he merger, Bell Atlantic's territory covered Pennsyl- vania, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington DC, Delaware, Virginia, and West Virginia. GTE: 2000 At the time of its purchase, GTE was the largest non-Bell local telephone company. Following the purchase, Bell Atlantic changed its name to Verizon Communications. Verizon later sold off most of GTE's rural landline properties to Frontier Communications and FairPoint Communications in order to focus on its mobile offerings and services to business customers. It kept GTE's wireless assets as well as the former GTE landline properties in Florida, Texas, California, and Pennsylvania. Vodafone Verizon formed a joint venture with Vodafone, called Verizon AirTouch: Wireless. Vodafone had previously purchased the cellular assets of Pacific Telesis (now part of AT&T, Inc.) and US West (now part of CenturyLink). Vodafone owns 45 percent of Verizon Wireless, and Verizon owns 55 percent. MCI: 2006 MCI was the second largest independent long-distance company with fiber to business premises in many metropolitan areas and a data network with operations in 200 countries. MCI had been pre- viously purchased by WorldCom, which changed its name to MCI after WorldCom's bankruptcy. Terremark: Terremark was the largest co-location provider worldwide. Co- location sites provide secure facilities for carriers to connect their networks to one another to exchange traffic. Terremark also provided managed services, cloud computing, and hosting services to carriers, government agencies, and enterprises. Verizon and the United States Department of Defense were among its customers. Competition, Industry Structures, and Regulations CenturyLink: The Journey from 75 Customers in 1930 to the Third-Largest Telephone Company in the United States CenturyLink was founded in 1930 when William Clarke Williams purchased a 75-customer telephone company in Louisiana for $500. At that time, the switch- board was operated in the Williams' parlor, and the owner's son delivered bills by bicycle. After World War II