Telephone company
This article is for the Telephone Company. For the Tata Group company, see TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company
A telephone company (or telco) provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications. Most of the largest telcos are or were at one time nationalized or state-regulated monopolies. These monopolies are often referred to, primarily in Europe, as PTTs.
Telcos are also known as common carriers and local exchange carriers. With the advent of cellular telephony, telcos now include wireless carriers.
Most telcos now also function as ISPs, and the distinction between telco and ISP may disappear completely over time.
The comedian Lily Tomlin satirized the attitudes of many telcos with the quote:
- "We don't care.
- We don't have to.
- We're the phone company."
Telcos include:
- ALLTEL
- Amena (now part of Orange)
- AT&T
- BC TEL (now part of Telus)
- Belgacom
- Bell Atlantic (Merged with GTE, now Verizon)
- Bell Labs
- Bell Canada (see also List of Canadian telephone companies)
- BellSouth
- BT
- Cable and Wireless
- CenturyTel
- CityTel
- Commonwealth Telephone
- Deutsche Telekom
- Energis (Merged with Cable and Wireless)
- France Télécom
- GTE (Merged with Bell Atlantic, now Verizon)
- Iceland Telecom
- ITT
- Jersey Telecom
- KPN
- Korea Telecom
- Level 3
- Magyar Telekom (formerly MATÁV)
- Digi Telecommunications
- MCI (MCI WorldCom) (Merged with Verizon)
- NTT
- Orange
- Qwest
- SBC Communications (Merged with AT&T)
- SFR
- Sprint Nextel Corporation
- Swisscom
- Telecom Italia
- Tele2
- Telefónica
- Teleglobe
- Telemar
- Telenor
- Telfort
- Telia
- Telstra
- TELUS
- Thus
- US West (now Qwest)
- Verizon
- Videotron
- Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd
- Vodafone
- WorldCom
See also
- Internet service provider
- PSTN
- VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol
- ITSP Internet Telephony Service Provider
- List of Canadian telephone companies
- CLEC
- ILEC
- RBOC
Outside links
- Callerpoint.com Compare the top plans and services available in your area offered by the best companies listed above