Telco

A telephone company (or telco) is a company providing telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications. Most of the largest telcos are or were at one time nationalized or state-regulated monopolies.

With the advent of cellular telephony, telcos now include wireless carriers.

Most telcos are now also ISPs, and the distinction may disappear completely with time.

The attitudes of many telcos were satirized by the comedian Lily Tomlin with the quote:

"We don't care.

We don't have to.

We're the phone company."

Telcos include:

• AT&T
• BC TEL
• Bell
• Bell Canada
• British Telecom
• Cable and Wireless[?]
• Deutsche Telekom
• GTE
• ITT
• Level 3[?]
• Nortel
• NTT
• SBC Communications[?]
• Sprint[?]
• Telefonica
• Teleglobe[?]
• Telia
• Telstra
• TELUS
• Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd[?]
• WorldCom
• Verizon

See also:

• ISP
• PSTN