Armstrong Group of Companies
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| Armstrong Group of Companies | |
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | 1946 in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Headquarters |  Butler, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Products | Cablecasting, Broadband Internet, VoIP |
| Employees | 2,000 |
| Website | [1] |
Contents |
[edit] History
Armstrong Group of Companies began in 1946 and was originally called Armstrong County Line Construction. Founded by Jud L. Sedwick, the company was headquartered in Kittanning, Armstrong County, in Pennsylvania. Together with is brother Ned, Sedwick ran two crews consisting of six men each, whose job consisted of hanging telephone lines, setting telephone poles, and clearing right of way throughout western Pennsylvania, and managed to grown the company to 12 crews by the end of their first year of operations.
In the 1950's, Armstrong began to acquire and operate independent telephone companies in the local areas, and expanded their involvement into the cable television industry in the 1960's. During the 1980's the company also began moving into security, restaurant ownership, and real estate development.
[edit] Today
Currently, Armstrong Group of Companies (AGOC) staffs over 2,000 people nationwide. The company is best known in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, West Virginia, and Kentucky for its cable services, most commonly providing television and internet service. Their customer service and corporate offices are housed in Butler County, western Pennsylvania, with local offices scattered throughout the region and neighboring states.
[edit] Services Offered
[edit] Armstrong Telephone Company
Originated in 1950 by purchasing Ritchie Telephone Company in Harrisville, West Virginia, Armstrong owns and operates independent telephone companies in West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. These local offices are setup to provide local and long distance calling services, optional digital calling features, as well as dial-up and DSL Internet services. Recently, development of digital phone service has caused cable companies such as Armstrong to begin expanding their service areas and upgrading lines from traditional phone systems to a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) system, where phone service is provided via fiber optic and coax cable traditionally reserved for television service. This service tends to allow the expansion of more features such as digital voicemail service, included caller ID, anonymous call rejection, ability to block phone numbers, as well as other features[citation needed], prompting fierce competition between traditional phone companies such as AT&T, Embark, and Winstream, as well as local cable providers.
[edit] Armstrong Cable
In 1963, the first cable television customers of Armstrong were connected in Butler, Pennsylvania. These customers were provided with nine viewing channels. For the next 40+ years Armstrong continued to grow in western Pennsylvania and the surrounding states virtually uncontested for television service until the expansion of satellite service became more widespread. With the increase in competitors, new services emerged. Today, Armstrong cable offers personal video recorders (PVR), video on demand service (VOD), pay-per-view service (PPV), as well as it's newest addition of high-definition programming.
Due to recent FCC and government legislation, all television service providers will be required to offer completely digital service by the year 2009. To meet this goal, Armstrong now offers Digital TV packages, which offer more channels, hi-def programs, and features like VOD, PPV, and an interactive TV guide feature. Armstrong currently supplies television service in a simulcast, supplying traditional analog signal as well as the new digital signal, while expanding digital service. By 2009, all television providers will be required to have 100% digital customers.
[edit] Armstrong Zoom
Armstrong also offers high speed internet service for residential and commercial purposes. Residential broadband services consist of Zoom 100 with 256 kbit/s download, 256 kbit/s upload, Zoom 500 with 8.0 Mbit/s download, 512 kbit/s upload, and Zoom Pro with 10.0 Mbit/s download, 1.5 Mbit/s upload. Also offered are business class accounts, with 10.0 Mb/s download, 3.0 Mbit/s upload, in addition to access to normally blocked ports (such as FTP, SSH, HTTP).
