The company known today as Optus, Inc. was founded in October 1991 by Mark D. Duckworth. Originally incorporated in Piggott, Arkansas as Matrix Telecommunications, the business moved to Jonesboro, Arkansas in 1996 to take advantage of better distribution capabilities and to draw from a larger, more technical employee pool.
Renamed Optus, Inc. in January of 1999, the company eventually expanded to two divisions: Optus Telemation, a full-service Interconnect company offering products and services ranging from single systems to large, multi-site networks; and Optus Telequip (formerly Matrix), an authorized dealer for NEC, Nortel, Avaya and more. Telequip quickly became one of the largest independent NEC dealers in the country-and remains so today serving customers across the United States.
Intent on growing the company beyond Northeast Arkansas, Duckworth opened an Optus Telemation office in Memphis in June of 1999. Later that summer, Optus acquired Business Communications Systems of Little Rock, a move which added offices in Little Rock, Arkansas and Texarkana, Texas. Offices now flourish in Dallas, Houston, and Galveston, Texas as well. The most recent additions are in Springfield and St. Louis, Missouri as well as Shreveport, Louisiana. And the plans don’t stop there-you’re sure to see Optus expand even further in the next few years as the company continues to maintain its standing as one of the country’s leading providers of business communication solutions.
Still headquartered in Jonesboro, today Optus, Inc. employs a total of 130 sales, service and administrative professionals across five states.
