Automatic Electric | |
Industry | Electronic manufacturing |
Predecessor | Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange Company (1891) |
Founded | 1901Chicago, Illinois | , in
Founder | Almon B. Strowger |
Defunct | 1983 |
Fate | Merged to GTE Network Systems in 1983 |
Successor | Now part of Nokia |
Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois , United States of America |
Area served | US, Canada, Europe |
Products | Automatic switching systems and telephones |
Parent | Theodore Gary & Company, later GTE |
Automatic Electric Company (A.E. Co.) was an American telephone equipment supplier primarily for independent telephone companies in North America, but also had a worldwide presence. With its line of automatic telephone exchanges, it was also a long-term supplier of switching equipment to the Bell System, starting in 1919.[1] The company was the largest manufacturing unit of the Automatic Electric Group.[1] In 1955, the company was acquired by General Telephone and Electronics (GT&E). After numerous reorganization within GTE, the company's assets came under the umbrella of Lucent in the 1990s, and subsequently part of Nokia.