Southwestern Bell

Southwestern Bell is an American telephone company. It performs operations in Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas. Southwestern Bell is currently owned by AT&T. The company was founded in the early 1920s close to the time Northwestern Bell was founded.

The history

Southwestern Bell traces its histories to the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company. That network was established in 1882. It was merged into a single part of the Bell System under the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company of Texas/Arkansas, the Pioneer Telephone and Telegraph Company of Oklahoma, and The Bell Telephone Company of Missouri—also called The Missouri Bell Telephone Company—on March 1, 1912. These companies would be the "Southwestern System" of the Bell System. The latter three companies were legally converted to Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company in 1917 and then rebranded as the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company.

The 1984 Bell System breakup and after

On January 1, 1984 the Bell System (AT&T) was split into seven or eight Regional Bell Operating Companies. It was then Southwestern Bell became part of the RBOC division Southwestern Bell Corporation (later SBC Communications). In late 1994 or early 1995 Southwestern Bell Corporation changed its name to SBC Communications.

In late 2002 the Southwestern Bell name was phased away: doing business as names were not yet in operation at the time. At that moment Southwestern Bell became SBC (standing for nothing). But when doing business names were approved the Southwestern Bell identity was revived and resurrected in the mid-2000s. Southwestern Bell now performs business as AT&T (which was originally American Telephone and Telegraph).