History

It all started in 1976, with nothing but a telephone switchboard and a dream. Since then, we’ve been revolutionizing the contact center software industry to optimize communication and connection — when it matters most.

How it all began

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.

Expanding markets

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.

Amtelco’s future

Amtelco has grown from a mom-and-pop shop to a trusted leader in the telecommunications industry, with over 120 employees. Amtelco’s customers are located in all 50 U.S. states and over 20 countries. Amtelco holds 30+ U.S. patents for telephony software, data handling methodologies, and telephone switching devices. New products and features are continually being developed.

The Active Insights platform is Amtelco’s most recent release. It is a native cloud-specific development powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to provide detailed call feedback. Artificial intelligence has diverse applications in the telecommunications sector. Amtelco is focusing on the functionality and development of Active Insights to ensure its customers have the best tools available now and in the future.

Amtelco’s employees and customers have always been and will continue to be at the heart of the company. Amtelco supports its customers with in-house, around-the-clock customer service professionals with an average tenure of 17 years with the company. Seminars, webinars, and a dedicated tech helper website are also available to customers.

The culture of care at Amtelco extends to the community. The company and its employees have a long history of supporting local and national charities. Amtelco is committed to being green now and in the future. The eco-minded company recently completed a solar panel project to help reduce its carbon footprint and fossil energy usage.

Independent employee surveys have resulted in Amtelco being honored by the Wisconsin State Journal as a Top Workplace in Madison, Wisconsin since 2020. 

Amtelco will continue to provide cutting-edge technologies built on a tradition of innovation, reliability, and care. Family life and the family business have remained intertwined since the beginning. Amtelco continues to be a family-owned contact center software company located in the Madison, Wisconsin area. Now a third-generation family business, CEO Tom Curtin says, “We consider our customers and employees to be part of our family – and family members want to see each other succeed!”