Media Kit - Fact Sheet

THE 411...

• Smart City was started in 1984 as Centel Facilities Communications, a partnership between the Houston Astros and Centel, to provide phone service to the Houston Astrodome.
• By the early 1990s, operations had expanded to include major convention centers in Anaheim, Los Angeles and Houston. Operating as Facilities Communications International, it handled all of the telecommunications for the 1992 Republican National Convention, the 1994 World Economic Summit and many of the nation’s largest and most technologically demanding trade shows.
• In January 1995, the current management bought the company and changed the name to US Telcom. The name changed again, to Smart City Networks in 1999.
• In March 2001, Smart City Telcom acquired Vista-United Telecommunications, the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier for Lake Buena Vista, Fla., a 42-square-mile region comprising Walt Disney World, the planned community of Celebration and the Little Lake Bryan mixed-use development. The purchase provided Smart City with a cutting-edge telecommunications franchise with a long history of industry firsts, including:
  • First 911 Emergency System in Florida
  • First fully electronic phone company
  • First telephone company to have only buried cable
  • First totally computer-controlled telephone operator center in commercial service in the continental U.S.
  • First fiber optic local distribution system in U.S.
  • First completely digital telephone company
• In 2002, Smart City Telcom entered the network services business with the acquisition of mpiNet, an Internet Service Provider in Maitland, Fla. The acquisition allowed the company to expand its service offering to include High-Speed Internet Access, web hosting, co-location and managed services.