History

Bill Curtin, II was born in 1919 in Chicago, Illinois, to first-generation Irish immigrants. After enlisting and joining the U.S. Air Force in the 1940s, Bill was assigned to Yale University’s communications program. Once Bill was discharged from the military, he and his wife, Eleanor, started an answering service in Madison, Wisconsin.

Together, Bill and Eleanor worked tirelessly to start their business. Eleanor was a trend-setting office manager who, in addition to being a wife and mother, worked outside the home in an era where it was much more common for women to be stay-at-home moms and housewives. 

Bill thought of inventions that would address the limitations of communication technology when he worked the overnight shift. Those inventions would eventually become the foundation of Amtelco. 

As Eleanor and Bill’s family grew, so did their company. Amtelco was founded in 1976 in the wake of the 1968 Federal Commission’s ruling in the Carterfone case, which struck down existing tariffs prohibiting connection to the public telephone network of equipment not supplied by telephone operating companies. The FCC ruling eventually led to the breakup of the AT&T monopoly in the telecommunications industries.

Amtelco quickly became a trusted name in those industries after the release of its TAS Video system, the first computerized telephone switching system in the marketplace. The EVE system soon succeeded the TAS (Telephone Answering Service) Video system. By the late 1980s, Amtelco’s EVE (Electronic Video Exchange) system grew to become the industry’s most widely used business telephone answering equipment.

Amtelco’s healthcare branch, originally named 1Call, was established in 1997 to offer enterprise-wide clinical communication solutions designed specifically for the healthcare industry. Amtelco is dedicated to serving the unique contact center and communication needs of hospital organizations.



In 2011, Amtelco released its own secure messaging app. Previously known as miSecureMessages, the HIPAA and HITECH-compliant app was specifically developed for hospitals and clinics. The app is now also used by any business that needs to protect confidentiality while sending and receiving texts, photos, audio, and video files.

Telescan, located in St. Louis, MO, was acquired by Amtelco in 2012 to expand new features and product offerings that help TAS businesses decrease operating expenses and increase profits. Today, we have sales and customer care offices throughout the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

When Amtelco underwent a brand refresh in 2024, all of the branches, office locations, and products previously known by other names were re-branded with Amtelco names and logos.