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History of Telecom in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene Up until 1996 when the FCC deregulated telecommunications, the only phone provider of voice- and data-related services was the 100-year-old monopoly of AT&T, which later broken up into Pacific Northwest Bell and GTE serving as the local phone companies. With deregulation on its way, Green, a Coeur d’Alene native, built the first competitive telecom provider in the area, Tel-West. That company made the first competitive phone call from Spokane to Coeur d’Alene in more than 100 years by investing millions in fiber optics and switching. It was later purchased by Cellular One billionaire Craig McCaw out of Seattle, and the newly formed NEXTLINK began servicing our communities. In 1996, with Green at the helm, McCaw and Green along with other senior management at NEXTLINK raised half a billion dollars and took NEXTLINK public in an IPO to fund its growth across the nation. Today, that company, started by local community visionary Gregory Green, is owned by Verizon after it was purchased in 2017 for $1.8 billion. Because of this vision, several other fiber optics- and telecom-centric competitors provide the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene region with numerous telecommunications options, which in turn keeps pricing competitive and further delivers the innovation that is driven by competition. After starting and selling several other telecom companies, Green returned to Coeur d’Alene at the age of 49 to build “what he says is his last company” to create high paying jobs and generate economic development in the community he so loves. About Fatbeam Fatbeam is a competitive access provider delivering data transport services to business and enterprise, healthcare, education and government customers in the Western U.S. While competitive telecom and broadband fiber capacity are mainstream throughout larger cities in the United States, Fatbeam focuses on underserved markets. In 2015, Fatbeam was ranked #190 by Inc. magazine’s “500 Fastest Growing Companies in the United States.” www.fatbeam.com# # #
Media Contact: Kennidy Thomas, Marketing Coordinator 509.344.1008 or kennidy@fatbeam.com
