Full Service Network

Full Service Network is a Western Pennsylvania facility based Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) providing services which include High Speed Internet and Broadband Phone Service. It was founded in 1989 by University of Pittsburgh student David E. Schwencke.

Founded in 1989 as a software company, Full Service Network soon entered the telecommunications landscape in the early 1990s. Throughout the decade as land line phone services became competitive, FSN focused mostly on serving the commercial market of small to mid-size businesses. In 1998, FSN entered the residential market and now has over 10,000 residential subscribers in Western PA and thousands more across Pennsylvania.

Since its beginning, FSN has steadily grown and now employs around 85 people in the US Steel Tower in downtown Pittsburgh. In 2012, Full Service Network was recognized by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as one of Pittsburgh's Top Work Places. And in 2013, the Pittsburgh Business Times awarded FSN with a "Best Places to Work in Western Pennsylvania" honor. As of 2016, Full Service Network has been recognized by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as one of Pittsburgh's Top Work Places for 3 years in a row.

Not related to the current day Full Service Network in Pittsburgh, formerly the Full Service Network, also known as FSN was an 18-month trial interactive television service launched by Time Warner Inc. in Orlando, Florida. The FSN was active between 1994 and 1997 targeting an initial number of 4,000 households with services that ranged from video-on-demand to ordering fast food using just the TV remote. At its time, it was dubbed the “most futuristic network introduced so far.”

The trial aimed to study how interactive services would work, as well as their costs and advertising capabilities. It also aimed to find out “what people will want when the equipment that is now so expensive becomes affordable several years down the road.”

Time Warner’s Full Service Network was described as “the first in the world to integrate emerging cable, computer, and telephone technologies over a fiber-optic and coaxial cable network.” This meant that the service offered traditional cable, interactive television, telephone services, and high-speed PC access to on-line services.

Regardless of its first-time advantages, the FSN was not Television’s first attempt at interactivity. Previous efforts included 1977’s QUBE (a service offered by Warner Amex in Dallas, Pittsburgh and Columbus, OH); as well as the 1950s children television show ‘’Winky Dink and You’’, which prompted interactivity through the use of plastics ‘Magic Screens’ that parents would place on the actual television display so kids could draw on them.

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