The first digital central office in the North Country was installed in Chazy and West Chazy in 1981. The same year, Westelcom, a full-service interconnect, was also formed to provide customers telecommunication services like phone and voice mail systems that regulation prohibited Chazy and Westport Telephone to offer.
In 1993, upgrades to the Chazy and Westport Central Office allowed modern technologies such as SS7 signaling and Caller ID. Throughout the rest of the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Chazy Westport Telephone and Westelcom continued to grow offering major innovations like long distance service and high-speed internet access. By 2001, the Westelcom Family of Companies had acquired GISCO and NorthNet, two competing internet service providers making Chazy Westport Telephone and Westelcom, the largest local North Country ISP, with over 30,000 customers.Â
By 2002, Chazy Westport Telephone was availing DSL broadband service to 100% of their territory. This led to further expansion throughout the ensuing decades with the construction of a fiber optic ring providing connectivity between Chazy, Plattsburgh, and Westport, NY. Concurrently, Westelcom began deploying fiber optic technology to businesses in Watertown and Plattsburgh with Chazy Westport Communications concentrating on deploying residential fiber optic service in Chazy, West Chazy and Westport.
Today most of Chazy Westport Communication’s territory is fiber based and still growing throughout their franchised areas of Altona, Mooers, Champlain, Elizabethtown, Lewis, Sciota, Wadhams, Chazy, West Chazy and Westport.
