JULY 29, 2014 — As part of a theme to feature successful small business stories, our speaker was Will Helmly, president and CEO of Home Telecom in Moncks Corner. The company was started 110 years ago to supply telegraph services to the Moncks Corner area and Will’s grandmother was the key telegrapher. Will, who is the 4th generation to manage the company, is an electrical engineering graduate of the University of South Carolina. He started his career in nuclear engineering but has been with Home Telecom for 22 years and the CEO for the past ten. He is active in many professional and civic organizations and is a past president of the Moncks Corner Rotary Club.
Home Telecom stresses innovation and prompt accurate service to its 20,000+ customers, both residential and commercial, who give the company a 98% positive rating. The residential department provides digital services for phone, video, internet and Wi-Fi. Its Home Smart division provides security and fire services include remote access. The business component offers data networking, internet solutions, voice, cloud and digital TV.
One of the newer ventures of the company is to provide community Wi-Fi services to the town center and public parks. From an innovative standpoint the company is launching gigabit internet services in the state, utilizing fiber to provide speed internet services to local schools for conferencing and distance learning, deploying state of the art fiber to the premises of the customer, and converting video services to an all fiber platform. With its “Velocity” project it is bringing underground fiber along with a very low profile on-site box to all customers. The fiber optic systems are faster and impervious to weather conditions.
Its next big project is a partnership with Westvaco to provide all of the communications services to the new Nexton community to be built in Berkeley County. It will include over 10,000 residential homes, 2000 apartment homes, hotels and other commercial ventures. And it will be totally fiber optics.
Home Telecom’s motto is “easy to do business with.” It is well along that road.
— Submitted by Fred Sales, Keyway Committee