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| Ameritech | |
| Formerly | American Information Technologies Corporation Ameritech Corporation SBC Teleholdings, Inc. |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| NYSE: AIT[1] | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Predecessor | American Telephone and Telegraph Company |
| Founded | 1983; 42 years ago (1983) |
| Defunct | 2002; 23 years ago (2002) |
| Fate | Merged with SBC Communications |
| Successor | SBC Communications Inc. |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Products | Telephone,Internet,Television |
| Parent | AT&T Corporation (1983) SBC/AT&T Inc. (1999–2002) |
| Subsidiaries | Illinois Bell Indiana Bell Michigan Bell Ohio Bell Pacific Bell Wisconsin Bell |
AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly known asAmeritech Corporation (and, before that,American Information Technologies Corporation), was an Americantelecommunications company that arose out of the 1984AT&T divestiture. Ameritech was one of the sevenRegional Bell Operating Companies created following the breakup of theBell System. Ameritech was acquired in 1999 by SBC Communications, which subsequently acquiredAT&T Corporation in 2006, becoming the present-dayAT&T.
Ameritech was created as aholding company that owned five formerBell System companies in the Midwest. Under its umbrella were:
For Ameritech's first nine years, it maintained these Bell brands inherited from the Bell System—though public displays of the Bell companies' names were often captioned "An Ameritech Company". In January 1993, Ameritech officially retired the Bell brands and marketed itself with solely the Ameritech name across all five states in its territory. It added "d/b/a Ameritech (state)" to the names of its Bells to communicate brand unity.
Ameritech also ownedAmeritech Cellular, a wireless company that operated cellular networks in many of the major cities of these states. Ameritech Cellular was previously calledAmeritech Mobile Communications. Ameritech also providedcable television service in select areas as part of theAmericast venture with other phone companies during the 1990s.
Ameritech Advanced Data Services (AADS) Network Access Point (NAP) was one of the original four National Science Foundation exchange points in the United States starting in 1994. AADS was aTier 1 networkInternet Exchange Point in Chicago, Illinois that provided service to higher education and research networks via a program called Star TAP[2] and commercial networks.[3] After the merger with SBC, AADS did business as the SBC Network Access Point or SBC/AADS NAP.
Prior to its merger withSBC Communications, Ameritech's corporate headquarters were in a leased space above theChicago Mercantile Exchange on floors 34 through 39 of 30 S Wacker Dr,Chicago. Further corporate offices were located at 225 W Randolph St, Chicago (formerly "The Illinois Bell Building") and 2000 W. Ameritech Center Drive,Hoffman Estates) ("The Ameritech Center").[4] It was traded on theNYSE under the "AIT" symbol.
In May 1998, Ameritech announced its intent to merge withSBC Communications for $62 billion.[5][6][7][8] This brought great concern to Federal and state regulators, who in turn did not approve the merger until SBC and Ameritech agreed to several conditions to ensure adequate competition.[9] Most notably, regulators required:
On October 6, 1999, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the merger between SBC and Ameritech, then the two companies officially merged on October 8, 1999.[12] Prior to the merger, Ameritech's Chairman and CEO wasRichard Notebaert, who later (in 2002) became CEO of competitorQwest.[13][14]
On January 15, 2003, SBC Communications changed itsd.b.a. names, changed the legal name of Ameritech Corp. toSBC Teleholdings, Inc., which began doing business asSBC Midwest.[15] On January 15, 2006, d.b.a names were again changed to align with SBC's assumption of the AT&T brand identity following its acquisition of AT&T Corp. the previous year, and Ameritech was again renamed, becomingAT&T Teleholdings, Inc.[16] and began doing business asAT&T Midwest.
Several Ameritech subsidiaries remain legally named "Ameritech", such as Ameritech Advanced Services; however, they do business as "AT&T Advanced Solutions".
In 2006, the holding companiesPacific Telesis andSouthern New England Telecommunications were legally merged into AT&T Teleholdings. The company then became a holding company forPacific Bell (and its subsidiaryNevada Bell) andSouthern New England Telephone.
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The Ameritech name was used in the storyline of the U.S. television miniseriesAmerika to refer to one of the"sovereign" autonomous regions—Ameritech's regional operating area, theGreat Lakes area ofNorth America—that the formerUnited States was divided into in result of the fictionalSoviet occupation that is the base premise of the miniseries' plot.
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