Re: Corporate Identify -- Verizon vs. "Bell Telephone"

(Much snippage occurs here...)

The various mergers and corporate name changes that have taken place > over the last 20 years among the Bell companies have not, for the most > part, changed the legal name of the operating company within each > state. All of the Bell Atlantic companies use the Bell Atlantic name > to do business, but the state operating companies all have individual > names, auch as Bell Telephone Co. of Pa. I think some of them have > changed their names, however. Most likely the reason for the old name > appearing on the modern literature is a state PUC or statutory > requirement that the actual name of the operating company be provided > on marketing documents. This would be the name that appears on the > tariff, as well.

On a slow day a few years ago I was looking at some US West (now Qwest) tariffs at the Oregon PUC. Most of the documents had wording that went something like "...Pacifc Northwest Bell, dba US West...", with dba standing for "doing business as". I don't know this for sure, but I'm guessing changing the name of a big company might be really expensive but using another name for the business might be as easy as filing a form with a state's corporation commission. This same syndrome afflicts many railroads; One road buys another, paints new logos all over everything but retains the old name on deeds to properties, operating authorities and the like. In addition to being expensive this tactic might shield the new owner from misdeeds of the former company. Who knows?