ATCO Expands Its Texas Service Capabilities, Opens San Antonio, TX Office!
- Jul 23
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Introduction
Earlier this year, on March 25th, 2026, we proudly opened our third office in San Antonio, Texas! In this blog, we’ll cover, step by step, how our Texas-based outside plant (OSP) engineering department went from humble beginnings to rapid expansion, culminating in the need for another brick-and-mortar office to coordinate our various Texas-based projects.
ATCO was an early adopter of the remote work model, and our commitment to it only grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have staff working on projects across the country. Despite this, we still have several physical headquarters to coordinate our projects across the 3 main regions we operate in: the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, and now, Texas!
Our Washington headquarters was our first office and has been situated in Snohomish, WA since 2007. Then, the growth of our Midwest workstream led to the opening of the Fort Wayne, IN, office in 2002, which was relocated to a different part of the city in 2015 and has remained there since. Now, as our Texas OSP engineering department has grown over the past few years, we officially opened our third office in San Antonio in March of 2026.
Step 1: Developing Our Business In Texas
The story of how our Texas office came to be could not be told without a brief introduction of Tim Rennick. Tim is our Director of Texas OSP Engineering/Road Moves and a telecommunications veteran with over 25 years of industry experience.
Tim’s area of expertise was road move projects, although the Texas engineering team has since expanded into offering other services; that’s how he initially drummed up business in the state.  Road moves are a type of telecommunications project where OSP infrastructure like cables, poles, terminals, etc., need to be relocated due to road construction projects.  We’ve done work in Texas for several years, but it was mostly remote final post work, coordinated from our Snohomish and Fort Wayne offices. Final post projects (also called As-builts) entail updating and finalizing a client’s inventory database with which structures have been constructed and verified in the field. Tim eventually got wind of some road move project opportunities in North Texas and took the initiative to cold-call the manager overseeing the work. Given his years of expertise in that field, they gave him a chance, and he worked for a few months to prove his worth and build the client's trust.
After proving himself with these trial projects, another manager at the same company, who operated in Southern Texas, sought Tim’s help with their team’s road move projects. Tim was excited about the growing demand for work, but it was becoming overwhelming for just one person. At this crossroads, Tim was promoted to Manager to build out his team to meet the increasing demand. He and the Texas OSP engineering team continued performing road move work for the client until eventually, the team was offered some permitting work. Permitting is one of ATCO’s business staples, as it is a key step in most telecommunications projects. We’ve been doing permitting work for years all over the country. That experience paid off, and the client was pleased with the quality and efficiency of our work. This development opened the door to even more new work, leading Tim to continue building out his team and our Texas service capabilities. The Texas OSP engineering team has since grown from some final post and road move projects to now include permitting, fielding, fiber network builds, and joint-use work as well.
Step 2: Expanding Our Texas Service Capabilities
With the Texas OSP engineering team growing quickly, ATCO’s leadership team decided that continuing to build out the team was a worthy investment of time and resources. The Texas OSP engineering team has grown from some final post and road move projects to now include permitting, fielding, fiber network builds, and joint-use work as well. As the permitting workload increased, so did the need for fielders. And with the need for more fielders came the need for an essential part of their work: more ATCO vehicles.
When the permitting work first came in, the Texas OSP engineering team had only one dedicated fielder based in Southern Texas. This ended up being a massive amount of driving for just one person. To meet the needs of the team, ATCO acquired two new fielding vehicles, which greatly increased our fielding service capabilities and our capacity for new projects. Tim demonstrated his dedication to developing our Texas service capabilities by personally driving the new ATCO van from Washington to Texas and doing the same drive later on with a pickup truck.
With the team, service capabilities, and workload growing rapidly, the need for a dedicated office to coordinate out of, host client meetings, and train new hires steadily grew. This is when the concept of a Texas office started to shift from idea to reality.Â
Step 3: Finding the Right Office Space
Collaborating with a local realtor, Tim and the ATCO team narrowed down their search to four potential locations. During a 2-month stay in Texas, Tim, the Texas engineering team, IT, Marketing, and other supporting departments worked together to make the final decision on what would become our new Texas home.
Step 4: Planning, Remodeling, and Opening the New Office
Once the decision was made, the office required extensive renovations to meet the team’s needs. The buildout process took about a month and a half, including planning, but the actual work took only 12 days. Next came the finishing touches: acquiring furniture and technology like computers, TVs, and conference call equipment.
Our San Antonio office grand opening celebration took place on March 25th, 2026. Our Texas OSP engineering team hired new members, garnered new projects across the state, and ultimately opened the new office in just the last 2 years. The rate at which the Texas OSP engineering department grew is remarkable, especially given that they continued to deliver high-quality work through it all.
 ATCO’s leadership greatly values the versatility of our staff and highly encourages a culture of collaboration. Our expansion in Texas and other states couldn’t happen without hard work, dedication, and teamwork from those at every level of the company. Changing the structure of your business can be challenging, even when it’s accompanied by exciting growth. But it's well worth it to expand into new markets, work with new clients, and hire more great people into the ATCO family! The teams we’ve built and the culture we’ve nurtured are well prepared for even more growth in our service areas, service capabilities, and the company at large. We are beyond excited to continue to grow ATCO’s reach and to produce high-quality work for our clients along the way!
