SBC stood for SBC. It didn't stand for Southwestern Bell Corporation. It was felt a One Bell Center that Southwestern Bell was too much of a regional name. SBC was chosen to give the corporation a name with a national reach. In fact, One Bell Center's name was changed to SBC Center.
I believe the full name was SBC Communications Corporation. At least it did when I retired from the Southwestern Bell Telephone subsidiary.
SBC is a result of Southwestern Bell becomeing more than a regional player...
Southwestern Bell Corporation was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies, or "Baby Bells." The company — a holding company for Southwestern Bell Telephone Company — was a result of U.S. antitrust action against AT&T in 1983. AT&T had adopted the name Southwestern Bell for its local operations in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas in April 1920. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed Southwestern Bell to become a national telephone provider, and it subsequently bought fellow Baby Bells Pacific Telesis and Ameritech, as well as independent Bell System franchise SNET.
SBC Corporate Logo, 1997–2001
SBC Corporate Logo, 1995–1997; 2001–2005In 1995, Southwestern Bell Corp. changed its name to SBC Communications, Inc at its annual meeting of stockholders in Denver. The company stated that "SBC" no longer stood for anything. SBC then proceeded to acquire fellow baby bell Pacific Telesis, the Regional Bell operating company serving Nevada and California, in 1997, and former independent Bell System franchise SNET(Southern New England Telephone) in. SBC then told the FCC that it would allow competitors access to local markets where it had had a monopoly if the FCC would allow them to acquire Ameritech. The FCC agreed and in May 1998, SBC and Ameritech, the Regional Bell operating company serving Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, announced merger plans. After making several organizational changes (such as the sale of Ameritech Wireless to GTE) to satisfy state and Federal regulators, the two merged on October 8, 1999. The FCC later fined SBC Communications $6 million for failure to comply with agreements made in order to secure approval of the merger
At the time of the AT&T merger, SBC provided local telephone service in 13 states (Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin) and long distance service to 10 million customers, and owned 60% of mobile phone provider Cingular. Cingular acquired AT&T Wireless in 2004, making Cingular the largest mobile phone service in the United States, with over 50 million subscribers. (Fellow Baby Bell BellSouth owns the other 40% of Cingular.) The company was also a large American Internet Service Provider, and the largest DSL provider in the US, with more than 5.1 million DSL lines in late 2005.
The company formerly traded on the NYSE as "SBC".
Just the facts.... One Baby Bell, Southwestern Bell changes name to SBC Communications and buys other baby bells and then eventually buys att..