Gaynor Telesystems Inc. was founded in 1974 by my parents, Eamonn (Gus) and Patricia Gaynor in our living room. Since I was a wee child when it started, I will do my best to retell this story. My father had a very successful career with Pacific Telephone but felt the need to take the risk to go out on his own. Quite a bold move for a couple with a mortgage and 3 small children! 

In response to the CarterFone decision by the FCC the first ‘interconnect’ companies were popping up. Previous to the CarterFone decision it was illegal to plug anything into the AT&T network that was not provided (usually rented) from AT&T. A whole new industry was born! 

As my father told me the story, he had a meeting in our living room with a representative from NEC Telephones about distributing their product. I think the gentleman’s name was Al Garry. Primarily NEC had a large Crossbar PBX system it was successfully selling into the hospitality market. Secondly it had a new ‘key system’ they wanted him to sell into smaller businesses. My father told Mr. Garry that he felt he could be successful with the PBX but he “didn’t expect to sell too many of those key systems” and a deal was struck.

My father, Eamonn (Gus) started selling the NEC Crossbar Switches very successfully to all the hotels in Redding and then branched out to Eureka where he experienced the same success. With my dad selling and installing the equipment and my mother handling all the office duties they were a great team!

Eventually as he proposed those smaller key systems into the business community it was easy to show a very short ROI on purchasing your own system versus renting it from AT&T and sales took off. So, those key systems he told NEC he probably would not sell many of? We have been and continue to be one of the top selling Key System Dealers nationwide for NEC! 

We are proudly the oldest NEC distributor in the nation, and we celebrated 40 years in 2015. 

I joined the firm as a teenager working in the office, pulling cabling, training customers, installing jacks, cleaning phones and all tasks that needed to be done. Gaynor Telesystems is truly a firm built on family that continues to value our entire team.

About Us

Gaynor Telesystems Inc. has been proudly serving the North State Communities of Chico, Yuba City, Marysville, Eureka, Arcata, Sacramento, Davis, Woodland, Redding, and Red Bluff for more than 40 years. We hope the information you found in this blog was useful. To learn more about how Gaynor Telesystems Inc. can help you install, maintain or service business communication solutions, please contact us at 877-Gaynor1.