When D. L. Fail purchased the Bay Springs, Mississippi Telephone Company in 1923, the deal included one manual switchboard, a handful of telephone poles, and 120 loyal customers. Fail and his wife, Estelle, operated the fledgling company from a spare room in their home, sleeping in the same room with the switchboard to ensure their customers would never miss a late night call.

The business gained another employee when the Fails' oldest son, Charles, was born in 1929. Charles Fail grew up in the telephone business, spending holidays and summer vacations repairing equipment and climbing telephone poles - learning the telephone service industry from the ground up. By 1973, the family business had evolved into the Telephone Electronics Corporation (TEC), a holding company for a network of independent telephone companies serving customers in four states.

In 1992, Charles and his wife Dorothea "Dot" Fail founded Fail Telecommunications Corporation (FTC), a holding company for three of those original telephone companies. Today, FTC has expanded to three telephone companies in Mississippi, one telephone company in Georgia, a fiber company in North Mississippi, a long distance carrier, and a home and business security company. FTC manages and oversees the needs of each subsidiary's telecommunications network and operations. From the days of the party line and the introduction of "trailblazing" features like call waiting and 3-way calling, to the ever changing offerings of fiber to the home and wireless, FTC's vision is to offer customers within its operating areas the highest quality in communications through both voice and broadband.

Today, FTC is still a family run business with many loyal employees that feel like family. Building on a history of success, FTC is dedicated to a future of continued accomplishments through maintaining a commitment to service and seeking out potential markets in the telecommunications industry.