Javier Villalobos set out clear priorities when elected McAllen’s new mayor in mid-2021. “Water, sewer, public safety and the police department,” he said, recalling some of the key issues of his campaign. What Villalobos didn’t figure is that education would emerge early on as a pressing issue in his tenure. More than 20,000 students in the McAllen school district were suddenly put into remote learning situations. Public health concerns in…
VTX1 Companies has acquired TISD Inc., a wireless internet service provider headquartered in Victoria, Texas. TISD’s service area consists of more than 3,000 square miles with a subscriber base of 9,900 customers. The acquisition increases VTX1’s existing subscriber count to approximately 34,000 subscribers in the South Texas Region. This elevates them to become one of the largest independently-owned internet service providers in Texas. “TISD is happy and excited to be…
Jeff Shooshtari started with one antenna atop the Chase Bank tower in downtown McAllen. It was 1997 and the beginning of Twin Communications of McAllen/Edinburg. It was then the era of dial-up to the Internet. Moving large volumes of data online was the province of large companies. What is commonplace today was a rarity 20 years ago when Shooshtari, an engineer by training, began with microwave technology to launch wireless…