Centel

Centel Corporation

Company type	Public
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1 January 1900 (1900-01-01) in Sioux City, Iowa, United States
Founder	Max McGraw
Defunct	1993 (1993)
Fate	Acquired by Sprint Corporation
Headquarters	Chicago , United States
Area served	United States (various states including Nevada, Illinois, Florida, Virginia)
Key people	Max McGraw (founder)
Products	Telephone services, cellular services, cable TV services, electric utilities (divested)
Number of employees	9,300 (1993)
Parent	Sprint Corporation (from 1993)

Centel Corporation was an American telecommunications firm specializing in fundamental telephone, cellular, and cable TV services.

Early history

The origins of the company trace back to 1900 when businessman Max McGraw established an electrical repair and supply enterprise called the McGraw Electric Company in Sioux City, Iowa. Initially focused on residential wiring, the business soon expanded into industrial electrical installations, wholesale electrical supplies, and electronics production. In 1922, McGraw ventured into the telecommunications sector by acquiring Central Telephone and Electric Company based in St. Louis, Missouri. By 1926, more than twenty electric and telephone entities were merged to create Central West Public Service Company.

Over time, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the electrical supply and manufacturing divisions transformed into McGraw-Edison, while the telecommunications operations were rebranded as Centel in 1982.

Centel

Centel delivered telephone services primarily through its subsidiary Central Telephone Company, with significant market presence in locations such as Las Vegas, suburban Chicago, Tallahassee (Florida), and Charlottesville (Virginia). Prior to the breakup of AT&T in 1984, it was ranked as the fifth-largest telephone company in the United States, following AT&T, GTE, United Telecom, and Contel.

The corporation also held an interest in Keyfax, a teletext and videotex provider operating in Chicago alongside partners Honeywell and Field Enterprises, which ceased operations by 1986.

In efforts to focus its core business, Centel divested its cable television assets in 1989 and sold its electric utility operations to UtiliCorp United in 1991. That same year, Centel reported consolidated revenues totaling $1.2 billion.

In 1993, Sprint acquired Centel for about $3 billion paid in Sprint common stock. Before this announcement, Centel shares traded around $42.50 each but were purchased at a reduced cash equivalent of $33.50 per share—a transaction narrowly approved by 50.5% of shareholders despite opposition citing undervaluation concerns.

At the time of acquisition, Centel provided telephone service to 1.5 million lines across seven states and ranked as the tenth-largest cellular provider nationwide with operations spanning 22 states and a workforce of 9,300 employees.

Following the acquisition, Sprint sold off Centel’s cellular division in 1996 to concentrate on Sprint PCS and later separated the combined local telephone businesses in 2006 (see below).

Central Telephone Company

In 2006, Sprint spun off the former Centel telephone subsidiaries, merging them with United Telephone’s operations to establish Embarq. Embarq was subsequently purchased by CenturyTel in 2009 and rebranded as CenturyLink (currently known as Lumen Technologies). The Florida and Nevada branches of Central Telephone became CenturyLink of Florida and CenturyLink of Nevada respectively. Remaining local operations originating from Centel were sold to Brightspeed in 2022.

Previous divestitures include Chicago-area services sold to Ameritech (now part of AT&T) in 1997; Iowa and Minnesota regions transferred to Frontier Communications in 1991; and Ohio operations sold to CenturyTel in 1992—later reunited with other former Centel entities under CenturyLink in 2009.

Centel Cellular Company

Following its acquisition by Sprint in 1993, Centel Cellular was rebranded as Sprint Cellular. It was subsequently separated and became 360 Communications in 1996. In 1998, Alltel purchased 360 Communications for $4.1 billion. Later, Verizon Wireless took over Alltel in 2008.

Centel Cable Television

Centel divested its cable television assets across six markets in 1989, generating $1.4 billion from the sales and realizing a net profit exceeding $500 million. The principal deals involved:

• Southeast Florida sold to Adelphia Communications (which later became part of Time Warner Cable and Comcast)
• Ohio transferred to Warner Cable (subsequently Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications)
• Central Florida acquired by American Television and Communications Corporation (later Bright House Networks, then Charter Communications)
• Kentucky purchased by Simmons Communications (eventually integrated into Charter Communications)
• Michigan sold to C-TEC (which later became Avalon Cable and then Charter Communications)
• Illinois transferred to Jones Intercable (later Comcast)

Centel Electric

In 1991, Centel divested its electric utility operations in Kansas and Colorado to UtiliCorp (which was later known as Aquila) for $345 million. The Kansas utilities were sold in 2006 to Mid-Kansas Electric Company, while the Colorado assets were acquired by Black Hills Corporation in 2008.