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Frontier Telephone of Rochester
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Frontier Telephone of Rochester
Frontier Telephone of Rochester, Inc., formerly Rochester Telephone Corporation, is a local telephone operating company of Frontier Communications providing telephone service to Rochester, New York. It was founded in 1920 to consolidate local phone operations in the Rochester area, and was notable as being an independent telephone company during the peak of the Bell System's near monopoly of phone service in the United States. The company changed its name to Frontier in 1994. It was acquired by Global Crossing in 1999, which then sold it to Citizens Communications in 2001. Citizens took the Frontier name in 2008, becoming Frontier Communications.
Rochester Telephone got its start late in the nineteenth century. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1875, and the following year he patented it and exhibited his device to great acclaim at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. By July 1877, the telephone had made its way to Rochester, New York, where a line was strung between the offices of the Phillips Coal Company and its coal yards a mile and a half away. Following this precedent, in 1879, Rochester established two telephone companies, one a franchise of the American Bell Telephone Company, and one a part of the Edison company. The Bell affiliate, called the Rochester Telephonic Exchange, was a branch of the Bell Company of Buffalo.
The two telephone companies competed for less than 18 months before merging under the aegis of the Bell system. In 1880 the company had 50 phone lines, which it provided to residential customers at the rate of $24 a year; businesses paid more for the service. Within six years the number of telephone users in the city had increased exponentially, reaching 1,000. All lines were party lines, and there were no telephone numbers; calls were placed through a switchboard staffed by operators, who connected parties by name. Calls passed over lines strung along streets on poles with crossbars, which observers complained were unsightly.
In 1886 the Bell Company announced that customers would no longer be charged a flat fee, but would be charged by call for all telephone use over 500 calls a year. Outraged customers objected, and the Rochester city council revoked the company's franchise. In addition, telephone users staged a strike, removing their receivers at noon on November 20, 1886, and leaving them off the hook for 18 months while the company stood fast. Finally, Bell gave way, offering lower rates, and the strike was ended.
The telephone strike had stimulated in Rochester's citizens a desire for a locally owned telephone company. When the Bell Company's patents expired in 1893, many competing telephone enterprises sprung up. In early 1899, a group of Rochester businessmen joined this movement when they founded the Home Telephone Company. By the end of the year, the company's name had been changed to Rochester Telephone Company.
The upstart company drummed up about 1500 subscribers for its services and presented a petition to the Rochester City Council for a franchise, which was approved in April 1899. On May 13, 1900, Rochester Telephone inaugurated service to about 1,800 customers. Steady expansion took place in its early years. The company added 1,000 new lines to its switchboard, a second story to its headquarters building, and an entire second switchboard. In addition, Rochester Telephone widened its area of service to include the towns of Charlotte, Fairport, and Pittsford outside city limits. Other counties in western New York were served by company subsidiaries, the Genesee Valley Telephone Company, and the Interlake Telephone Company.
Although customers professed higher satisfaction with the service of the independent Rochester Telephone Company than they had with the Bell system, they were unable to make long-distance calls. In an effort to provide a nationwide network that would allow long-distance calling, the country's alternative telephone companies established the United States Independent Telephone Company in 1905. Two years later, however, after its failure to win entry to the key New York City market, the company failed. Rochester Telephone, which had invested heavily in the enterprise, suffered severe financial damage with its bankruptcy. This, coupled with the high costs of competition with the Bell network, prevented the company from raising any new investment capital for the next four years, and it continued to limp along throughout the 1910s.
The inconvenience of a dual telephone system, which required two sets of phones in each residence or business, and two sets of lines criss-crossing the city, brought growing pressure for consolidation of operations. In 1915, negotiations between Bell and the independents began in New York State. Two years later it was agreed that a new corporation, independent of the Bell organization, would be created to buy and operate the telephone systems of both companies.
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Frontier Telephone of Rochester
Frontier Telephone of Rochester, Inc., formerly Rochester Telephone Corporation, is a local telephone operating company of Frontier Communications providing telephone service to Rochester, New York. It was founded in 1920 to consolidate local phone operations in the Rochester area, and was notable as being an independent telephone company during the peak of the Bell System's near monopoly of phone service in the United States. The company changed its name to Frontier in 1994. It was acquired by Global Crossing in 1999, which then sold it to Citizens Communications in 2001. Citizens took the Frontier name in 2008, becoming Frontier Communications.
Rochester Telephone got its start late in the nineteenth century. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1875, and the following year he patented it and exhibited his device to great acclaim at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. By July 1877, the telephone had made its way to Rochester, New York, where a line was strung between the offices of the Phillips Coal Company and its coal yards a mile and a half away. Following this precedent, in 1879, Rochester established two telephone companies, one a franchise of the American Bell Telephone Company, and one a part of the Edison company. The Bell affiliate, called the Rochester Telephonic Exchange, was a branch of the Bell Company of Buffalo.
The two telephone companies competed for less than 18 months before merging under the aegis of the Bell system. In 1880 the company had 50 phone lines, which it provided to residential customers at the rate of $24 a year; businesses paid more for the service. Within six years the number of telephone users in the city had increased exponentially, reaching 1,000. All lines were party lines, and there were no telephone numbers; calls were placed through a switchboard staffed by operators, who connected parties by name. Calls passed over lines strung along streets on poles with crossbars, which observers complained were unsightly.
In 1886 the Bell Company announced that customers would no longer be charged a flat fee, but would be charged by call for all telephone use over 500 calls a year. Outraged customers objected, and the Rochester city council revoked the company's franchise. In addition, telephone users staged a strike, removing their receivers at noon on November 20, 1886, and leaving them off the hook for 18 months while the company stood fast. Finally, Bell gave way, offering lower rates, and the strike was ended.
The telephone strike had stimulated in Rochester's citizens a desire for a locally owned telephone company. When the Bell Company's patents expired in 1893, many competing telephone enterprises sprung up. In early 1899, a group of Rochester businessmen joined this movement when they founded the Home Telephone Company. By the end of the year, the company's name had been changed to Rochester Telephone Company.
The upstart company drummed up about 1500 subscribers for its services and presented a petition to the Rochester City Council for a franchise, which was approved in April 1899. On May 13, 1900, Rochester Telephone inaugurated service to about 1,800 customers. Steady expansion took place in its early years. The company added 1,000 new lines to its switchboard, a second story to its headquarters building, and an entire second switchboard. In addition, Rochester Telephone widened its area of service to include the towns of Charlotte, Fairport, and Pittsford outside city limits. Other counties in western New York were served by company subsidiaries, the Genesee Valley Telephone Company, and the Interlake Telephone Company.
Although customers professed higher satisfaction with the service of the independent Rochester Telephone Company than they had with the Bell system, they were unable to make long-distance calls. In an effort to provide a nationwide network that would allow long-distance calling, the country's alternative telephone companies established the United States Independent Telephone Company in 1905. Two years later, however, after its failure to win entry to the key New York City market, the company failed. Rochester Telephone, which had invested heavily in the enterprise, suffered severe financial damage with its bankruptcy. This, coupled with the high costs of competition with the Bell network, prevented the company from raising any new investment capital for the next four years, and it continued to limp along throughout the 1910s.
The inconvenience of a dual telephone system, which required two sets of phones in each residence or business, and two sets of lines criss-crossing the city, brought growing pressure for consolidation of operations. In 1915, negotiations between Bell and the independents began in New York State. Two years later it was agreed that a new corporation, independent of the Bell organization, would be created to buy and operate the telephone systems of both companies.