Central Telephone and Electric Company

Centel Corporation

Company type	Public
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1900
Founder	Max McGraw
Defunct	1993
Fate	Acquired by Sprint Corporation
Headquarters	Chicago , United States
Area served	United States (multiple states including Nevada, Illinois, Florida, Virginia)
Key people	Max McGraw (founder)
Products	Telephone services, mobile communications, cable TV
Number of employees	9,300 (1993)

Centel Corporation was a U.S.-based telecommunications firm specializing in fundamental telephone services, mobile communications, and cable TV.

Early history

In 1900, Max McGraw invested his newspaper route earnings to establish McGraw Electric Company in Sioux City, Iowa. The enterprise grew from residential wiring projects to encompass industrial wiring, wholesale electrical supplies, and electronic product manufacturing. McGraw ventured into telecommunications in 1922 by purchasing Central Telephone and Electric Company located in St. Louis, Missouri. By 1926, more than twenty electric and telephone companies had been merged into Central West Public Service Company.

Over time, the electrical supply and manufacturing sectors transformed into McGraw-Edison through various mergers and acquisitions, while the telecommunications branch evolved separately into Centel, officially adopting that name in 1982.

Centel

Centel delivered telephone services via its subsidiary Central Telephone Company, with significant presence in Las Vegas; suburban Chicago areas including Des Plaines, Park Ridge, and Cook County communities near Northbrook, Glenview, and Niles; Tallahassee, Florida; and Charlottesville, Virginia. Prior to the AT&T breakup in 1984, Centel ranked as the fifth-largest telephone company in the U.S., following AT&T, GTE, United Telecom, and Contel.

The company held an interest in Keyfax, a teletext/videotex provider based in Chicago that was operated jointly with Honeywell and Field Enterprises; this service ceased operations by 1986.

Centel divested its cable television assets in 1989 and sold its electric utilities to UtiliCorp United in 1991.

In that same year, Centel reported total revenues amounting to $1.2 billion.

Sprint purchased Centel in 1993 for approximately $3 billion paid in Sprint common stock. Before the announcement, Centel shares traded around $42.50 each; however, the acquisition valued shares at $33.50 apiece—an undervalued offer that met with notable shareholder resistance. The merger barely passed with a 50.5% approval rate.

At the time of acquisition, Centel operated 1.5 million local telephone lines across seven states and ranked as the tenth-largest cellular provider nationwide with activities spanning 22 states and employing 9,300 staff members.

Sprint later divested both of Centel’s core businesses: spinning off cellular operations in 1996 to concentrate on Sprint PCS mobile service and separating local telephone services (combined with Sprint’s own) in 2006.

Central Telephone Company

In 2006, Sprint separated its former Centel telephone subsidiaries and merged them with its United Telephone operations to create Embarq. CenturyTel acquired Embarq in 2009 and subsequently rebranded as CenturyLink (currently known as Lumen Technologies). Central Telephone’s Florida and Nevada divisions were renamed CenturyLink of Florida and CenturyLink of Nevada respectively. Other local Centel operations were sold off to Brightspeed in 2022.

Previously, Sprint had sold Chicago-area telephone operations to Ameritech (now part of AT&T) in 1997; Iowa and Minnesota assets were transferred to Frontier Communications in 1991; Ohio operations were sold to CenturyTel in 1992. The Ohio operations later consolidated with other former Centel companies under CenturyTel ownership in 2009.

Centel Cellular Company

Following Sprint's acquisition in 1993, Centel Cellular Company was rebranded as Sprint Cellular Company. It was later separated and became 360 Communications in 1996, which Alltel purchased for $4.1 billion in 1998. Subsequently, Verizon Wireless acquired Alltel in 2008.

Centel Cable Television

In 1989, Centel divested its cable television operations across six markets, generating $1.4 billion in proceeds and realizing more than $500 million in profits. Significant sales included:

• Southeast Florida: transferred to Adelphia Communications, with ownership later passing to Time Warner Cable and subsequently Comcast.
• Ohio: sold to Warner Cable, which eventually became part of Time Warner Cable and then Charter Communications.
• Central Florida: acquired by American Television and Communications Corporation, later evolving into Bright House Networks and then Charter Communications.
• Kentucky: sold to Simmons Communications; the property changed hands through Frontiervision, Adelphia, Time Warner Cable, and ultimately Charter Communications.
• Michigan: purchased by C-TEC, which later operated as Michigan Cable, Avalon Cable, and was eventually absorbed by Charter Communications.
• Illinois: sold to Jones Intercable before coming under Comcast’s ownership.

Centel Electric

In 1991, Centel disposed of its electric utility assets located in Kansas and Colorado to UtiliCorp (which later became Aquila) for $345 million. Aquila subsequently sold the Kansas assets to Mid-Kansas Electric Company in 2006 and the Colorado holdings to Black Hills Corporation in 2008.