The Pacific Bell Telephone Company (or simply Pacific Bell) is an American telephone company and Internet service provider. The name Pacific Bell (as of 2002) is no longer used for marketing although the company still exists. It does business as AT&T Inc.[1] Pacific Bell operates in the U.S. state of California.[2]
Pacific Bell began as the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. The network was also operated in California, Oregon, and Washington until the late 1960s. Pacific Bell was later owned by the Pacific Telesis Group from 1984 to 1996 or 1997.[3] Pacific Telesis disappeared in the late 1990s. From then on, it was owned by SBC Communicatons along with its subsidiary Nevada Bell.[4]
The Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell names went stopped being used from 2002 to 2003 or 2004 because doing business as names were not in effect yet. So Nevada Bell and Pacific Bell changed their corporate name to SBC.[5] The names were later resurrected in 2003 or 2004 and now do business as the "new" AT&T..[6]