Founded In 1997, Futureway Communications was one of the first Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC) certified by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to deliver communications in Canada. Futureway became Canada's first, fibre-to-the-home, facilities based communications provider, and was instrumental in bringing in competition to local residential markets.
Futureway became know for their use of new "flush-to-grade" technology which virtually eliminated green and brown boxes from streets and boulevards in new residential developments.
In October of 2000, Futureway executed one of the largest private placements in Canada with a $60 million private capital placement. Following that, Futureway acquired DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) co-location facilities in the GTA from the now defunct CI Communications. This acquisition provided Futureway Communications with the ability to expand its network and acquire business customers outside its original 905 footprint. This also opened the door to providing GTA business customers with access to a larger range of telecommunication choices.
With the acquisition of these co-location facilities, Futureway became the first company in North American to launch Extended DSL High-Speed service to business customers outside the incumbent provider's reach. Extended reach service unlocks the bandwidth limitation of ordinary copper wires at a very economical price.
In July 2001, Futureway Communications received a senior debt financing of $40 million that enabled the company to continue to rollout its business plan and expand its services across the GTA to residential and commercial customers.
In June 2003, Futureway Communications re-branded and adopted the operating name FCI Broadband. The transition also included a redesign of the company logo. This strategic move has kept FCI Broadband at the forefront of the growing demand for high speed data and digital services.
September 2005 marked the launch of iTalk Digital Phone Service - FCI Broadband's VoIP (Voice over Internet) service. Their new state-of-the-art feature server and soft-switch, combined with the reliability of their existing public switched network access, makes iTalk a compelling option for any customer seeking to try VoIP.
Early in 2006, FCI Broadband announced they could "Eliminate" long distance with their iTalk service by offering customers an exclusive service called XL Calling Canada and XL Calling North America. By making Canada and the United States part of an extended local calling area, FCI Broadband was able to make any call local. Now iTalk customers can call anywhere in Canada or the United states and never have to pay long distance and they never have to dial ‘1'.
FCI Broadband continues to add new and innovative products, services and features to their growing product set so they can continue to offer great service at great prices.
