Phonoscope Communications is a

broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

and

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

provider with corporate headquarters in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The company's infrastructure spans eight counties and reaches distant locations such as

Baytown Baytown may refer to: * Baytown, Texas, a city in the United States near Houston, Texas *Baytown culture, an archaeological culture in the United States *Operation Baytown Operation Baytown was an Allied amphibious landing on the mainland o ...

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

, Freeport,

Magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...

, Richmond-Rosenberg,

Splendora Splendora was an American all-female alternative rock band from New York City. Formed in 1993 by Janet Wygal (lead vocals, guitar), Tricia Wygal (lead vocals, bass), Delissa Santos (drums), Cindy Brolsma (cello), and Jennifer Richardson (violin ...

Texas City Texas City is a city in Galveston County, Texas, Galveston County in the U.S. state of Texas. Located on the southwest shoreline of Galveston Bay, Texas City is a busy deepwater port on Texas's Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum-refining and pe ...

and

Willis, Texas Willis is a city in Montgomery County, Texas, United States, located eight miles north of Conroe in north central Montgomery County. The city began to develop in 1870 after what is now the Union Pacific Railroad built track through the area. As a ...

History

Lee Cook, along with Houston banker Jesse Jones and William T. Carter, founded Phonoscope in 1953. Cook reportedly outlived his co-founders. Phonoscope established a two-way

videotelephony Videotelephony, also known as videoconferencing and video teleconferencing, is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio and video signals by people in different locations for real time communication.McGraw-Hill Concise Ency ...

system in 1962 for

Galveston Independent School District Galveston Independent School District is a school district headquartered in Galveston, Texas, United States. In 2013, the school district was rated as having "Met Standard" by the Texas Education Agency. Catchment area Galveston ISD tak ...

, connecting eight elementary schools to the district's administration building using coaxial cable. In 1989, Phonoscope completed a large scale fiber optic ring for Ethernet transport in Houston, encompassing all the major central business districts. The company sold their residential cable television business to OpTel Inc. in 1997, but later began to serve residential customers again. Phonoscope continues to work with local area school districts, having since 2014 entered successful bids to provide

dark fiber A dark fibre or unlit fibre is an unused optical fibre, available for use in fibre-optic communication. Dark fibre may be leased from a network service provider. Dark fibre originally referred to the potential network capacity of telecommunic ...

and 10 Gigabit Ethernet service to the

Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District The Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District (CFISD, often referred to as Cy-Fair) is an independent school district with its headquarters in northwest unincorporated Harris County, Texas, United States. Cy-Fair ISD is the largest Recogn ...

Services

Phonoscope offers a Metro Ethernet fiber network in the Houston area. Services such as wireless backhaul are available on the network. Phonoscope Cable offers

digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previou ...

, high speed internet, and digital phone service to some residential customers in Houston. Phonoscope Fiber offers fiber optic based services to some MDU's (i.e., apartments) in Houston.

Technology

Phonoscope has adopted equipment in order to accommodate the use of

IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communication protocol, communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic ...

Controversies

The company incorrectly charged customers sales tax for Internet services for a period of two years after such charges were made illegal. Customers have been promised a refund.

References

External links

Phonoscope website

Phonoscope Cable website
Companies based in Houston {{US-telecom-company-stub