About Us
Ironton Internet & Telephone celebrates over 115 Years in the Lehigh Valley – from the first telephone pole and open wire to the latest broadband and fiber technology, Ironton Internet & Telephone’s focus has remained the same: affordable, dependable service for its customers, a stable work environment for its employees and on-going support for the community. It has been a recipe for success especially when you consider the fact that the company has been through the Great Depression, two world wars, and over ten recessions and has remained intact and in the George family. To put their longevity in perspective, consider the fact that Ironton Internet & Telephone predates traffic signals, penicillin, stainless steel, talking motion pictures, and television. Not only have they survived; they remain on the cutting edge, offering the latest technologies and services to their customers.
William “Butch” George was a man ahead of his time. Having heard rumors about a pending rate hike on his telephone bill, George invested in a small, fledgling telephone company as a way to save money on the phone calls from his butcher shop to the markets he supplied.
What started out in 1909 with just six miles of open-wire and six customers, has evolved and grown to be a heritage company, celebrating over 105 years of serving the Lehigh Valley with over 90,000 lines served. Speak to a George family member about this landmark anniversary and you immediately get a sense of the gratitude they have for their customers, employees, neighbors, partners, and communities. “Our goal has always been to maintain the highest service excellence to our customers whether they were served by the old ‘crank’ phones to the modern VOIP phones of today, and we are grateful to be here to have served both, “said William, “Bill” George II, grandson of Butcher George and former company President and CEO.
In addition to being an area leader in Telecommunications by serving their customers with dependable phone and internet services, as well as telephone communication systems, Ironton Internet & Telephone continues to be an active community supporter. Ironton supports many scholastic and community events, the local arts, as well as numerous local and national charities. “We believe strongly in supporting the communities that we serve and reside in.”
William George, who became President in 1995, had spearheaded much of the company’s progress. His brother, Allen M. M. George Jr. served as President until 2018, and now sister Patricia L. Stewart serves as both President and Director of Finance. Patricia’s son Richard Stewart and his wife Andrea now play a vital role in the family business, and their son Andrew, a 2023 graduate of Penn State University, is learning the Telecommunications business from the ground up and helping to deploy our latest fiber-to-the-home services.
“Ironton Telephone Company is a family-owned local telephone company that values the ideals of service providers from an era that seems long gone. These core values and our long-term commitment to the mutual relationship we share with every customer provide them an experienced team dedicated to quality communications and customer service excellence.”
William George
About Ironton Telephone Company
In 1954, Ironton Internet and Telephone (known at the time as Ironton Telephone Company) was incorporated and received its Certificate of Public Convenience by current President and CEO William D. George II. In Lehigh Valley, ITC was the first to have tone dialing (touch-tone) and an analog electric switching system (TRW Vidar). ITC went digital by replacing its TRW Vidar switch with the current digital Nortel DMS-100/200 switch in 1995. Later, ITC added the Nortel (Genband) CS2K Softswitch platform for enhanced VOIP telecommunications services.
ITC partnered with Service Electric Cable TV (the cable TV pioneer in the US) to form Ironton Telephone, a Competitive Local Access Provider, after the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Today, Ironton Internet & Telephone continues to be at the forefront of technology by deploying state-of-the-art emerging technologies like Voice over IP (VoIP) into its core network. ITC serves its expanding customers using their Nortel DMS-100/200 switch, 3 full-sized Nortel SONET remote switches, 6 Hybrid Fiber Coax head-end systems, 54 Nortel Access Nodes, 74 Digital Fiber Nodes, and thousands of miles of fiber throughout the Greater Lehigh Valley, Eastern Pennsylvania, and Northwestern New Jersey. In March of 2012, ITC deployed the robust PortaSwitch as a second softswitch platform to deliver additional C5 hosted IP PBX / IP Centrex functionality and the ultimate feature set for prepaid calling cards and VoIP wholesale carrier services. The entire PortaSwitch core is built around a comprehensive converged billing software platform utilizing Oracle Enterprise Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) and media application servers. With this combined legacy TDM and enhanced VoIP soft-switching platforms, ITC can offer businesses of all sizes and industry partners the most dependable and cost-effective communication services on the planet.
Ironton Internet & Telephone delivers the following services to residential and business customers.
- Fiber-to-the-home internet services
- DSL internet services
- Landline phone for residences/businesses and TDM PRIs and SIP Trunking for business customers
- Hosted PBX phone systems with desk phones, cordless phones, and mobile applications
- T1, DS-3, OC-3, OC-12, Ethernet networking services
- Domestic and International audio conferencing applications and services
- IP faxing services
PenTeleData
Ironton Internet & Telephone is a member of the strategic partnership that owns PenTeleData. PTD has a fully redundant fiber-optic network with Intelligent Routing has more than 60 Points of Presence throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey delivering Voice, Video, Data, and Internet Services. One of their greatest assets is being LOCALLY owned – it allows them to remain proactive to our customer service demands, make decisions faster and ultimately support customers better. PTD does not outsource customer support and since we own Pennsylvania’s largest privately-owned fiber-optic network, it provides the luxury of deploying the most reliable, scalable fiber-based solution in PA. Another advantage? Privately owned means just that – the network is built with private funds and not a single dollar of taxpayer money or outside venture capital.
With such a dependable network, the PenTeleData partners also offer the latest in enhanced interactive digital television services and telecommunications services. They work to stay ahead of the technology curve and keep customers ahead of the competition.