Pro-Tel service truck. (Submitted photo)

By Sophia Root, Commerce Chenango

NORWICH – This week, Commerce Chenango would like to highlight Professional Teleconcepts, LLC. (Pro-Tel), founded in Norwich in 1984.

Pro-Tel provides engineering, furnishing, and installation services as well as staffing solutions to the telecommunications market. Pro-Tel's customer list includes regional wireline and wireless carriers, local and regional telecom companies, and OEMs.

Pro-Tel was founded by Norwich natives Will Ryan and Harold Jenkins and owned by them until 2000 when they sold Pro-Tel with the help of partner Eric Burrell.

Today, Pro-Tel is owned by Dycom Industries, a publicly traded company (NYSE: DY), but has continued to be locally operated and managed, first by Eric Burell until September 2023 and now Tim Ryan, who currently lives in Norwich along with his wife Danielle and his four children.

Tim stated, “Many people in Norwich may not know what we do at Pro-Tel since we don’t sell products or our services to the general public but may have seen our many trucks driving through town”.  Pro-Tel has been headquartered in Norwich for almost 40 years and Tim says he is “proud that Pro-Tel has employed hundreds if not thousands of people through central New York over the years”.

Pro-Tel provides Engineering and Construction services to the nation’s largest Wireless and Wireline providers. “We make technology work; we are the guys and gals turning the wrench” Tim said. He claims that the work they do helps connect people and is proud that Pro-Tel can be the ones to bring a cell tower to an area with no reception.

Pro-Tel has engineered over 8000 projects, Installed or Upgraded over 600 Cell Sites and turned-up more than 1500 Small Cell sites.

Pro-Tel’s most important resources are their people. Both Norwich and Chenango County are full of hard-working men and women.

According to Tim,“We are proud to have many of them working at Pro-Tel. Our technicians, engineers, and managers in the field every day are what makes Pro-Tel so successful.”

“I can’t imagine living anywhere else, Norwich is where I grew up and is where me and my wife have decided to raise our kids. Norwich offers a fantastic support network of friends and family that always rally in times of need,” Tim said.

The company encourages community participation by: “making giving back fun” and selecting community projects that are personal to the employees at Pro-Tel. They regularly participate by sponsoring a Gus Maker team and provide annual college scholarships to two Norwich High School Graduates going to school for engineering. Additionally, they donated 10 food dehydrators to the Children’s place for a food experiment and participated in the Parade of Lights for the first-time last year Pro-Tel had such a good time and they are looking forward to registering for this year.

The company is open 8-5pm daily and is currently hiring in their wireless division. Tim said: “If you ever had dreams of climbing a cell tower 200 feet in the air you should apply now.” Applications can be submitted at their website: www.pro-tel.com Or find them on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.