Most people would never think that one of the oldest businesses in DeLeon is the telephone company.   In fact, only Higginbotham' s, the railroad, the DeLeon Free Press, and possibly Dabney' s are older.

In 1895 Bob Gilmore started the DeLeon Telephone Service.   Records are scarce, but L. H. Shannon and A. I. Stephens had turns owning the system.   In 1904, Stephens sold the system to B. E. Howe who operated it until selling it to Southwestern Bell in 1929.

In 1944, Southwestern Bell sold the system (all 136 subscribers) to E. F. Stephens.   Stephens renamed it the DeLeon Telephone Company and later converted the old hand crank system into a dial type and

expanded his operation to include the Carbon, Desdemona, and Olden areas.   1966 brought change when Stephens sold the company to Comanche County Telephone Company.    After that acquisition and the acquisition of the Gorman system in 1972, Comanche County Telephone provided telephone service to eight different service areas in portions of five counties.   In 1995 control of the company was sold to First American Communications Enterprises, Inc.

Today the company has several affiliates:   Comanche County Telecommunications, L.P., Mid-Tex Cellular, Ltd., North Texas Telephone Company, Byers-Petrolia Cable TV, Inc., Oklahoma Telephone & Telegraph, Inc. and Texas Communications of Brownwood, L.P.   This cluster of companies offers local telephone service in Texas and Oklahoma, cellular service, long distance, paging, and Internet access to over 24,000 customers.   Gross revenues for these entities in 2003 exceeded $25 million.   Administration functions for all companies are provided in DeLeon and 53 employees are based there.   The DeLeon operation handles all business functions of Comanche County Telephone Co., serves as one of the business offices of Mid-Tex Cellular, and provides the accounting, billing and management services for all other affiliates.