Who We Are
A Look Inside Our Company
Our best-in-class products and services aren’t the only thing that makes us great. Take an in-depth look at our company to see what makes us successful.
Affiliated Communications was founded in 1984 to provide service and support for customers’ voice communication needs. We started as a premise-based telephone installation and service company. Since then, we have grown into a premier communications distributor with offices in Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston. Our highly skilled, manufacturer-certified team is dedicated to providing excellent and professional service on every project.
Today, customers demand value-driven applications such as unified communications, contact center, and multimedia conferencing. We offer the best cloud and hosted products to bring companies cloud-based communication solutions. Through selling best-of-breed service products and offering second-to-none managed services, we assist customers in the planning, design, integration, and installation of voice and data communication products.
Our products are designed to help customers shorten time to market and achieve a competitive advantage. We bring together experienced professionals, partners, programmers, and technicians to assist our customers so that they can enhance their business performance.
The work that we do would not be possible without our knowledgeable team of experts. Our highly skilled, certified workforce provides an excellent customer experience for every client.
Jim Carter // Partner ✉
With 35 years in the telecom industry, Jim has experience in sales, customer service, and technical service. He leads with a solid technical foundation, industry and product knowledge, and a commitment to customer satisfaction. Jim is also responsible for all vendor relationships, strategic alliances, and product offerings with Affiliated Communications.
Larry Carter // Partner ✉
Larry has served as president of Affiliated Communications since 1993. He has extensive management experience, having served in an executive capacity at US Telephone, Nortel Networks, Telesphere, DSC Communications, and NeoData Corporation.
He currently is a partner at Affinitas, a direct marketing management company, and serves on the board of directors of Affiliated Communications and Affinitas.
Todd Jones // Director, Hosted Solutions ✉
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering Technology, Todd began his career in 1987 in Data Communications serving Houston, Texas as a Field Engineer for Racal-Datacom. In 1991 was promoted to Sr. Field Engineer in Albuquerque, New Mexico and covered the State of New Mexico as well as West Texas. Was then promoted to District Service Manager in 1994 which brought him back to the Great State of Texas. Based in Dallas, he supported 14 Central US States. In 2007, he joined Affiliated as Project Manager/Field Engineer managing and assisting installations of Nortel CS1000 and ShoreTel/Mitel Systems. In 2010, joined the Affiliated ComNet Clear Cloud division managing Projects as well as Tier 2 support for Clear Cloud Access and Unison Hosted VOIP Solutions. In February 2020, Todd accepted the Director of Hosted Solutions position.
Todd and his wife, Tanja, have one son and are avid LSU Tiger/New Orleans Saints Fans.
Darren May // Austin Operations Manager ✉
Darren started his career in the telecommunications industry in 1994 in Dallas, Texas, when he took a job working in the warehouse at WilTel. Within months, he was promoted to field technician and worked for 13 years providing service to companies in and around Dallas, including five years on-site at Children’s Medical Center.
Darren has extensive experience installing and programming Avaya products, ranging from small key systems and BCMs to large CS1000s and contact centers using TDM and VoIP. He joined Affiliated in January 2007 and focused on converged IP solutions and contact center implementations. In January 2012, Darren accepted the role of operations manager for Affiliated Communications’ Austin office.
Darren and his wife, Becky, were married in 1997. They have two boys and enjoy their time together camping and doing other outdoor activities.
Thomas Kelsey // Director of Data Communications
Since 1995, Thomas has been engineering solutions for complex networking and voice needs. He has been a part of Affiliated since December 2003, serving as a senior data engineer specializing in integrating voice and unified communications systems into existing networks, designing Ethernet networks, VPNs, wireless solutions, and troubleshooting networking issues. Thomas enjoys spending time with his wife and two sons.
Jeff Coleman // Houston Operations Manager ✉
Jeff began his career in the communications industry in 1996, working as an assistant on a large Nortel PBX installation. His first job was to sit at a terminal all day and program digital sets. This gave him a lot of hands-on experience, and he quickly began managing his own customers. Over the years he moved up from field technician to installation technician then technician supervisor. In 2008, Jeff made the move to Affiliated as the senior CS1000 technician for the Houston office. He took over the role of operations manager for the Houston office in 2013.
He and his wife, Kelli, have two sons and spend most of their evenings attending the many events the boys are involved in with school and church (along with ferrying them to and from practices and rehearsals for those events). He also finds time to write for a website about his beloved Houston Astros.
Now more than ever, companies are faced with a multitude of voice and data communications technologies, making the marketplace difficult to understand and hard to navigate. Our mission is to help customers implement the technologies that will simplify their business practices while improving efficiency and reducing risk. With the right cloud communications solutions, telephone systems, wireless connectivity, and an optimized network, your operation will run more smoothly and your customers will be happier.
Contact Affiliated Communications if you are interested in learning more about how the products and services that we offer can help your organization.