# Origins of 911

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-911/296185>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 25, 2005, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-911/296185 "2005-03-25T12:34:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-911/296185/21 "2005-03-25T15:51:09Z")

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> [@Dewey Finn](#):
>
> But I was commenting on **friedo** ’s statement that the “dozens of small local telephone companies” were a _result_ of the divestiture. That doesn’t sound right.

Crap. I misread your post.

You’re right, the small ILECs were here from the begining. Divestiture had nothing to do with it.

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-911/296185/22 "2005-03-25T15:57:13Z")

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Right. While there were many independent operators long before the divestiture, the majority of them were tiny mom ‘n’ pop operations serving small towns and villages. Growing up I always heard that Rochester Telephone was the largest independent in the country. Since it never served more than 1% of the country’s population the total for all the independents has to have been pretty small.

On preview I see this has already been said. Rochester Tel hasn’t had that name for years, BTW, and was bought out even before it became Frontier.

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**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-911/296185/23 "2005-03-25T16:08:14Z")

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> [@Exapno Mapcase](#):
>
> While there were many independent operators long before the divestiture, the majority of them were tiny mom ‘n’ pop operations serving small towns and villages.

If New York is any sort of national guide, I’d say that **Dewey** ’s estimate of 10% of total lines for all carriers is dead on the money.

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-911/296185/24 "2005-03-25T16:52:15Z")

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I’m pretty sure that New York was never in any way typical regarding phone systems. The mom ‘n’ pop operations were unusual in NYS and much more common farther west and south. Then again, those states seldom had independents as big as those in NYS or New England.

The overall 10% number is probably somewhere near accurate, but not because of the NYS example.

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