As has been done for years, the regular telephone bill mailing
> contained an advertising insert for premium products and services.
> On a recent Verizon leaflet, at the bottom was a small line,
> "Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania".
> This was curious since that's a very old name that hasn't been used
> for years. Even in the Bell era, they shortened it to just "Bell of
> Pennsylvania". After divesture they became "Bell Atlantic", and IIRC
> they legally changed their name to that. Further, IIRC, their name
> change to Verizon was a legal name change as well, not just a
> marketing tool.
> So, I'm curious as to why they would use an old name on modern sales
> literature, esp when they're pushing their most modern high tech
> services. (They changed their name to Verizon specifically to sound
> high tech and not old fashioned with 'Bell Telephone').
> The only thing I could think of is perhaps it's to distinguish this
> mailing for this state, and former Bell customers (as opposed to GTE > customers).
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.
Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA Replace "example.invalid" with ".com".