List of United States telephone companies
| Company type | Telecommunications |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1984 |
| Fate | Result of the 1984 Breakup of the Bell System |
Area served | United States |
Regional Bell Operating Companies
The Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) were established as a result of the 1984 Breakup of the Bell System. Through a series of mergers and divestitures, the current entities succeeding the original RBOCs include:
- AT&T: providing services across Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin
- Verizon: covering Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia
- Lumen Technologies: overseeing former Bell System lines (originating from Qwest) in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming
- Frontier Communications: holding ex-Bell System ILEC territories in Connecticut and West Virginia
- Consolidated Communications: managing former Bell exchanges in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont following its acquisition of FairPoint Communications, which was previously under Verizon's ownership
Other major local exchange carriers
In regions and states where RBOCs are not the dominant local carriers:
- Lumen Technologies also operates non-Bell local exchanges within its 14-state core footprint as well as in Florida and the Las Vegas metropolitan area
- Brightspeed, formed in 2022 after Lumen divested its landline operations across 20 states outside its core markets and Florida for $7.5 billion
- Frontier Communications expands beyond West Virginia into rural and suburban locations across 27 states—many of which were formerly GTE regions acquired from Verizon—including parts of Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin
- Windstream, created in 2006 through the spinoff of Alltel’s wireline assets merged with Valor Telecom, serves rural communities in 29 states
- Consolidated Communications extends service to rural areas across 22 states beyond its Northern New England RBOC jurisdiction
- Telephone and Data Systems (via its subsidiary TDS) concentrates on rural telecommunications throughout portions of 36 states
- Altafiber (previously Cincinnati Bell), servicing the Cincinnati metropolitan area and Hawaii through ownership of Hawaiian Telcom, was exempt from the 1984 divestiture due to AT&T holding a minority interest
- Verizon maintains operations in former GTE regions within Pennsylvania and Virginia; it divested ex-GTE territories in California, Florida and Texas to Frontier Communications in 2016
- Claro Puerto Rico, part of global telecommunications leader América Móvil since 2007, provides coverage across all exchanges in Puerto Rico
- Ziply Fiber manages ex-GTE territories in the Pacific Northwest acquired from Frontier
A variety of smaller localities receive service from multiple non-RBOC providers.