CENTRAL VALLEY CENTRAL OFFICES

CALIFORNIA

The "Central Valley"  region  is made up of portions of Kern, Kings, Tulare, Fresno and Madera  Counties and focus on the "Salad Bowl" of the United States.  Mostly small communities dominate the flat yet fertile expanse of land, that provides 70% of the green crops to the U.S.  Lettuce, citrus, grapes, celery and many other crops are grown in this region. 

Telephone service in central California has mainly been dominated by the independent companies.  Independent provided service to the smaller towns and communities where the Bell/AT&T system would not enter due to low traffic and their focus on the larger more profitable cities.  Early service was provided by Sanger Telephone Company, Ducor Telephone Company, and Kerman Telephone Company.  The largest independent provider was the Central California Telephone Company which operated many of the rural exchanges in the region.  During the late 1960s most of the assets and properties of Central California Telephone were purchased by Pacific Telephone (Pac Bell) and a few were taken over by General Telephone of California.

Today Verizon operates a few of the COs in the region, while Pacific Bell/SBC operates a larger portion of the remote switches.  There are still some truly independent providers such as Ducor that still provide service.

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