The International Bell Telephone Company (IBTC) of Brussels, Belgium, was created in 1879 by the Bell Telephone Company of Boston, Massachusetts, a precursor entity to the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), initially to sell imported telephones and switchboards in Continental Europe.

IBTC evolved into a notable European telephone service provider and manufacturer, with major operations in several countries.

As a result of anti-trust actions in the U.S., AT&T, its parent, sold its entire European division and IBTC's subsidiaries to the International Telephone & Telegraph Company in 1925, ending a 46-year presence on the continent.

In 1879 Gardiner Hubbard, father-in-law of Alexander Graham Bell and the first president of the Bell Telephone Company, founded the International Bell Telephone Company for promoting sales of its telephone equipment throughout Europe. During his tour of the continent the Belgian government offered him the greatest financial incentives to establish a European subsidiary's headquarters in their country.

The International Bell Telephone Company (IBTC) shortly evolved into a holding company for various telephone service and production divisions. Its major manufacturing unit was the Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company (BTMC), which was founded in Antwerp, Belgium, on 26 April 1882. BTMC was created as a joint venture by the International Bell Telephone Company of New York City and the Western Electric Company of Chicago. BTMC then established Compagnie belge du téléphone Bell (Bell Telephone Company of Belgium) in the same year as an operating subsidiary, one of several companies that provided telephone services in the country, the others having evolved principally from telegraph carriers.

BTMC came under majority ownership by the telephone manufacturer Western Electric, and also established multiple other divisions as national companies across Continental Europe and Russia. Western Electric was itself later majority-owned by the American Bell Telephone Company, returning control of BTMC back to the Bell organization.

The Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company (BTMC) was founded on 26 April 1882 as the principal manufacturing business to assist International Bell with its growth throughout Europe, where many countries had nationalistic trade policies favouring domestic suppliers. BTMC was owned 45% by the American Bell Telephone Company, and 55% by Bell's major U.S. supplier, Western Electric, of which Bell was also a majority stakeholder. Western Electric, a U.S. company formed during the era of the telegraph, became American Bell's sole telephone supplier the same year. In a share sale to Western Electric, American Bell later disposed of its ownership of BTMC in 1890 to concentrate on telephone system operations, but since American Bell had been Western Electric's majority shareholder since 1881 it maintained an indirect ownership of IBTC.

The IBTC was created for "...the production, sale, purchase and leasing of equipment for telephony and telegraphy and everything directly or indirectly related to electricity" Later, as demand for services bloomed, the Bell Telephone Company had insufficient operating funds to quickly increase the telephone exchange network, resulting in Western Electric buying out all 45% of the shares held by Bell in 1890.