PAETEC Holding Corporation was a

Fortune 1000 The Fortune 1000 are the 1,000 largest American companies ranked by revenues, as compiled by the American business magazine ''Fortune''. It only includes companies which are incorporated or authorized to do business in the United States, and for ...

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

company headquartered in

Perinton, New York Perinton (originally Perrinton (in federal censuses) and sometimes Perrington when still part of Ontario County) is a town in Monroe County, New York, United States. The population was 46,462 at the 2010 census. The village of Fairport is with ...

, United States. It was founded as the private company PaeTec Communications, Inc. in 1998 by Arunas A. Chesonis. In 2007 it merged with US LEC and then Cavalier Telephone Company and became a publicly traded company, and in 2011 it was acquired by

Windstream Communications Windstream Holdings, Inc., also doing business as Windstream Communications or Windstream, is a provider of voice and data network communications (broadband, VoIP, MPLS), and managed services ( virtual servers, managed firewall, data storage, clou ...

. PAETEC provided local and

long-distance Long distance or Long-distance may refer to: *Long-distance calling * Long-distance operator * Long-distance relationship * Long-distance train *Long-distance anchor pylon, see dead-end tower Footpaths * Long-distance trail *European long-d ...

voice services, data and Internet services, and

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

applications, among others. PAETEC provided service to medium and large businesses, colleges and universities, hospitals, hotels, governmental organizations and other institutions within its service area.

Mergers and acquisitions

*September 9, 1999 - Purchased CAMPUSLINK Communications Systems, a privately owned telecommunications company based in Ann Arbor, Mich. *August 19, 2004 - Purchased Covista North East Call Zone (Covista Still Privately owned company, also operating as Total Tel) *January 4, 2005 - Purchased American Long Lines, a privately owned telecommunications company. *February 28, 2007 - Acquired Charlotte, NC based telecommunications company US LEC, becoming the publicly traded PAETEC Holding Corp *October 12, 2007 - Acquired Allworx Corp *February 8, 2008 - Acquired McLeodUSA *December 6, 2010 - Acquired Cavalier Telephone Corporation *December 28, 2010 - Acquired FTS Ltd. subsidiary, Leap RevChain *May 31, 2011 - Acquired XETA Technologies, Inc. *December 1, 2011 - Acquired by

PAETEC owned the naming rights to

PAETEC Park Rochester Community Sports Complex Stadium, also called the "downtown soccer stadium", is a soccer-specific stadium in Rochester, New York within the Rochester Community Sports Complex. It is home to the Flower City Union of the National Indepe ...

, a

soccer-specific stadium Soccer-specific stadium is a term used mainly in the United States and Canada to refer to a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi- ...

in nearby

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

, from its opening in 2006 to 2008.

Name origin

The name PAETEC was derived from the initials of the first names of its founder's wife Pam and four children Adam, Erik, Tessa and Emma. In earlier days, the name was displayed as PaeTec Communications, Inc. After the acquisition of US LEC, the new merged entity became PAETEC Holding Corp., however, the company is simply referred to as PAETEC.

Controversy

Since its acquisition, PAETEC (also known as STARNET PAETEC) has been listed several times as the provider of VOIP services to phone scammers.

Other

*October 16, 2007 - New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer and PAETEC CEO Arunas Chesonis announced plans to tear down Rochester's Midtown Plaza, to build a new corporate headquarters. These plans have since been canceled. *PAETEC sponsored

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private research university in the town of Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional ...

's Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival on May 3, 2008.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Paetec Holding Corp. Companies based in Monroe County, New York American companies disestablished in 2011 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Windstream Communications Telecommunications companies of the United States Internet service providers of the United States Private equity portfolio companies American companies established in 1998 Telecommunications companies established in 1998 1998 establishments in New York (state) Communications in New York (state)