Teleco of Lubbock was founded in 1986 by Joe Bartlett. We sold Electronic Key phone systems like the Toshiba Perception. “In 1993 we incorporated as a Class C Corporation as Lubbock Telcom, Inc. doing business as Teleco of Lubbock. By this time we were phasing out Electronic phone systems and phasing in Digital Key PBX systems, and installing phone cabling along with the phone systems (We replaced a Toshiba Strata XIIe with a ESI eServer installed in 1992 - They certainly built them to last!). During this decade if you had any interaction with us, you probably talked with Jim Swindle and Linda Evans along with Joe.
During the 2000's we continued with the Digital PBX's and started installing some of the first IP Based phone systems, as well as started data cabling. Starting in 2010, we started offering some Networking services as Terry Duvall joined us. In 2012 we installed our first server based "pure" IP phone system (Toshiba's IPedge) at Truno Retail Technology Solutions.
In 2016 Terry Duvall purchased Lubbock Telcom, Inc. but Joe Bartlett stuck around with us! (Joe has officially retired, but he certainly helps us from time to time and we're always happy to see him!) At that time Tate Bartlett (Joe's son) and Chris Watson joined the company. We started doing Security Camera's and Access Control on a limited basis (we got our Security License in the State of Texas), along with the Phone and related systems, and cabling in 2017.
Toshiba announced they were closing down their Telecommunications Division, and eventually sold the intellectual properties and inventory to Mitel. Mitel discontinued all of the Toshiba product line and shut down all operations of the Toshiba phone division. We certainly were shocked to say the least. Imagine trying to support and replace all those phone systems that have been sold over the last 30+ years. We eventually settled on NEC Communications as our communications partner.
In the summer of 2022, we made the difficult decision to stop our support for the Toshiba Product Line at the end of July 2023. This decision was made due to several factors; The software that we use for maintenance on the Toshiba CIX/CTX product line is Internet Explorer based and Microsoft has discontinued Internet Explorer, We have had no Technical Support from Mitel/Toshiba since 2020. Although we have many parts for the Toshiba line, we were running out of key parts such as PRI Cards, VM Cards and such, Lastly training for our technicians as we move forward is not available. We made the decision to announce at that time in order to give our customers a year to budget and prepare.
In 2020 right before the pandemic began we purchased Corvus Systems. Corvus specialized in Fiber Optic installation and maintenance, Access Control Systems, large scale Security Camera installations along with various other functions, specializing in the industrial sector. With that aquisition, Wes Smith joined us as our lead Fiber and Access Control technician. Although things started slowly because of the pandemic, by the end of 2020 we had very busy and big year! Kathryn Mumy joined us in 2020, if you call the office Kathryn is usually the one who you talk to first. She is our Office Manager and the Key Procurement person (if it can be found, Kathryn can find it!) Since that time we have installed cabling for large facilities that have over 1200 drops, over 30 miles of CAT6 cable and multiple MDF/IDF's, installed warehouse security systems with over 125 security cameras and over 30 doors, multi-campus IP phone systems, replaced fiber at a power plant, along with installation and maintenance of a multitude of small businesses phones and security systems.
2024 has certainly been exciting if nothing else! Along with every other business we encounter, managing the business has been difficult with inflation and supply issues. Additionally NEC Communications announced in April that they were exiting the on-premise PBX market. If you have a NEC PBX, go on over to the Communications page to find out what it means for you. As to the future, we've decided to partner with ESI Systems (www.esi-estech.com) for both on-premise and cloud solutions, ESI is a Texas born and based company, and after our experience over the last decade with Japanese based companies, that makes us happy!