Verizon Communications Inc. , branded as Verizon, is an American broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It started in 1983 as Bell Atlantic (based in New York City) with a footprint covering New Jersey to Virginia and emerged as part of the 1984 Breakup of AT&T into seven “Baby Bells. ” In 1997, Bell Atlantic merged with another Regional Bell Operating Company, NYNEX, based in New York City with a footprint spanning from New York to Maine.