History

For over a decade, APCi has been growing and growing:

• Applied Personal Computing (APC) was founded early in 1991 as a sole proprietorship specializing in small business automation and consulting.
• By 1992, APC was providing information technology solutions by designing and building custom systems and networks for small businesses and individuals in Southern Illinois.
• In 1993, APC became an Illinois corporation (hereafter known as APCi) and began developing custom software.
• APCi launched a multi-user dial-in bulletin board system (the APCi BBS) in May of 1994.
• APCi developed the first dial-up real-time virtual-reality gaming server, formally named the APCi MultiPlayer Game Server (APCiMPGS), which was brought online in mid-1994. Later that same year, APCi began marketing and licensing the APCiMPGS world-wide.
• Early in 1995, the APCiMPGS became known world-wide as the fastest and only BBS-independent virtual-reality gaming server hosting Id Software's DOOM and DOOM II as well as Raven Software's Heretic and Hexen. A high-speed connection to the Internet was established to support APCiMPGS customers.
• By mid-1995 local market demands prompted APCi to form an internetworking services division (APCiNet) to provide Internet access and related services.
• APCiNet dial-up subscriber growth exploded early in 1996.
• In August of 1996, APCi built its current network operations center in Fairview Heights, Illinois, centrally-located in the St. Louis Metro East market.
• By the end of 1996, APCiNet became the largest local Internet service provider in the St. Louis Metro East region of Southern Illinois with over 2,600 dial-up subscribers.
• APCiNet installed and began testing cutting-edge digital communications technologies with the Livingston Enterprises (now Lucent Technologies) PortMaster 3 Integrated Access Servers in February of 1997.
• In March of 1997, Ameritech deployed fiber-optic cable from their O'Fallon central switching office to APCiNet to initially accommodate eight ISDN Prime Rate Interface (PRI) T-1 circuits (184 64kbps ISDN channels) and to support future growth.
• By second quarter 1997, APCiNet's available dial-up ports numbered 394 with 210 analog (33.6kbps V.34) ports and 184 digital (33.6kbps V.34 and 64kbps ISDN) ports. K56flex technology (56kbps analog) was scheduled for implementation on the 184 digital ports sometime in May.
• By fourth quarter 1997, APCiNet had replaced all analog ports by deploying Cisco Systems' AS5200s and ten additional ISDN Prime Rate (PRI) T-1 circuits for a total of 414 digital ports, all with Rockwell/Lucent K56flex 56K modem support.
• APCiNet added two additional ISDN Prime Rate (PRI) T-1 circuits for a total of 460 digital ports by 2nd quarter 1998.
• All digital modem ports were upgraded to support the V.90 56k protocol standard in 3rd quarter 1998.
• APCiNet added premium ADSL capabilities in 4th quarter 2001.