Frontier West Virginia

In 1984, The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia became a holding of Bell Atlantic, upon the divestiture of the Bell System by AT&T.

Charleston became the first city in the United States to have a choice of long-distance companies. By dialing "1" plus the area code and number, they could choose their long-distance carrier. Charleston was the nation's first test market for the service, allowing 34,000 customers to choose from one of eight long-distance companies serving the area.

C&P Telephone logo, 1984-1994

C&P Telephone Co. of WV was the last Bell Atlantic company to provide party line telephone service. The last party line was converted to "private line" service on October 30, 1989.

In 1993, C&P Telephone of West Virginia took its last analog switch out of service, becoming the first Bell Operating Company to have 100% digital switching[1]

In 1994, Bell Atlantic standardized all of its Bell Operating Company names, resulting in C&P Telephone of West Virginia being renamed Bell Atlantic - West Virginia, Inc. In 2000, upon its purchase of GTE, Bell Atlantic became Verizon Communications, resulting in the new name Verizon West Virginia, Inc.

On July 1, 2010, Verizon spun off New Communications Holdings, Inc. and its holding company New Communications ILEC Holdings to Verizon shareholders, which then merged with Frontier Communications. Included in the sale was Verizon West Virginia, among other select Verizon landline properties, which became Frontier West Virginia, Inc.[2] The company operates separately from Citizens Telecommunications Company of West Virginia, the existing Frontier provider in the state.

Even though Frontier Communications is not a Baby Bell, the FCC determined that Frontier West Virginia is still bound by laws dating to its time as C&P Telephone of West Virginia; therefore, it is still responsible to uphold obligations expected of Bell Operating Companies outlined in the Telecommunications Act of 1996.[3]