Telecommunications

With twenty-four Fortune 500 headquarters, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, thousands of multinational companies and the world’s largest medical center, the Houston region benefits from some of the most sophisticated and robust communications networks in the world.
 

• Historically, Texas’ second telephone exchange opened for business in in Houston in 1879 and had 148 subscribers by 1883. The first private branch exchange switchboard in the nation was installed in Houston in 1882.
   
• Currently, the Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has certified 290 Competitive Local Exchange Carriers to provide local phone service statewide or specifically within the Houston region. 
   
• The Texas PUC has also registered 197 Interexchange Carriers to provide long distance phone service for residents and businesses in Texas. 
   
• Numerous cellular service providers offer mobile voice and data communications in the Houston MSA, and Houston was the first U.S. metro to install Verizon 5G broadband in October ’18. 
   
• Houston is served by seven area codes: 281, 346, 409, 713, 832, 936 and 979, four of which overlap. 
   
• The Houston metro has more than 11,000 installed fiber carrier miles, the equivalent of 7,905 fiber conduit route miles. 
   
• Twenty-four carriers operate or provide fiber service in Houston, including AT&T, Crown Castle, Consolidated Communications, Entouch, Fiberlight, ICTX, Lumen, Lightwave, Phonoscope, Verizon, Windstream and Zayo.