Pacific Telephone
 |
|
| AT&T California | |
|
Formerly called
|
The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company (1906-1983) |
| Private (Subsidiary of AT&T Inc.) | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1906 |
| Headquarters |
PacBell Building San Francisco, California, United States |
|
Area served
|
California |
| Products | POTS, DSL |
| Parent |
AT&T Co. (1906-1983) Pacific Telesis (1984-1997) SBC/AT&T Inc. (1997-present) |
| Subsidiaries | Nevada Bell |
The Pacific Bell Telephone Company (Pacific Bell) is a telephone company that provides telephone service in California. The company is owned by AT&T Inc. through AT&T Teleholdings. The company has been known by a number of names during which its service area has changed. The formal name of the company from the 1910s through the 1984 Bell System divestiture was The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. As of 2002, the name “Pacific Bell” is no longer commonly used.
The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company managed the Bell System's telephone operations in California. It grew by acquiring smaller telephone companies along the Pacific coast. It built and occupied San Francisco's Pacific Telephone Building on New Montgomery Street which has been described as a "monument to western progress and foresight".
During the San Francisco graft trials, the company was implicated in paying bribes to obtain an operations franchise in San Francisco. Theodore Halsey, a confidential political agent for the Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company, paid attorney Abe Ruef a retainer of $1,250 a month for "advice" on municipal issues. Ruef was the political boss behind S.F. Mayor Eugene Schmitz. In 1906, San Francisco was one of the most promising places for investment in all of the United States. Many companies were vying for a piece of the money to be made. The city's supervisors had run on a platform that included the city acquiring its own telephone system which both Home Telephone Company and Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company wanted to prevent. The Home Telephone Company, financed by investors from Southern California and Ohio, was trying to wrest the telephone franchise held exclusively by Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company in Northern California.
After the massive earthquake of 1906, the Home Telephone Company contributed $75,000 to a relief fund for the city, but asked that it be held until their franchise was approved. It was later revealed that the city's supervisors had received payoffs through Ruef from both the Home Telephone Company and Pacific States Telephone Co. Home Telephone paid 10 supervisors $3,500 each and seven supervisors $6,000 each (about $93,294 to $159,933 in 2017). Pacific States Telephone Co. paid 10 supervisors $5,000 each ($53,311 today). After the graft prosecutions, E.F. Pillsbury, General Counsel for the telephone company, revealed that he had never heard of Ruef's employment, and would have objected to Ruef receiving compensation greater than his own $1,000 per month.
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Wikipedia