year, the company also began layoffs, which continued throughout the late 1970s as demand for its services slackened. In 1978, rebuffed by its regulators in its attempt to form a holding company, Rochester Telephone spent $2 million forming two subsidiaries instead. Rotelcom Business Systems and Rotelcom Consulting Services provided equipment and expertise in the burgeoning telecommunications field. The next year, the business systems unit opened an office in Honolulu to serve hotels there and set up a long-distance service from Hawaii to the continental U.S. known as Call America. One year later, the company added Rotelcom Data, Inc., and a Supply and Set Refurbishment Division, which fixed up used telephones for resale. In their early years, the company's subsidiaries reported strong profits. In 1983, as the federal government's breakup of the Bell telephone monopoly increased competition in the telecommunications industry dramatically, Rochester Telephone launched its second unregulated venture, founding the RCI Corporation. RCI installed a microwave communications network in New York State and a fiber optic hookup with Chicago. After purchasing an additional fiber optic link with Washington, D.C., the company's operations spanned 12 cities. In the mid-1980s, Rochester Telephone also entered the new radio telephone industry, when it founded Rochester Tel Mobile Communications. By the end of the decade, it managed cellular phone services in six states. Along with its forays into unregulated industries, Rochester Telephone expanded its holdings in the local telephone exchange business dramatically during the 1980s. In 1984 it added its third New York phone system—in AuSable Valley—and in the ensuing years, the company purchased 34 other telephone operations in 15 states. The largest was located in the suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota area. This geographical expansion was designed to offset the effect of a gradual but unmistakable economic retrenchment in the company's home area, Rochester. RTC was also nicknamed "Rochester Tel." The company also used a marketing tag line during this time, "Rochester Tel and You—The Perfect Connection". This reflected the company's commitment to marketing through a partnership with the local community. The company was one of the first in the nation to offer a caller ID service to its customers. A trial of this service in the early 1990s was one of the first in the United States. Customers located in the Perinton area with a telephone number beginning with "223" or "425" had the chance to participate in a trial of this service and other