Bell of Pennsylvania - Divestiture

Divestiture

In 1984, the Bell System Divestiture split Bell of Pennsylvania off into a Regional Bell Operating Company, along with the 21 other BOCs AT&T had a majority stake in. On January 1, 1984, Bell of Pennsylvania became part of Bell Atlantic.

Throughout the 1980s to the first half of the 1990s, Bell of Pennsylvania, also called Pennsylvania Bell, kept its traditional identity. In 1994, Bell Atlantic started rebranding all its companies to Bell Atlantic-(state), so Bell of Pennsylvania became Bell Atlantic - Pennsylvania, Inc. In 2000, after the Bell Atlantic-GTE merger, the corporation changed its name to Verizon, and so Bell of Pennsylvania once again changed its name, this time to Verizon Pennsylvania, Inc., a name it retains to this day.

The company's headquarters in Philadelphia are shared with Verizon Delaware, an arrangement that has existed since the Bell System existed.