# AT&T the only phone company

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-t-the-only-phone-company/119527>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [July 18, 2002, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-t-the-only-phone-company/119527 "2002-07-18T02:48:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-t-the-only-phone-company/119527/1 "2002-07-18T02:48:03Z")

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According to the staff report in [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mphonedial.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mphonedial.html), AT&T was the only phone company in the 1960s. That’s funny - I could have sworn that mine was supplied by the GPO (General Post Office (of Britain)).

There’s a couple of hundred countries outside of America y’know.

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**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-t-the-only-phone-company/119527/2 "2002-07-18T12:05:40Z")

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Gee, as if it’s not **obvious** we’re talking about American phones. :rolleyes:

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**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-t-the-only-phone-company/119527/3 "2002-07-19T14:34:11Z")

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The phrase in question is “AT&T (the only phone company at the time)”. However, in the United States in the 1960s there were numerous small independent telephone companies, most commonly in rural areas. So this would have been more accurately written as “AT&T (the dominant U.S. phone company at the time”.

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**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-t-the-only-phone-company/119527/4 "2002-07-19T15:37:34Z")

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In addition to the small independents, there were areas in the US served by GTE. I lived in one.

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-t-the-only-phone-company/119527/5 "2002-07-24T15:04:07Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by yabob \*  
> \*\*In addition to the small independents, there were areas in the US served by GTE. I lived in one. \*\*

In fact, much of Los Angeles was served by General Telephone (GTE), hardly an insignificant area in terms of population.

Haj

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**Author:** ![SuperNelson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@SuperNelson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNelson)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-t-the-only-phone-company/119527/6 "2002-07-24T15:50:35Z")

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I did a quick google search on “independent telephone companies”, and according to the site below, “there are more than 1,300 independent telephone companies operating in the United States, companies that never were part of the former Bell System.”

> **[The History of Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom](https://www.wcvt.com/company/history/)**
>
> Locally owned and operated, Waitsfield Telecom has been providing telephone service to the Mad River Valley since 1904.