Alexander Graham Bell made a historical invention by introducing the telephone and ever since then the demand and market for telephones have been growing and it is the telephone operating companies who are entrusted with the task of managing the complicated network of telephone lines. Every country in the world has more than one telephone operating Companies some of them are Nationalized and owned by the Government. In such countries it is usually the Government who lease out the right to the private telephone Operating Companies .
These telephone operating companies ,often termed as TELCO in America, compete to gain operating rights. The telephone operating companies in some of the countries of the world are:
USA
Cincinnati Bell (AT&T formerly held minority interest)
Malheur Bell (Independent subsidiary of Qwest Corporation/Mountain Bell)
Puerto Rico Telephone
CenturyTel
Independent Operating Companies
Embarq (formerly Sprint)
Windstream Communications
Telephone and Data Systems
United Kingdom
Virgin Phone
Kingston Communications
British Telecom
Cable and Wireless
Mobile Operators
Fresh Mobile
Mobile World
TalkTalk Mobile
3 Mobile
Vodafone UK
Orange UK
T-Mobile UK
O2
Virgin Mobile
Dot Mobile
BT Mobile
Tesco Mobile
Tesco Mobile