Private company

Centel

Logo: Centel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons³

Defunct US telecommunications company

Centel Corporation was an American telecommunications company, with primary interests in basic telephone service, cellular phone service and cable television service.² It was founded by Max McGraw.¹ Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1900Founded¹

Industrytelecommunications¹
HeadquartersChicago¹

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Centel Corporation was an American telecommunications company, with primary interests in basic telephone service, cellular phone service and cable television service.²

The story

Founded by Max McGraw in 1900.¹

In 1900, Max McGraw took his savings from his newspaper route to start an electrical repair and supply shop, the McGraw Electric Company, in Sioux City, Iowa. Over the years, McGraw's company grew from residential wiring installation to include industrial wiring, electrical supply wholesaling, and electronics manufacturing. In 1922, McGraw entered the telecommunications business with the purchase of Central Telephone and Electric Company of St. Louis, Missouri. McGraw's businesses grew rapidly, and in 1926 more than 20 separate electric and telephone companies were consolidated as Central West Public Service Company.

Through a series of mergers, acquisitions, purchases, sales, and re-purchases, the electrical supply and manufacturing side of the business would form the nucleus of McGraw-Edison. Through similar processes, the telecommunications side would become Centel, which became the name of the company in 1982.‍

From Wikipedia’s article on Centel, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.⁴

Leadership

Who has led Centel, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

FounderMax McGraw¹

Products and brands

telephone

Listed on Wikidata.¹

Central Telephone Company

In 2006, Sprint spun off the former Centel telephone subsidiaries (which Sprint had merged with its own United Telephone operations) as part of the formation of Embarq. Embarq was acquired in 2009 by CenturyTel, which was renamed CenturyLink (since renamed Lumen Technologies in 2020). Central Telephone's Florida operations were merged with Sprint's and are now CenturyLink of Florida, while the Nevada operations are now CenturyLink of Nevada. Other ex-Centel local operations were divested in 2022 to the new company Brightspeed.

Earlier, in 1997, Sprint sold the Chicago-area phone operations (Des Plaines and Park Ridge) to Ameritech (now AT&T). Operations in Iowa and Minnesota were sold to Frontier Communications in 1991, and in Ohio to CenturyTel in 1992. The Ohio operations, by this point CenturyTel of Ohio, would reunite with most of the other Centel operating companies in 2009.

Centel Cellular Company

In 1993, Centel Cellular Company changed its name to Sprint Cellular Company when Sprint acquired Centel. It was subsequently spun off as 360 Communications Company in 1996. Alltel acquired 360 Communications Company in 1998 for $4.1 billion.

Verizon Wireless acquired Alltel in 2008.

Read the full text

Centel Cable Television

In 1989, Centel sold all of its cable television operations in six separate transactions.

Southeast Florida operations: to Adelphia Communications, which later sold to Time Warner Cable, which later sold the properties to Comcast.

Ohio operations: to Warner Cable (then Time Warner Cable, later to Charter Communications).

Central Florida operations: to American Television and Communications Corporation (a subsidiary of Time Inc., then Time Warner Cable), later to be spun off as Bright House Networks, and ultimately acquired by Charter Communications).

Kentucky operations: to Simmons Communications (later to Frontiervision, then Adelphia, then Time Warner Cable, and ultimately Charter Communications).

Michigan operations: to C-TEC (later Michigan Cable, then Avalon Cable, then Charter Communications).

Illinois operations: to Jones Intercable (then taken over by Comcast).

The combined revenue of the sales amounted to $1.4 billion,‍ which yielded a net gain of over $500 million to Centel.‍

Centel Electric

In 1991, Centel sold its electric utility holdings in Kansas and Colorado to UtiliCorp (later known as Aquila, Inc.) for $345 million.‍ In 2006, Aquila sold the Kansas electric properties to Mid-Kansas Electric Company (a cooperative). In 2008, the Colorado electric properties were acquired by Black Hills Corporation.