A Brief Look Back over the Last 100 Years:

In the year that Albert Einstein introduced his theory of relativity and England ruled over 20% of the world, your Company was born. By 1906 it was three decades since Alexander Graham Bell had accidentally invented the telephone, and his gadget was gaining wider and wider use.

A group of concerned citizens got together and petitioned the phone company in Pittsburgh to bring service to the rustic North Hills, but they were told it was too costly. Nevertheless, because they understood the growing need for modern methods of communication, and wanted to have phone service extended to their farms and hamlets, they got together, scraped up $10,000 and started their own phone company.

On the first of November 1906, North Pittsburgh Telephone Company (NPTC) was chartered. The original service area authorized by the charter was Adams, Cranberry and Middlesex Townships in Butler County, Franklin, Hampton, Indiana, Marshall, McCandless, Pine-Richland, and West Deer Townships in Allegheny County. The Company's incorporators were R.M. Gibson and Frederick Burki of Gibsonia, Ross Glasgow of Bakerstown, James McIntyre of West Deer, E. M. Baker of Valencia, John Logan of Pine, and J. Calvin Kennedy of Mars.

The incorporators held their first meeting on November 17, 1906 and promptly elected R.M. Gibson, President; James McIntyre, Vice-President; Samuel Austen, Secretary; and H.G. Allison, Treasurer. Gibson was also named General Manager and Charles Crawford the Assistant Manager. Richland and Mars were the names adopted for the first two centrals. The Richland central was located on the TarentumAmbridge Road, and the Mars central was in the Borough of Mars.

By 1908, NPTC was ready to publish its first annual report. In that two-year period, 258 phones had been installed and revenues from phone rentals and toll charges added up to $4,274.20. NPTC's directors were encouraged by their Company's progress and saw the demand for service in their area on the rise. In 1909, they gave the go-ahead to construct a building and open a new exchange in Gibsonia. Just six months later, in July of 1910, they decided to expand operations into Wexford and established an exchange there.

In 1917 World War I created an enormous demand for coal, and as a result, NPTC installed another telephone exchange in Curtisville to serve the residents there and the booming Ford Collieries.

After World War I, demand escalated and growth continued for NPTC. Negotiations with People's Telephone Company were concluded in 1923, with an agreement that NPTC acquire all of People's lines and phones in Mars Borough. In 1930, company officials decided their main building could use a little renovation. The switchboard was moved from the basement to the second floor, and other rooms were remodeled to serve the purpose of general office facilities. By 1936, the Richland exchange was retired, and those 175 subscribers were tied into the Gibsonia and Mars exchanges.

Route 8 between Butler and Pittsburgh was significantly improved and widened to three lanes, spurring growth in the sleepy village of Cooperstown. By December 21, 1940, the residents of Cooperstown and its environs were being served by the most sophisticated telephone equipment available at the time, and the new exchange was dubbed Twinbrook.

War again would play a part in the development of NPTC. Plans to build a new office complex in Gibsonia were made and submitted to the War Production Board for their approval near the beginning of World War II, but because of a shortage of construction materials, construction did not begin until June of 1945. New buildings to house equipment were also erected at Criders Corners and in Wexford at approximately the same time.

NPTC became the first independent telephone company in western Pennsylvania to join the Nation-Wide Toll Dialing System in 1949. The Vinewood exchange was brought into service on April 4, 1949 to provide phone service to Warrendale, Bradford Woods and Cranberry. At the time, local calls were limited to six minutes. NPTC bought the Saxonburg Telephone Company in 1953 and Freeport Telephone and Telegraph in 1954. Also in that year, NPTC became the first independent telco in Pennsylvania to use microwave transmission for telephone circuits. By 1959, NPTC had completely converted to a dial system, becoming the first independent telephone company in the United States to employ such a system.

Over the nine-year period from 1953 to 1962, NPTC enjoyed its greatest period of growth since its inception. By the end of that period, the Company had grown to 140 employees, almost 1,000 shareholders and 19,350 telephones in service.

