History

CEC: A Compelling Legacy

CEC (Communications Engineering Company) was founded in 1946 by an Iowa entrepreneur who fulfilled his dream of starting a small radio shop. He could not have imagined how CEC would transform over the next seven decades into an award-winning systems integrator.

CEC has blazed a trail for its customers in anticipating and meeting their needs as they have adapted to the latest technology, through ground-breaking achievements such as the following:

• Designing and installing a broadband system at the John Deere Dubuque facility in the early 1980s, which successfully transmitted voice, video, and data for the first time in Iowa
• Designing and installing a gig network backbone at the John Deere Davenport works, which was a first in Iowa and one of the first in the United States
• Installing the utility owned Metropolitan Area network at Cedar Falls Utilities, which was one of the first MANs in the United States
• Integrating an infrared location system with a nurse/patient communication system, as one of the two companies to first accomplish this in the United States
• Implementing the first Electronic System Technician Apprenticeship program in the United States. CEC was commended by the U.S. Department of Labor for this achievement

In 1990, as communications technology was bursting into work environments across the country, CEC was purchased by another visionary Iowa leader, Jim Smith, whose commitment to excellence, reputation for integrity, and support for his employees has inspired CEC to continue exceeding customers’ expectations into the new millennium.

Today, as a privately-held corporation, CEC remains a vibrant force as a leading systems integrator, dedicated to meeting the dynamic technology requirements of our customer and exceeding service expectations. Although the number of employees and customers has grown significantly since those early days, the dream and the passion remain powerful.