Southwestern Bell facts for kids

Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, LLC is a big phone company that is part of AT&T. It provides phone services in several states like Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and parts of Illinois. Today, its main office is in Dallas, Texas.

The Story of Southwestern Bell Telephone

Southwestern Bell Telephone started as The Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company in 1882. Over time, it joined with other phone companies in the Southwest. These included companies from Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. By 1917, they all became one big company called Southwestern Bell Telephone Company.

This company was a very important part of the Bell System. The Bell System was a huge group of phone companies all working together under AT&T. Southwestern Bell was sometimes the largest of these local phone companies.

Southwestern Bell kept growing by adding smaller phone companies. For example, in the 1950s, it took over companies like Southeast Missouri Telephone Company and Ozark Central Telephone Company. This helped it serve even more people.

Southwestern Bell Corporation and the "Baby Bells"

In 1984, a big change happened. The main AT&T company was broken up into several smaller, independent companies. These new companies were often called "Baby Bells". Southwestern Bell Telephone became the main part of a new company called Southwestern Bell Corporation. It was the smallest of the seven "Baby Bells" at first.

Later, in 1995, Southwestern Bell Corporation changed its name to SBC Communications. This was done to show that the company was growing and serving customers across the whole country, not just the Southwest. They even had a slogan: "Friendly. Neighborhood. Global."

How the Company's Name Changed Over Time

The official name of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company changed a few times over the years. For example, in 2001, the company officially moved its registration from Missouri to Texas. Then, in 2007, it moved back to Missouri. In 2012, it changed its official state of registration to Delaware. These changes were mostly for legal reasons.

The way the company showed its name to customers also changed. For many years, it was simply "Southwestern Bell." In the early 2000s, it started using "SBC Southwestern Bell" to show it was part of SBC Communications.

By late 2002, the "Southwestern Bell" name mostly disappeared from customer-facing materials. Instead, the company used "SBC" followed by the state name, like SBC Arkansas or SBC Texas.

Then, in 2005, SBC Communications bought the original AT&T company. After this, SBC Communications changed its own name to AT&T Inc. Because of this, the local phone companies changed their names again. Since 2006, Southwestern Bell has been known by names like AT&T Arkansas, AT&T Kansas, and AT&T Texas. The overall region is now called AT&T Southwest. However, the official legal name of the company is still Southwestern Bell Telephone Company.

Images for kids

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  1897 map of the service area

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  A Southwestern Bell Telephone Bill from 1984

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  A Southwestern Bell payphone with new AT&T signs

See also

In Spanish: AT&T Southwest para niños