving a new corporate culture to run the old Pacific Telesis. Airtouch merged into Britain's Vodafone to become Vodafone Airtouch Plc. Together with Verizon, Vodafone Airtouch operates the cellular phone company Verizon Wireless in the United States and Europe.
Mergers
Image:Pacbell logo.gif Image:NVB logo.gif In 1997, Pacific Telesis Group was acquired by SBC Communications, and although the Pacific Telesis corporate name disappeared fairly quickly, SBC continued to operate the local telephone companies separately under their original names.
In September 2001, SBC renamed the telephone companies "SBC Pacific Bell" and "SBC Nevada Bell". In late 2002, the companies were rebranded again as simply "SBC". Meanwhile, employees of SBC working in California and Nevada who support SBC's non-regulated services and/or services provided both within and outside California were transferred to other SBC subsidiaries, like "Pacific Telesis Shared Services" and "SBC Operations, Inc." However, for legal and regulatory purposes, employees supporting local regulated services were still employed by "Pacific Bell Telephone Company dba SBC California ("SBC California")", and "Nevada Bell dba SBC Nevada", which are the SBC subsidiaries that provide regulated local telephone services within the franchise territory in California and Nevada.
On November 18, 2005, SBC completed its acquisition of AT&T Corp. to form AT&T Inc. Nevada & Pacific Bells are now known as Pacific Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T California and Nevada Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Nevada. Pacific Telesis' companies as a whole do business as AT&T West.