Beautifully engrave uncancelled certificate from the Southern New England Telephone Company issued in 1983. This historic document was printed by American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an allegorical woman. This item has the signatures of the Company's President and Secretary and is over 25 years old.
Certificate Vignette The Southern New England Telephone Company (commonly referred to as SNET by its customers) started operations on January 27, 1878 as the District Telephone Company of New Haven. It was the founder of the first telephone exchange, as well as the world's first telephone book. Since its inception, SNET has held a monopoly on most of the telephone services in the state of Connecticut; the only remaining exception is the Greenwich and Byram exchanges where Verizon New York provides telephone service.[1] Prior to February 1984, AT&T held 16.8% of SNET. Since SNET was only a minority holding of AT&T and not considered a Bell Operating Company, AT&T was not legally required to divest ownership of SNET. It opted to do so after January 1, 1984. In 1998, SBC Communications, now AT&T, purchased Southern New England Telecommunications, its parent company. SNET and Cincinnati Bell were the only two companies in the old Bell System that AT&T only had a minority stake in; therefore, neither is considered a Bell Operating Company (RBOC). The Southern New England Telephone Company was held by Southern New England Telecommunications Corporation, which SBC had purchased in 1998. Cincinnati Bell is still independent of any RBOC, isolated within AT&T territory. The Southern New England Telephone Company currently does business as AT&T Connecticut. On June 1, 2007, AT&T absorbed the operations of Woodbury Telephone into Southern New England Telephone. Woodbury Telephone is now defunct. History from Wikipedia and OldCompanyResearch.com (old stock certificate research service).