Embarq Corporation (stylized as EMBARQ) was the largest independent local exchange carrier in the United States (below the Baby Bells), serving customers in 18 states and providing local, long-distance, high-speed data and wireless services to residential and business customers. It had been formerly the local telephone division (LTD) of Sprint Nextel until 2006, when it was spun off as an independent company. Embarq produced more than $6 billion in revenues annually, and had approximately 18,000 employees. It was based in Overland Park, Kansas. In 2009, it was purchased by CenturyTel, which rebranded as CenturyLink (now known as Lumen Technologies) after the merger. History Brown Telephone Company C. L. Brown founded Brown Telephone Company in the small town of Abilene, Kansas. The company was a landline telephone company that operated as a competitor to the Bell System. Brown acquired a number of other local telephone companies, merging them under the name United Telephone Company in 1911. United Telecom In 1938, after emerging from bankruptcy, United Telephone Company became United Utilities. The company grew steadily through acquisitions and changed its name to United Telecommunications in 1972, at which time it provided local telephone service in many areas of the Midwest and South. United Telecom also operated many other types of businesses. United Telecommunications United Information Systems (UIS) group acquired On-Line Systems, Inc, a company that offers business and database applications hosted on DEC time-sharing systems ca. 1980. In 1980 United Telecom launched a national X.25 data service, Uninet. To enter the long-distance voice market, United Telecom acquired ISACOMM in 1981 and US Telephone in 1984. Sprint Southern Pacific Communications Company (SPCC), a unit of the Southern Pacific Railroad, began providing long-distance telephone service shortly after the MCI Telecommunications Corp. v. FCC (Execunet II) decision late in 1978. The railroad had an extensive microwave communications system along its rights of way used for internal communications. In 1972 they began selling surplus time on that system to corporations for use as their own Private Line Network, thereby circumventing AT&T's then-monopoly on public telephony, later expanding to fiber optic cables laid along those same rights of way subsequent to the Execunet II decision late in 1978. Prior attempts at offering long-distance service were not approved by the Federal Communications Commission, though the company's fax service (SpeedFAX) had been permitted. SPCC was headquartered in Burlingame, California, where Sprint still maintains a technology lab on Adrian Court.