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GhostCorp Apparel - resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Bring a piece of business and communications history to your desk with a Southern Bell card holder. The company began as Atlanta Telephonic Exchange in 1879 and grew into a major regional telephone operator, serving communities across the Southeast. Its corporate story reflects the Bell System breakup, the BellSouth years, and the later AT&T era. This keepsake suits collectors drawn to changing company names, Atlanta history, and the people and networks that connected a region.

Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company began as the Atlanta Telephonic Exchange, established in 1879 to serve Atlanta, Georgia. Renamed in 1882, it grew into a Bell operating company serving Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Its operations also once covered Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee; in 1968 those states were separated to form South Central Bell. From 1883 to 1917, Southern Bell also operated in Charleston and other parts of West Virginia, where another regional telephone company then took over. In 1983, the company reincorporated in Georgia as SBT&T Co., and the original company merged into it; the combined business retained the Southern Bell name. In 1984, Southern Bell became a subsidiary of BellSouth Corporation following the breakup of the Bell System. In 1992, it was renamed BellSouth Telecommunications when South Central Bell merged back into it. BellSouth was acquired by AT&T in 2006, and the operating company continues in the region as AT&T Southeast. Southern Bell was headquartered in Atlanta, where its former telephone company building still houses the downtown exchange.