GTE

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GTE Corporation
Type	Defunct
Founded	1918
Headquarters	Irving, Texas, USA
Industry	Communications Services
Products	Internet access, Local wireline and wireless telecommunication services
Website	www.verizon.com

General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) was the largest of the "independent" US telephone companies during the days of the Bell System. It acquired the second largest independent, Continental Telephone (ConTel) in 1993. They also owned Automatic Electric, a telephone equipment supplier similar in many ways to Western Electric, and Sylvania Lighting, the only non-communications-oriented company under GTE ownership. GTE provided local telephone service to a large number of areas of the U.S. through operating companies, much like how AT&T provided local telephone service through its 22 Bell Operating Companies.

The company also acquired BBN Planet, one of the earliest Internet service providers, in the late 1990s. That division became known as GTE Internetworking, and was later spun off into the independent company Genuity (a name recycled from a company BBN Planet had acquired before the merger with GTE) as part of the GTE-Bell Atlantic merger that created Verizon.

GTE operated in Canada via controlling interest in subsidiary companies such as BC TEL and Quebec-Téléphone.

Its former Canadian subsidiaries have combined with the former Alberta Government Telephones (AGT) to create TELUS, the second largest telecommunications carrier in Canada.

It was an in-joke among GTE employees that the company's initials stood for "Great Telephone Experiment".

GTE and Bell Atlantic merged on June 30, 2000, to form Verizon Communications. The 7 GTE operating companies retained by Verizon are now collectively known as Verizon West division of Verizon (including east coast service territories). 6 others were sold off:

[edit] Retained by Verizon

Verizon California, Inc.
Verizon Florida, Inc.
Verizon Northwest, Inc.
Verizon South, Inc.
GTE Southwest, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Southwest
Verizon North, Inc.
Contel of the South, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Mid-States

[edit] Sold/Transferred

GTE Alaska Inc., sold to ATEAC
GTE Arkansas, Inc. sold to CenturyTel
GTE HawaiianTel, sold to The Carlyle Group
Micronesian Telecommunications
GTE Midwest Inc., sold to CenturyTel
Contel of Minnesota, Inc., sold to Citizens Communications
GTE of Iowa - Spun off to Iowa Telecom
Verizon Dominicana (CODETEL), sold to América Móvil