Fourteen years later, as the nation was celebrating the 100th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell's invention, NPTC embarked on a multi-year, multi-million dollar conversion from the old electro-mechanical switching processes to state-of-the-art electronic switching technology. Spurred by the success of the Thorn Hill Industrial Park and the opening of Interstate-79, Cranberry Township was and still is the fastest growing area within the NPTC footprint. Company management began to carefully plan for the growth that had begun in the mid-1970s, and laid the groundwork for keeping NPTC and its customers connected to the future.

By 1979, NPTC had become involved in a profitable auxiliary business that involved the selling of common supplies and equipment (cabling, test-sets, jacks, etc.) to other independent telephone companies in Pennsylvania. The business was going so well that the Board decided to start a separate company to sell telephone equipment and supplies. And so Penn Telecom, Inc. (PTI) was formed. Soon business had expanded to other telephone companies in the tri-state area. By 1980, PTI had added the Business Systems Division, selling key systems and switching gear to local businesses. In 1982, PTI entered into the long-distance arena with its D.A.R.T. (distant area regional toll) service.

Soon PTI was in the cellular telephone business as an agent for Bell Atlantic Mobile Service. Also in 1985, PTI began its first broadband sales by becoming a competitive access provider (CAP) delivering DS1 circuits via QWEST microwave, and in 1986 began a paging service in partnership with a company called PCI based in Erie.

Change and evolution being the forces they are, PTI was not immune. PTI has grown from just 4 employees in 1979 to 131 workers today. Its operations have been moved to the former Cranberry Municipal Building on Rochester Road, which serves as headquarters for PTI. With deregulation and growing competition as partial influences, some of PTI's less profitable business lines are no longer in existence and PTI has moved into other areas of business.

Indeed PTI has evolved into a complete competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) focused on the latest broadband technology, network services, and VoIP products for businesses all across western Pennsylvania.

Technology defined NPTC as well in the 1980's. Prior to 1982, all operator services were handled in-house at the main NPTC office in Gibsonia on an old cord board system. At that time, the decision was made to contract out operator services and drop the in-house system. In 1983, NPTC had to begin moving away from the electronic call switching technology of a decade earlier to a sophisticated new digital system compatible with the nationwide network and to get ready for equal access. By 1990, all of our switching capabilities were handled by digital computer operated gear after a substantial investment in updating our network.

As 1985 began, our Board of Directors changed the structure of our organization by creating North Pittsburgh Systems, Inc. (NPSI). NPTC, PTI and later Nauticom would become wholly owned subsidiaries of NPSI. Shareholders approved the plan in May of that year and the restructuring was actually seamless to our employees.

With the proliferation in use of fiber optic cable, ever changing network technology, and tremendous growth in the use of personal computers, whispers began getting louder about this new "thing" called the Internet. It would soon revolutionize our use of computers and the flow of global information.

Technology became the genesis for creation of the world-wide-web and the rest, as they say, is history. By 1994 Pizza Hut was offering on-line ordering and the first cyber-bank was opened. The following year, Company executives recognized the business potential for such a service and NPSI purchased a small, local Internet company called FirstNet. Nauticom, as our Internet service is now called, has grown to 55 employees who not only provide high-speed Internet access to thousands of area residents, but also offer web design, hosting and other broadband and web related services for business.

Today, NPSI companies are still expanding their horizons and meeting the changes and challenges that the ever evolving telecommunications industry presents. Robert M. Gibson and his fellow NPTC founders could scarcely have imagined the telecommunications world in which the Company is operating 100 years later. We are confident they would be proud of the way their Company has developed. NPSI stands firm at the end of its first century of telecommunications commerce as an industry leader and innovator. We remain committed to our simple goal of providing the best possible telecommunication products and services to our customers at a reasonable cost.

The commitment and dedication shown by Gibson and his associates in 1906 has transcended the decades. Steady hands remain at the helm as the Company continues to connect you to the future.

100 years. Just the beginning.