phone company
77
1.7
- noun
- /foʊn ˈkʌmpəni/
- I got a decent job with the phone company, which turned into a decent career.
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Watch on YouTubeBeing a brand new phone company is really hard.
- Being a brand new phone company is really hard.
- That's a bit like asking which phone company will start supporting faxes over the Internet.
- Hi Michelle, kick us off here in a giant US cell phone company to come to Canada.
- But if they're SMS, you know, green on on iPhone, then they can just get that stuff from the phone company.
- Well, so, so the people who the most, the people who worked at the phone company or are at the cable companies, their view was.
Examples
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They'll call the police, they'll call the phone company.
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We need to continue mounting pressure on phone companies to change their sourcing processes.
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Uh, I work in IT for a cell phone company.
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I have to go to the phone company.
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I even called the phone company and had them ring me back just to make sure.
Fiction book (1998) -
I work for a major phone company, and I won't say which one.
Fiction book (1997) -
In the blink of an eye, the phone company went from villain to victim.
Fiction book (1996) -
My sister works for a major phone company that provides internet services.
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We decided to switch to a new phone company because our old one had poor coverage.
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The phone company informed us that our service would be interrupted for maintenance.
Synonyms
17
1.2
A company that gives phone and internet services to homes and businesses
14
3.7
Companies that provide phone or internet services over long distances
10
1.9
A system that lets people make and receive phone calls
5
5.9
A company that provides phone and internet services
3
3.4
Companies that provide telephone, internet, and data services
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a company that provides telephone services' is directly and compositionally derived from 'phone' (telephone device/service) + 'company' (an organization providing services). This noun–noun compound follows a common, cross-linguistic naming pattern and would be immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
Phone company comes from the simple image of a business that looks after telephones. Think of phone, the device, plus company, a business that installs lines, fixes problems, and connects your calls, so it means 'a company that provides telephone services'.