Frontier West Virginia, Inc. is one of the original Bell Operating Companies and provides local telephone service in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

History

The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia, originally part of the

Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the AT&T Corporation, American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America fo ...

, was founded on January 1, 1917. C&P of WV took over telephone operations in

being served by Central District and Printing Telegraph Company,

Southern Bell Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company was a Bell Operating Company serving the Southeastern United States of Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. It also previously covered the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, M ...

, and The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland. Dial service was first introduced by C&P of West Virginia in 1925 to the Huntington central office.

Bell Atlantic ownership

In 1984, The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia became a holding of

Bell Atlantic A bell Help:IPA/English, /ˈbɛl/ () is a struck idiophone, directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficien ...

, upon the divestiture of the

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

. Charleston became the first city in the United States to have a choice of long-distance companies. By dialing "1" plus the area code and number, they could choose their long-distance carrier. Charleston was the nation's first test market for the service, allowing 34,000 customers to choose from one of eight long-distance companies serving the area. C&P Telephone Co. of WV was the last

company to provide party line telephone service. The last party line was converted to "private line" service on October 30, 1989. In 1993, C&P Telephone of West Virginia took its last analog switch out of service, becoming the first

Bell Operating Company The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over 100 years f ...

to have 100% digital switching

Name changes

In 1994,

standardized all of its

names, resulting in C&P Telephone of West Virginia being renamed Bell Atlantic – West Virginia, Inc. In 2000, upon its purchase of

GTE GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing furth ...

, Bell Atlantic became

Verizon Communications Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

, resulting in the new name Verizon West Virginia, Inc.

Sale to Frontier

On July 1, 2010, Verizon transferred some local operations to a new subsidiary, New Communications ILEC Holdings, which was sold to Frontier Communications. Included in the sale was Verizon West Virginia, which became Frontier West Virginia, Inc. The company operates separately from Citizens Telecommunications Company of West Virginia, the existing Frontier provider in the state. Even though

Frontier Communications Frontier Communications Parent, Inc. is an American telecommunications company. Known as Citizens Utilities Company until 2000, Citizens Communications Company until 2008, and Frontier Communications Corporation until 2020, as a communications pr ...

is not a

Baby Bell A Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) was a corporate entity created as result of the antitrust lawsuit by the United States Department of Justice against the Western Electric Company and American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 19 ...

, the

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains ju ...

determined that Frontier West Virginia is still responsible to uphold obligations expected of Bell Operating Companies outlined in the

Telecommunications Act of 1996 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of ...

Unique

Frontier West Virginia was the first Bell Operating Company to have been completely divested by a

and sold to a non-Baby Bell. Some historically Bell local access lines have been sold to non-Baby Bells over the years by

BellSouth BellSouth, LLC (stylized as ''BELLSOUTH'' and formerly known as BellSouth Corporation) was an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after ...

US West US West, Inc. was one of seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs, also referred to as "Baby Bells"), created in 1983 under the Modification of Final Judgement (''United States v. Western Electric Co., Inc.'' 552 Fed. Supp. 131), a cas ...

, and

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

; however, the Bell Operating Companies from which those exchanges were split have been retained by the Baby Bells.

announced on December 17, 2013 that it plans to sell Southern New England Telephone to

. Although SNET is not legally defined as a

since it was not majority-owned by the original

, it is an original member of the Bell System and now shares a common affiliation with Frontier West Virginia (via ownership by Frontier) for the first time since 1983.

References

{{Bell System Frontier Communications Bell System Telecommunications companies of the United States History of telecommunications in the United States Telecommunications companies established in 1917 Communications in West Virginia 1917 establishments in West Virginia