The Southern New England Telephone Company (commonly referred to as SNET by its customers) is a local exchange carrier owned by AT&T Inc. It started operations on January 27, 1878 as the District Telephone Company of New Haven. It was the founder of the first telephone exchange, as well as the world's first telephone book. Since its inception, SNET has held a monopoly on most of the telephone services in the state of Connecticut; the only remaining exception is the Greenwich and Byram exchanges where Verizon New York provides telephone service.
SNET and Cincinnati Bell were the only two companies in the old Bell System that the old AT&T only had a minority stake in; by 1983, AT&T's stake was only 19.6 percent. Therefore, neither is considered a Bell Operating Company; rather, they are considered independents.
The Southern New England Telephone Company was purchased in 1998 by SBC Communications, which subsequently purchased the old AT&T, taking its name as the "new" AT&T. The Southern New England Telephone Company currently does business as AT&T Connecticut.
In 2006, AT&T merged the operations of Southern New England Telecommunications into AT&T Teleholdings. Southern New England Telephone then became a subsidiary of the company originally known as Ameritech within the AT&T corporate structure.
On June 1, 2007, the operations of Woodbury Telephone were merged into Southern New England Telephone. Woodbury Telephone is now defunct.
Famous quotes containing the words southern, england and/or telephone:
“... as a result of generations of betrayal, its nearly impossible for Southern Negroes to trust a Southern white. No matter what he does or what he suffers, a white liberal is never established beyond suspicion in the hearts of the minority.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 10 (1962)
“Our king went forth to Normandy,
With grace and might of chivalry,
The God for him wrought marvellously,
Wherefore England may call and cry
Deo gratias, Deo gratias Anglia
Redde pro victoria.”
—Unknown. The Agincourt Carol (l. 16)
“Language is as real, as tangible, in our lives as streets, pipelines, telephone switchboards, microwaves, radioactivity, cloning laboratories, nuclear power stations.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)