Pacific Bell

Pacific Bell Telephone Company
	File:Pacific Bell logo.svg
Trade name	AT&T California
Formerly	The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company (1906–1983)
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1906; 120 years ago
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, United States
Area served	California
Products	POTS, DSL
Parent	AT&T Corporation (1906–1983); Pacific Telesis (1984–1997); AT&T (1997–present)
Subsidiaries	Nevada Bell

The Pacific Bell Telephone Company (commonly known as Pac Bell) is a telecommunications provider serving California, operating under the ownership of AT&T via AT&T Teleholdings. Despite being branded as “AT&T” since 2002, Pacific Bell continues to function as the legal entity responsible for a significant portion of California’s telecom infrastructure.

History

Initially established as The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, or "PacTel," it oversaw the Bell System’s activities within California and expanded its reach by acquiring smaller regional firms. The company headquartered itself in San Francisco’s renowned Pacific Telephone Building on New Montgomery Street, which became an emblem of commercial expansion in the area.

San Francisco graft

During the graft trials in San Francisco, the Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company was implicated in bribery schemes aimed at securing municipal franchise rights. Theodore Halsey, serving as the company’s political agent, paid attorney Abe Ruef a monthly sum of $1,250 for municipal consulting. Ruef was the political power behind Mayor Eugene Schmitz. Following the 1906 earthquake recovery—a period offering substantial business opportunities—both Pacific States and rival Home Telephone Company made significant payments to city supervisors to either retain or obtain franchise control.

Home Telephone pledged $75,000 toward earthquake relief efforts contingent upon franchise approval. Investigations uncovered that supervisors received payments ranging between $3,500 and $6,000 from both companies. After legal proceedings, Pacific States’ General Counsel denied any knowledge of payments made to Ruef and criticized his compensation exceeding his own monthly salary of $1,000.

Growth

In the early decades of the 20th century, Pacific Telephone & Telegraph along with the Bell System initially resisted automating telephone operations, favoring manual switchboard operators for their perceived superior service quality. When acquiring competitors equipped with automatic dial systems, Bell commonly replaced these with manual switchboards. However, demand growth soon overwhelmed manual capacities. By the early 1920s, following the installation of the first large panel switch in Omaha in 1921, Bell companies began embracing automated switching technology.

Southern California service

Los Angeles and San Francisco developed different strategies regarding automatic switching. The Los Angeles Telephone Company, which merged with Sunset Telephone Company in 1883, was purchased by Pacific Telephone & Telegraph in 1906 but continued operating independently under the Sunset brand.

The Los Angeles area also featured competitor Home Telephone Company, which had offered automatic dial service since 1902 but restricted calls to its own network. Businesses often maintained lines from both firms to interconnect exchanges. Under local pressure in 1916, Sunset acquired Home and formed Southern California Telephone Company, fully consolidating operations by 1918.

At the time of merger, Home served approximately 60,000 customers through 16 dial offices; Sunset provided service to 68,000 subscribers via nine manual offices. Because Home had a strong reputation for reliable service with its dial systems, Pacific Telephone chose to preserve Home’s automatic equipment rather than replacing it with manual switchboards. Instead, they innovatively integrated dial and trunk lines into manual switchboards so that Sunset customers could reach Home users through operator assistance.

The final manual exchange in Los Angeles was Thornwall 6 in Burbank, which remained operational until the late 1950s. In southern California, the last manual office was located on Catalina Island in Avalon—initially served by radiotelephone since the early 1920s. Pacific Telephone later installed submarine cables connecting Avalon to the mainland; Avalon transitioned to dial service in 1978 through remote switching equipment based in San Pedro.

Operations in Northern California

In the 1920s, San Francisco primarily utilized manual telephone exchanges. When PacTel took over Home Telephone Co., its rival in San Francisco and Oakland, during the early 1920s, customers were transitioned from Home's dial-based service to Pacific Telephone's manual systems. A 1927 publication by Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. emphasized the introduction of new manual offices without any reference to plans for dial service. The first dial exchange in San Francisco, named ORdway, began operation on March 23, 1929, closely followed by the inaugural suburban step-by-step office established in Palo Alto later that year.

Transition to Dial Service

The shift from manual to dial telephone systems faced postponements during World War II due to shortages of necessary equipment. Despite initial intentions to convert earlier, San Jose continued using manual service until 1949.

In preparation for Operator Toll Dialing, which preceded Direct Distance Dialing, telephone numbers across cities were standardized into a two-letter, five-number format (for example, EXchange 1-2345). San Francisco finalized this standardization by December 1947, and by July 1948, most cities along the San Francisco Peninsula had adopted exchange names, initiating a move toward seven-digit dialing:

DAvenport 2 — Palo Alto
OXford — Millbrae
DIamond 3 & 4 — Burlingame, San Mateo
FIreside 5 — San Mateo
EMerson 6 — Redwood City

Certain peninsula locations continued with manual numbers requiring operator assistance, which were noted in directories with lowercase listings (such as Belmont 120). Calls directed to some Northern California exchanges like Sacramento and Stockton necessitated dialing "0" to reach an operator through tandem switching systems. For other long-distance calls, users dialed "211" to connect with a long-distance operator.

During the 1947 conversion process, Pacific Telephone preserved most existing central office names but added extra digits; however, some exchanges like WEst and CHina were phased out. The final manual office in San Francisco was converted in 1953 when JUniper 6 transitioned its approximately 2,700 subscribers to crossbar switching equipment. Riverside operated a significant manual office until 1956; Berkeley completed its last manual office conversion in 1963; and Crockett was the final Bay Area location to switch from manual service in 1969.

Expansion into the Northwest

Pacific Telephone expanded its operations into Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho through acquisitions. These territories were separated on July 1, 1961, resulting in the creation of Pacific Northwest Bell. By the 1980s, Pacific Telephone's assets reached a valuation of $14.5 billion, making it the largest among AT&T’s 22 fully owned local Bell operating companies and regarded as its "crown jewel." Nevertheless, strict local regulatory constraints in California limited its overall profitability.

Divestiture from AT&T

Prior to the AT&T breakup in 1984, AT&T held an ownership stake of 89.8% in Pacific Telephone. After the breakup, The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company was renamed Pacific Bell Telephone Company (PacBell). Pacific Telesis was formed as a holding company overseeing PacBell and Nevada Bell, which had been a PacBell subsidiary since 1913. Notably, Nevada Bell was excluded from the Modification of Final Judgment that led to the dismantling of the Bell System.

Mergers and Subsequent Expansion

In 1997, Pacific Telesis Group was purchased by SBC Communications. While the Pacific Telesis brand gradually disappeared as numerous shareholders divested, SBC maintained operations of local telephone entities under their original designations.

By September 2001, the company was rebranded as "SBC Pacific Bell," which was later abbreviated to "SBC" by the end of 2002. Personnel involved in non-regulated or multi-state services were reassigned to other SBC divisions such as "Pacific Telesis Shared Services" and "SBC Operations, Inc." For regulatory compliance, staff managing regulated local services continued to operate under "Pacific Bell Telephone Company dba SBC California," which delivers regulated local exchange carrier services throughout California.

On November 18, 2005, SBC finalized its acquisition of AT&T Corp., creating AT&T Inc.. Subsequently, Pacific Bell adopted the name "Pacific Bell Telephone Company," conducting business as AT&T California. Following an internal restructuring in 2006, its immediate parent company became AT&T Teleholdings, integrating Pacific Telesis Group into this entity while most of the original Bell family shares were liquidated. After deregulation of California's local telephone market in 2007, AT&T California customers experienced rate increases.

External links

Pacific Bell official website