Complete Business Telephone Systems, LAN, WAN, & Fiber

Alabama Communication Systems, Inc.

Employee List

Charlie Mathieu, President

According to my mother, one day when I was three years old or so, she was in the living room sewing on my sister dress while I was playing on the floor. She then said there was a bright flash from behind the sofa, and the rest of the lights in the house went out. Frightened, my mother found me behind the sofa proclaiming, “Did you see that? Did you see that!?” I was sitting beside the blackened wall, and one of mother’s hair pins welded into the wall outlet. That was my first experience with electricity,  and I haven’t stopped sense then. I attended schools in Homewood, AL, joined the Air Force in1966, did my tour in Vietnam, and got married. I have three children named Billy, Jessica, and Mary Margaret. Carolyn, my wife, and I have been married for 25 plus years. From that day when I was three, electricity and electronics have been my life. When I was a kid I wired seven speakers in our back yard to my radio in my room, and played music for the whole neighborhood. (You know, the neighbors loved us.) I worked odd jobs, saved my money, and bought walkie-talkies for me and the neighborhood kids to play with. I got into CB and had two-way radios in my car. As you can see, communication is the way I’ve lived and thought of for most of my life. I think it is amazing to do something here and have a reaction hundreds of miles away or just next door. I was a policeman for eleven years after I got out of the service, and I was put in charge of  rebuilding the communication office. After leaving the police department, I started Alabama Communication in 1982 with my tools and one old Ford van. Today we are a good stable company with several of satisfied customers. We work hard to keep each customer feeling that way.

Carolyn Mathieu, Vice-President

Charlie already told you about our family in his description. I was raised in West-End, and attended school there. I have lived in Birmingham all my life. I am one of eight siblings, so I learned at a young age about team work and how to get along with others. I was an administrative assistant for an executive at UAB for many years, and I learned to run an office. My job in the company is to keep everything running smoothly. I keep customers and techs in touch. I also keep the accounts receivable and payable up to date, and generally keep the office in good working order.

Paul Hays, Field Representative

When I started with the company, I had no idea how phone communication or the understructure worked. I worked my way through the company by starting as a wirepuller, and then building telephone termination frames to program small systems. Now, I maintain very large telephone switches with hundreds of trunks (telephone lines) and thousands of extensions. I maintain T1, PRIs, Frame Relay, and other high speed data links. My job entails  doing sight surveys, and sitting down with customers to discuss their needs and to make proposals. I’m trained and certified in Fiber Termination, CAT-5 Installation and Termination. I am also a member of BICSI.

Rex Thompson, Technician

I live in Mobile, Alabama and take care of the south end of the state. I started as a wirepuller and worked my way up to a technician. I’m proficient in small business telephone systems. I can also take care of DSL and LAN.

Edgar Heacock, Technician

I am retired from the Army as a Warrant Officer. In the Army, I learned about people and the structure of organizations. I have been able to use what I have learned and put it to use in the communication business. The chain of command is the same as in communication systems. It starts with the Extension, then goes through the Cable to the Control Unit, then next to the Central Office, and then on to the World. I  work on all types of small business telephone systems and internet cabling systems.

I’m the tech guy. I keep all the computers at Alabama Communication running smoothly. I also service many of our customers with their work stations, servers, LANs, and WANs needs. I got started when my Dad bought me my first computer. After playing with it for a day or so, I was compelled to disassemble it. I had to know how it worked. You can imagine the look on my Dad’s face when me walked in to my room to find my new PC in pieces on my desk. Don’t worry—I put it back together, and it worked fine. From that day forward I have scoured the internet and met new friends, who were IT guys, to find out how these computers work. I learned the hard way: from the ground up. Now, I’m proud to say there is not anything I can’t make a computer do. We have even have a setup for a person to access his or hers work computer from home. Our customers said it was just like being at work.

Billy Mathieu, Computer Technician