Founded 1895 | Parent organization North State Telecom | |
Type Telecommunications company Key people Royster Tucker III, President & CEO Services Residential and businesses phone, Fiber TV, Fiber Internet, Cloud services Headquarters High Point, North Carolina, United States | ||
North State is a telecommunications company headquartered in High Point, North Carolina, offering landline and cellular telephone, residential and business optical fiber services, web hosting, yellow pages, and digital television to a 600-square-mile (1,600 km2) area that includes High Point, Thomasville, Archdale, Randleman, Jamestown, Trinity and parts of Greensboro and Kernersville. North State ranks as one of the top 20 telecommunications companies in the United States.
History
In 1895, local businessmen started the High Point Telephone Exchange in High Point, N.C. In 1899, J.F. Hayden, who started a telephone system in Thomasville, bought the High Point company; both companies grew quickly. In 1905, the High Point company was incorporated as North State Telephone Company. In 1919, Hayden bought the Southern Bell system in High Point, which had operated since 1907. In 1920 North State became the first telephone company in the state to install the automatic-dial system.
In 1929 the company bought the Randleman system, and in 1935 the Thomasville company became part of North State.
In 2004, North State began offering DirecTV digital satellite TV.
In 2005, North State spent $30 million to begin offering the area's first fiber optic residential service.
In 2007, North State's cell phone service changed from Cingular to AT&T. Also in 2007, the company began offering 3G service.
The company added fiber optic service in new areas to its as it began offering the new TV service during summer 2009.