Frontier Communications of Connecticut

The Southern New England Telephone Company (SNET), doing business as Frontier Communications of Connecticut, is a local exchange carrier owned by Frontier Communications.

The Southern New England Telephone Company
Frontier Communications of Connecticut
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1878; 146 years ago (1878)
HeadquartersNew Haven, Connecticut
Key people
  • Dan McCarthy (chairman and CEO)
  • Ken Arndt (East Region president)
  • Paul Quick (SVP & General Manager, Connecticut)
  • Edward O'Connor Jr. (Sales VP, Connecticut)
  • Joseph Ferraiolo (Area General Manager, New Haven County)
  • Zachary Tomblin (Area General Manager, Eastern Connecticut)
ProductsLocal Telephone Service, Broadband
Number of employees
2700
ParentSNET (1986–1998)
SBC/AT&T Inc. (1998–2014)
Frontier (2014–present; Sale to Verizon pending)
Websitehttp://www.frontier.com/

History

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It started operations on January 28, 1878, as the District Telephone Company of New Haven.[1] It was the founder of the first telephone exchange, as well as the world's first telephone book. Since its inception, SNET has held a monopoly on most of the telephone services in the state of Connecticut; the only remaining exceptions are the Greenwich and Byram exchanges where Verizon New York provides telephone service.[2]

 
SNET logo, 1969–1983

SNET and Cincinnati Bell were the only two companies in the old Bell System in which the old AT&T only held a minority stake; by 1983, AT&T's stake was only 19.6 percent. Therefore, both were considered independents rather than Bell Operating Companies.

Sale to SBC

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SNET was purchased for $4.4 billion in 1998 by SBC Communications, which subsequently purchased the old AT&T, taking its name as the "new" AT&T. Under AT&T, SNET was known as AT&T Connecticut.

In 2006, AT&T merged the operations of SNET into AT&T Teleholdings, formerly Ameritech, making it a subsidiary of the latter.

On June 1, 2007, the operations of Woodbury Telephone were merged into SNET.

Sale to Frontier

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On October 24, 2014, Frontier Communications completed its purchase of AT&T's Connecticut operations, including Southern New England Telephone and SNET America, for $2 billion.[3] The company began doing business as Frontier Communications of Connecticut. It is the second former unit of the Bell System to be acquired by Frontier, the first being Frontier West Virginia (originally C&P Telephone of West Virginia) which was purchased from Verizon in 2010.

Proposed Sale to Verizon

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On September 5, 2024, Verizon announced that it will buy Frontier Communications for $20 billion. The acquisition, if approved, will see Verizon taking control of Frontier’s operations, including SNET. [4]

See also

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  • History – University of Connecticut Libraries
  • "AT&T Press Release Headlines & News from AT&T". att.com. Retrieved 2017-08-09.

References

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  1. ^ First Commercial Telephone Exchange – Today in History: January 28, Connecticut's Office of the State Historian
  2. ^ AT&T SNET Fairfield County White Pages, Customer Service Guide page 14, "Local Toll-free Calling Areas", August 2006 edition
  3. ^ Pilon, Matt (June 6, 2018). "Frontier's CT losses spike". HartfordBusiness.com. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  4. ^ "Verizon to acquire Frontier". www.verizon.com. 2024-09-05. Retrieved 2024-09-05.