Armstrong Group of Companies

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Armstrong Group of Companies

Type	Private
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1946 in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, USA
Headquarters	Butler, Pennsylvania, USA
Key people	Dru A. Sedwick, President
Products	Cable Television, Broadband Internet, VoIP
Employees	2,300+
Website	www.agoc.com

The Armstrong Group of Companies is a major northeastern telecommunications and internet service provider, operating services in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, and Maryland. Armstrong Utilities, Inc. ranks among the 20 largest multi-system operators in the United States, while their Guardian Protection Services division is the United State's largest privately-held security company.

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 grow the company to 12 crews by the end of their first year of operations.

In the 1950s, Armstrong began to acquire and operate independent telephone companies in the local areas, and expanded their involvement into the cable television industry in the 1960s. During the 1980s the company also began moving into security, restaurant ownership, and real estate development.

Today

The company is best known in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, New York, West Virginia, and Kentucky for its cable services, most commonly providing television, telephone and high-speed Internet service. Currently, Armstrong Group of Companies (AGOC) staffs over 2,300 people nationwide. Their customer service and corporate offices are housed in Butler County, western Pennsylvania, with local offices scattered throughout the region and neighboring states.

Services offered

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 set up to provide local and long-distance calling services, optional digital calling features, as well as DSL Internet services.

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 high-definition programming.

Armstrong Zoom

Armstrong also offers high speed internet service for residential and commercial purposes. Residential broadband services consist of Zoom Express with 768 kbit/s download and 256 kbit/s upload, Zoom with up to 10.0 Mbit/s download and 2 Mbit/s upload, and Zoom Pro with 15.0 to 20.0 Mbit/s download and 3 Mbit/s upload. Also offered are residential and business-class accounts, with 30.0 and 50.0 Mbit/s download options, both with 5.0 Mbit/s upload. The 50.0 Mbit/s connection also has access to normally blocked ports (such as FTP, SSH, HTTP).

Armstrong Cable Phone

Armstrong offers a cable telephone service that can be bundled with either the video or internet product, or as a stand alone product. This service offers unlimited, nationwide calling, as well as to Canada, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

External links

• Armstrong Group of Companies Site