Pacific Bell is an informal name of Pacific Bell Telephone Company, which is a provider of telephone service in California. The company is owned by AT&T through AT&T Teleholdings. Historically, the company has had many names and service areas. The name "Pacific Bell" is no longer commonly used. The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company was the Bell System's telephone operations in California. It grew by acquiring smaller telephone companies along the Pacific coast, such as Sunset Telephone & Telegraph in 1917. As it grew, it built and occupied San Francisco's Pacific Telephone... Building on New Montgomery Street, described as a "monument to western progress and foresight". Purchases extended Pacific Telephone's territory into Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho; on July 1, 1961, however, those operations were split off to become Pacific Northwest Bell. Entering into the 1980s, Pacific Telephone had assets valued at $14.5 billion, making it the biggest of any of the 21 Bells AT&T wholly owned, which also made Pacific Telephone the "crown jewel" of the operating companies.
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