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From: DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Douglas Scott Reuben)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: The "Bell" Logo
Message-ID: <14977@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 28 Nov 90 03:25:53 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 848, Message 2 of 12


Hi-

John Higdon posted about use of the old Bell System logo among the
RBOCs:

I know NYNEX (New York Tel and New England Tel) uses the Bell in its
logo, as do the individual operating companies of NY Tel and New
England Tel.  (And their Mobile division, occasionally...) An employee
at NE Tel told me a few years ago that NYNEX wanted to get rid of the
Bell logo wherever the word "NYNEX" appears, but so far they don't
seem to have implemented this yet.

SNET (Southern New England Tel, NOT part of NYNEX, thankfully!),
doesn't use the Bell logo anymore (although it has replaced it with a
cheap copy), but their mobile division (SONECOR? or is it
SNET-Mobilcom?) still uses the Bell on some of their literature,
probably to distinguish it from Metro Mobile, the "A" cellular
carrier. (They are not an "RBOC", nor in one.)

Bell Atlantic (C&P Tel, Diamond State Tel, Bell of PA, NJ Bell, more?)
still uses the Bell symbol on all of its divisions, ie, "Bell
Atlantic" the RBOC, all of the local Bells, and the mobile division.

Bell South (well, ok, whatever the Bell is in New Orleans - South
Central Bell?) also seems to use the logo, although I am not sure what
the mobile division uses.

I'm not sure about Ameritech (Midwest) as a whole, but I THINK the
payphones at O'Hare and Midway said Illinois Bell and had the Bell
logo next to it.  (This was six months ago, so maybe it changed.)
Don't know if "Ameritech" the RBOC uses it, though.

US West (at least the ex-Pacific Northwest Bell BOC) USED to use it,
until maybe about January, 1990. I have a Bend, Oregon directory from
1989, and it has the logo, but the newer 1990-1991 book does not. If I
remember correctly, there was a small passage in the newer book
stating that PNB was changing its name to "US West", or something to
that effect.

As to Pac*Bell, well, they kept the word "Bell", but I guess the like
the highly original asterisk symbol a lot better! :-) (They must have
searched REALLY hard for that logo! "Gee ... let's use one of the
buttons on the phone!")  Interestingly, I see a lot of their products
in stores (phones, answering machines, etc.) that say "Pac*Tel" and
have the Bell logo next to it, but I don't see it anywhere else.
(There is also some other company, maybe it is Northwestern Bell?,
that has a logo "Bell Phones" in bold type and a Bell logo next to it.
There is also Southwestern Bell, which has the standard SWB/Bell logo
 ... nothing new there.)

Anyone know what Cincinnati Bell (not a "real" BOC, and certainly not
an RBOC) uses? Maybe they borrowed SNET's! (or more likely, SNET
borrowed Cincinnati Bell's! :-) )


Doug

dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu
dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet