Comdial Corporation was a telecommunications company based in

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sout ...

and was headquartered in a former Lockheed plant building shared with L3 Communications. Because of the history of manufacturing at the facility, the grounds surrounding the site has been the subject of claims of environmental contamination, namely underground toxic chemicals. Comdial was founded in

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

in 1977 as a telecommunications research firm. On October 1, 1982 it acquired the telephone manufacturing division of

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

for $53.7 million, gaining the company a major product design and manufacturing operation located in

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Comdial was a former manufacturer and designer of telecommunication systems. Some of Comdial's more popular discontinued products include the DSU and DSUII, the Concierge (marketed to hotel/motels), FXT/S, Unisyn, and the Comdial Digitech and Executech systems. Comdial sold most of their systems through wholesalers in the US such as Graybar Electric and Tech Data. Comdial also had a large network of Authorized Dealers that marketed the small telephone systems as well as the larger PBXs. In the mid-1980s, Comdial supported an R&D facility in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Under the operating name of Scott Technologies, a large portion of the unused Remington Arms building complex was employed. ST developed LCR (Lowest Cost Routing) and station control hardware. Mainframe PBX computers were developed and a limited production facility produced Comdial telephones. The ST facility was closed in 1985-6 and several key engineering employees were offered positions at the Charlottesville, Virginia facility. Throughout the 1990s Comdial was a large manufacturer of telecommunications equipment in the USA. After several mismanaged years when telecommunications services were in demand during the

dot-com boom The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compos ...

(1998–2001) and a brief frenetic attempt to sell directly to the consumer with a retail program in order to generate revenue, Comdial filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

in May 2005. In September 2005, Comdial was acquired by

Vertical Communications Vertical Communications, Inc. is a corporation that specializes in cloud and premises-based Business telephone system#Private branch exchange, private branch exchanges, i.e., business telephone systems. Vertical Communications changed its name on ...

, which continued to sell the Comdial DX-120, FX II, and MP5000 systems under the name Vertical Comdial. Refurbished Vertical MP5000 units (as of 2019) continue in the marketplace.sold by equipment brokers.

References

{{Reflist Telecommunications companies of the United States Telecommunications companies established in 1977 Companies disestablished in 2005 Companies based in Sarasota, Florida 1977 establishments in Florida 2005 disestablishments in Florida