Full Channel

Full Channel, Inc.

Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1965
Founders	John Donofrio, Hilda Donofrio
Headquarters	57 Everett Street Warren, RI 02885 United States
Key people	Linda Jane Maaia, President/CEO
Products	Cable television, Broadband Internet, Digital telephony
Number of employees	20+ (2013)
Website	www.fullchannel.com www.fullchannel.net

Full Channel, Inc., formerly Full-Channel TV, Inc., is a private, family-owned Rhode Island corporation providing digital cable television, Internet and telecommunications services in Rhode Island. It is the third-largest cable television and Internet service provider in the state. Its wired communications network is available to the approximately 50,000 residents of Bristol County, Rhode Island. Full Channel's main office is at 57 Everett Street in Warren, Rhode Island, U.S.

In 1965, John Donofrio, a former broadcast engineer and general manager at WPFM (now WBRU) in Providence and sales executive at Charles River Broadcasting in Boston, founded Full-Channel TV, Inc. upon learning of the potential success of Community Antenna Television. Later that year, Donofrio's company applied for and was awarded the first cable television franchise in Rhode Island after his application was approved by the City of East Providence. However, before Full Channel began construction of a system in East Providence, cable television franchising authority was transferred away from local municipalities to the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission. In 1974, Full Channel was among the nine original cable franchises awarded by the PUC and was ultimately assigned to the state's CATV Service Area 5, Bristol County, Rhode Island. It would not be until 1982 that legal wrangling would allow for the original franchisees to begin building their systems.

In 1982, Full Channel hired a workforce, opened a local business office and began building its cable system. In the winter of 1983, the company's first cable television subscriber was connected. The company remained the only cable provider in Bristol County until 2001 when Cox Communications overbuilt Full Channel as part of its bid to service the entire state of Rhode Island. Today, Full Channel competes with various TV, Internet and phone offerings from Cox, Verizon Communications, DirecTV and Dish Network. Since the entry of these competitors to the market, Full Channel has presumably lost some of its customer base, however the actual number of subscribers each company serves is not publicly available.

Since Donofrio's death in 2004, his daughter Linda Jane Maaia, son-in-law William Maaia and grandson Levi C. Maaia have run the company.