A telephone company (or telco) provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications. Most of the largest telcos are or were at one time nationalized or state-regulated monopolies.
With the advent of cellular telephony, telcos now include wireless carriers.
Most telcos now also function as ISPs, and the distinction between telco and ISP may disappear completely over time.
The comedian Lily Tomlin satirized the attitudes of many telcos with the quote:
The telephone or phone is a telecommunications device designed to transmit speech by means of electric signals. It was invented around 1860 by Antonio Meucci who called it teletrophone. The first recorded public demonstration of Meucci's invention took place in 1860, and had a description of it published in New York's Italian language newspaper. In 1861 Philipp Reis presented a machine for electronic voice transmission. Elisha Gray independently invented it and demonstrated it in 1874, but two hours before he submitted his patent announcement, Alexander Graham Bell submitted a patent (although his proposed design did not work). As a result, Alexander Graham Bell is usually credited with the invention.
