From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Organization that provides telephone and/or other telecommunications service
A
telephone company
[a]
is a kind of electronic communications service provider, more precisely a
telecommunications service provider
(TSP), that provides
telecommunications
services such as
telephony
and
data communications
access. Many traditional solely telephone companies now function as
internet service providers
(ISPs), and the distinction between a telephone company and ISP has tended to disappear completely over time, as the current trend for
supplier convergence
in the industry developes.
[2]
Additionally, with advances in technology development, other traditional separate industries such as cable television,
Voice-over IP (VoIP)
, and satellite providers offer similar competing features as the telephone companies to both residential and businesses leading to further evolution of corporate identity have taken shape.
Due to the nature of
capital expenditure
involved in the past, most telecoms were
government owned
agencies or privately-owned
monopolies
operated in most countries under close state-regulations. But today there are many private players in most regions of the world, and even most of the government owned companies have been opened up to competition in-line with World Trade Organization (WTO) policy agenda. Historically these government agencies were often referred to, primarily in Europe, as PTTs (
postal, telegraph and telephone services
).
[3]
Telephone companies are
common carriers
, and in the
United States
are also known as
local exchange carriers
. With the advent of
mobile telephony
, telephone companies now include
wireless carriers
, or
mobile network operators
and even satellite providers (
Iridium
).
Over time
software companies
have also evolved to perform telephone services such as:
Net2Phone
,
WhatsApp
, and others.
History
[
edit
]
In 1913, the
Kingsbury Commitment
allowed more than 20,000 independent telephone companies in the United States to use the long distance trunks of
Bell Telephone Company
.
[4]
[5]
Popular culture
[
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]
- Comedian
Lily Tomlin
frequently satirized the telephone industry (and the country's then-dominant
Bell System
in particular) with a
skit
playing the
telephone operator
Ernestine. Ernestine, who became one of Tomlin's trademark characters, was perhaps most famous for the following line:
"We don't care; we don't have to. We're the phone company."
- In the satirical 1967 film
The President's Analyst
, The Phone Company (TPC) is depicted as plotting to enslave humanity by replacing
landlines
with brain-implanted
mobile phones
.
- In the 1988 video game
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
, The Phone Company (TPC) was used by the Caponian aliens to secretly reduce the intelligence of humans.
See also
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]
References and notes
[
edit
]
- Notes
- ^
Abbreviated as
telco
. Alternative names include
telephone service provider
,
[1]
telecommunications company
or
telecommunications operator
.
- Citations
- Bibliography
External links
[
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]