Texas Companies: The Telecom Corridor and Beyond
Published August 27, 2026
The 2015 conference highlighted Texas-based companies for a good reason. North Texas has one of the deepest concentrations of telecom talent in the United States, centred on a stretch of Richardson and neighbouring suburbs long known as the Telecom Corridor.
How it started
The roots go back to the 1950s, when Collins Radio, a major avionics and communications firm, established operations in Richardson. Texas Instruments, based nearby in Dallas, was building the semiconductor industry at the same time. Engineers trained at those firms stayed and spun off companies of their own. After the breakup of the Bell System in the 1980s, long-distance challengers and equipment makers found this a natural base, with cheap land, a major airport and a ready pool of skilled people.
The boom and after
In the 1990s, major equipment suppliers including Nortel, Ericsson, Alcatel and Fujitsu ran large offices in the area, and the Richardson and Plano office parks filled up. The telecom bust of the early 2000s hit hard, and some of the biggest names shrank or vanished. Others stayed, and the region's skilled workforce proved durable.
Today's cluster
- Carriers: AT&T moved its headquarters to downtown Dallas in 2008, and its presence shapes the whole regional supply chain.
- Vendors: Several global equipment makers keep their North American operations around Plano and Richardson.
- Infrastructure: Dallas is among the country's largest data center and interconnection markets, helped by its central location, its fiber routes and a historically business-friendly power market.
- Education: The University of Texas at Dallas, in Richardson, feeds a steady stream of engineers into local firms.
Texas and the odds
Texas makes an interesting case for anyone following betting technology, because it offers so little of it. The state has no commercial casinos, and proposals to allow them or to license sports betting have failed repeatedly in the legislature. It does have a state lottery, in operation since the early 1990s, with terminals spread across thousands of shops. Just over the Red River, about an hour's drive from Dallas, Oklahoma's tribal casinos rank among the largest gaming resorts in the country, and they rely on many of the same regional suppliers. We describe how the retail side of that business works in How a Lottery Terminal Network Works.
Why clusters last
The Telecom Corridor shows why industries stay in one place long after the original reason has gone. Skills, suppliers and professional networks build up over decades. Companies come and go, and the buildings change their signs, but the people tend to stay and start the next thing.
