Bell Telephone Company companies and to provide further funds for expansion of its overall telephone infrastructure. On April 17, 1880, National Bell was split into the American Bell Telephone Company, led by Theodore Vail as general manager, and with the International Bell Telephone Company (IBTC) as a holding company for its international subsidiaries. IBTC's first non-North American subsidiary was the Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company (BTM), established by Hubbard at Antwerp, Belgium, in 1882. The Bell System's Bell Telephone Company of Canada subsidiary, wholly owned by the National Bell, had been established two years earlier. Alexander Graham Bell's ten shares of Bell Telephone Company
International Bell Telephone Company International Bell Telephone Company The International Bell Telephone Company (IBTC) of Brussels, Belgium, was created in 1879 by the Bell Telephone Company of Boston, Massachusetts, a precursor entity to AT&T, initially to sell imported telephones and switchboards in Continental Europe. IBTC rapidly evolved into an important European telephone service provider and manufacturer, with major operations in several countries. AT&T, its U.S. parent, later sold its entire European division and IBTC's subsidiaries to the International Telephone & Telegraph Company of Cuba in 1925, ending a 46-year presence on the Continent. In 1879 Gardiner Hubbard, father-in-law of Alexander Graham Bell and the