General Telephone and Electronics was the largest of the "independent" telephone companies during the days of the Bell System. They provided local telephone service in a large number of areas of the U.S. They also operated in Canada via controlling interest in subsidiary companies such as BC TEL and Quebec Tel.
They also owned Automatic Electric, a telephone equipment supplier similar in many ways to Western Electric.
In recent years GTE merged with Bell Atlantic to form Verizon. Its former Canadian subsidiaries have combined with the former Alberta Government Telephones (AGT) to create TELUS, the second largest telecommunications carrier in Canada.
