New York Telephone

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Verizon New York Telephone, Inc.
Type	Holding of Verizon Communications
Founded	1896
Headquarters	New York, NY, USA
Area served	New York, Southeast Connecticut
Industry	Telecommunications
Products	POTS, DSL, FiOS (FTTP)
Employees	26,800 (2005)
Parent	AT&T 1896-1983 NYNEX 1984-1997 Bell Atlantic 1997-2000 Verizon 2000-present
Subsidiaries	Empire City Subway
Website	www.verizon.com

The New York Telephone Company (NYTel) was organized in 1896, taking over the New York City operations of the American Bell Telephone Company.

Contents 1 Predecessor companies 2 Firm Foundation 3 Service crisis 4 Wholly owned Subsidiary 5 History in logos 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Predecessor companies

The Telephone Company of New York was formed under franchise in 1876 to rent telephone instruments to users, who were expected to provide wires to connect them, for example from factory to office. Such connections already existed for private telegraphs, and the new invention promised to save the cost of hiring a private telegraph operator. Manufacturers of steel wire for the Brooklyn Bridge then under construction were especially prominent among the customers under this scheme, using their own product.

Western Union subsidiaries, including Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph, Gold and Stock Telegraph, and American Speaking Telephone, based their New York and San Francisco operations on the telephone exchange principle and thus were larger and more advanced than the local Bell operations. Under the November 1879 settlement of the Elisha Gray patent infringement lawsuit, Western Union handed over its telephone operations to National Bell Telephone, which then renamed itself American Bell Telephone. The merged local company was called the Metropolitan Telephone Company and in 1896 the New York Telephone Company.

American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) eventually acquired a controlling interest.

[edit] Firm Foundation

The company went underground in a big way in the 1920s, creating expensive new outside plant that fixed its geometry for the century to come. New cable ducts brought more reliable service to customers. They converged at approximately twenty wire centers, which were connected by larger trunk cable ducts running along the East and West Sides of Manhattan. The locations were a mile or sometimes two miles apart, close to concentrations of office workers without paying prime prices for land. At each wire center a new central office arose to house telephone switchboards, panel switches and other inside plant, and technicians, clerks, operators and other workers. The Manhattan and Bronx parts of the underground empire are owned by the Empire City Subway Company subsidiary. Similar construction, on a smaller scale, went on in Brooklyn, Buffalo and other urban territories. Suburban and rural service also expanded, mostly with aerial cable or open wire plant and Strowger switches.

[edit] Service crisis

Forecasters in the late 1960s underestimated demand, resulting in a shortage of capacity in Manhattan, NYTel's principal profit area. Customers had to wait weeks for a new line or a repair, and sometimes minutes for dial tone on an existing line. The new 1ESS Stored Program Control exchanges had software bugs that kept them from carrying full load. Deferred maintenance choked MDFs with dead jumpers. There weren't enough cables to office buildings, nor enough underground conduits to install them. Morale was poor in all levels and departments.

The company responded by hiring and training thousands of new employees and buying much new equipment for them to work on. Underground construction took years, but emergency installation of Anaconda Carrier pair gain systems normally used in rural areas expanded service while construction was in progress. Bell Labs added processing power to their new systems and fixed the software bugs. A new wire center at 1095 Avenue of Americas relieved four others of part of their load, as well as providing the company with a new headquarters for the next quarter century. The crisis subsided during the 1970s and workers accustomed to heavy overtime had to learn to go home on time and get along on their base pay.

[edit] Wholly owned Subsidiary

New York Telephone was an AT&T subsidiary until the AT&T breakup effective January 1, 1984. At that time, New York Telephone, along with the New England Telephone & Telegraph Company, became part of a Regional Bell operating company named NYNEX. The company was referred to as "New York Telephone, a NYNEX Company" before being called simply "NYNEX". On August 15, 1997, Bell Atlantic was acquired by NYNEX, who adopted the Bell Atlantic name. On June 30, 2000, Bell Atlantic acquired GTE to form the current Verizon Communications. Approximately at that time, New York Telephone's headquarters returned to 140 West St., New York, NY.

New York Telephone provides local telephone service throughout the state of New York, with the exception of the area served by the Rochester Telephone Company. The company also serves the Greenwich and Byram exchanges in Connecticut.^[1] The rest of Connecticut is served by SNET, an AT&T company.

One of New York Telephone's most widely-used advertising slogans/jingles was "We're all connected... New York Telephone."

New York Telephone, then operating under the Bell Atlantic brand, was the first Bell telephone company to win approval to provide long distance service within its operating territory in December 1999, following the Telecommunications Act of 1996.^[2]

[edit] History in logos

New York Telephone, through various mergers and successor companies, has carried various names and used numerous logos.

	The New York Telephone Company Being a part of AT&T, New York Telephone followed the various corporate looks of AT&T over the years. After the 1984 divestiture the Bell logo and name was assigned to the Regional Holding Companies.
	New York Telephone In 1964, AT&T unified its image by simplifying the logo to a Bell within a plain circle, which would not include "The New York Telephone Company" nor "American Telephone and Telegraph".
	In 1969 AT&T simplified & revamped its corporate identity, which included the modern Bell logo. The logo is still in use today on Verizon trucks and pay phones.
	In 1984, after the AT&T divestiture, New England Telephone and New York Telephone were spun off to the newly created Regional Holding Company, NYNEX Corporation. "A NYNEX Company" was added to the logotype, however it did not appear on telephone bills until January, 1986.
	NYNEX In 1994, the New York Telephone and New England Telephone names ceased to exist, both became branded as simply NYNEX, and the Bell System logo was dropped from the corporate logo; however, it remained on phone booths, and even on the then-new NYNEX signs.
	Bell Atlantic The Bell Atlantic logo brings to mind its namesake ocean. The merger also restores the Bell System logo. NYT legally remains "New York Telephone".
	Verizon New York Telephone, Inc. The current successor company to NYNEX is Verizon Communications. The Bell System logo disappears, again (except on trucks, hard hats and phone booths, and over the main entrances of Verizon-NY Telephone's corporate headquarters at 140 West St.). "Verizon" is added to the corporate name of New York Telephone. Verizon NY Telephone continues to mark the path of underground cable on streets with "NYT".

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• New England Telephone
• NYNEX
• Bell System
• Western Electric
• AT&T

[edit] External links

• Verizon New York
• NYNEX logo timeline