Editing GTE (section)

==History==
===General Telephone===
In 1934, General Telephone Corporation was established with John Winn as president. The following year, the company created General Telephone Directory Company as a division. During World War II, General Telephone helped install phone service for military facilities. From 1946 to 1950, General Telephone obtained over 100,000 telephone lines and bought out Leich Electric Company.

General Telephone's holdings included 15 telephone companies across 20 states by 1951, when [[Donald C. Power]] was named president of the company under chairman and long-time GT executive Morris F. LaCroix, replacing the retiring Harold Bozell (president 1940 – 1951). Power proceeded to expand the company through the 1950s principally through two acquisitions.

In 1955, [[Theodore Gary & Company]] became a part of General Telephone and allowed the company to hold over 2 million telephone lines after the companies merged. It also had a subsidiary, named the General Telephone and Electric Corporation, formed in 1930 with the [[Transamerica Corporation]] and British investors to compete against ITT.<ref>[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,740606,00.html "Business & Finance: Transamerica into Telephones"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', October 20, 1930.</ref>

In 1959, [[Sylvania Electric Products]] merged into General Telephone and was renamed to General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (GT&E). Power also obtained the purchases of multiple companies. such as Lenkurt Electric Company, Inc and Peninsular Telephone Company. In 1960, GT&E International Incorporated was created as a branch company. Power was named C.E.O. and chairman in 1961, making way for Leslie H. Warner, formerly of Theodore Gary, to become president. Simultaneously, GT&E went on to buy [[Cable television|Community Antenna Television]] providers.

In 1964, [[Western Utilities Corporation]] became part of GT&E. Additional purchases during the 1960s included [[Hawaiian Telcom|Hawaiian Telephone Company]] and Northern Ohio Telephone Company. At the end of the decade, ten million GT&E phones were active.

[[File:KarTrak code.jpg|thumb|[[KarTrak]] Automated Car Identification system on a caboose in Florida]]In the late 1960s, GT&E joined in the search for a railroad car [[Automatic Car Identification]] system. It designed the [[KarTrak]] optical system, which won over other manufacturer's systems in field trials, but ultimately proved to need too much maintenance. In the late 1970s the system was abandoned.

After a 1970 bomb attack to the company's headquarters in New York City, the company relocated to Stamford, Connecticut for their new headquarters. In 1971 GT&E undertook an identity change and became simply GTE, while Sylvania Electric Products became GTE Sylvania.<ref>{{cite web |title=Company History |url=http://www.vintagesylvania.net/?page=history |website=Vintage Sylvania |access-date=August 28, 2014}}</ref> The same year, Donald C. Power retired and Leslie H. Warner became chairman of the board. [[Theodore F. Brophy]] was brought in as president.

In 1974, GTE worked with [[American Telephone & Telegraph]] in a project to create satellite stations. A few years later, the company's international branch was replaced by a GTE products company in 1976. Their products company remained until 1979.
In 1979, GTE purchased [[Telenet]] to establish a presence in the growing [[packet switching]] [[data communications]] business. GTE Telenet was later included in the [[Sprint-Nextel#United Telecom|US Telecom]] joint venture.

===1980s===
In December 1983 Vanderslice stepped down as the company's president and chief operating officer.
[[File:GTE manhole cover - Hillsboro, Oregon.JPG|thumb|A manhole cover featuring the company logo in [[Hillsboro, Oregon]]]]

In April 1988, after the retirement of Theodore F. Brophy, James L. "Rocky" Johnson was promoted from his position as president and chief operating officer to CEO of GTE; he was appointed chairman in 1991.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Ramirez|first=Anthony|date=December 13, 1991|title=Business People; President of GTE Is Named Chairman |work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/13/business/business-people-president-of-gte-is-named-chairman.html|access-date=November 29, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Under Johnson's leadership, GTE divested its 50% ownership of [[Sprint Corporation|US Sprint]], the nation's third largest long-distance company. He also orchestrated the sale of Sylvania and the merger with Contel, creating the 2nd largest telephone company in the United States. 
In 1989, GTE reorganized into six operating groups, focusing on its core businesses of telephone operations, information services, and publishing of telephone directories. With previous job cuts and announced future job cuts, Johnson was able to return GTE to profitability. 
Other new services provided under his leadership were GTE Mobilenet cellular telephone operations, [[Airfone]] air-to-ground telephone services, and the first voice, video, and data services community in Cerritos, California to test home banking, at-home shopping, home security, and pay-per-view television in 16,000 homes and 2,000 businesses.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-08-20-fi-500-story.html | title=GTE Put on a Diet : New Chief Pushes Once-Plodding Firm Onto the Fast Track | date=20 August 1988 | accessdate=21 August 2023 | author=Richter, Paul | website=www.latimes.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/01/09/GTE-reorganizes-into-six-operating-groups/6066600325200/ | title=GTE reorganizes into six operating groups | publisher=UPI | date=9 January 1080 | accessdate=21 August 2023 | website=www.upi.com}}</ref>

===1990s===
In April 1992, James L. "Rocky" Johnson retired after 43 years at GTE, remaining on the GTE board of directors as chairman emeritus.  Charles "Chuck" Lee was named to succeed Johnson. In 1994, Lee sold the company's satellite provider, [[Spacenet]], to [[General Electric]] and Contel of Maine to [[Oxford Networks]], which placed the company into a newly created subsidiary, [[Oxford West Telephone]].<ref name="FundingU">{{cite web|url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/GTE-Corporation-Company-History.html |title=GTE Corporation – Company History |publisher=Fundinguniverse.com |access-date=February 24, 2017}}</ref>