Bandwidth's customers came to include Microsoft, Google and Zoom, yet most people who used its network never saw its name. It sells the plumbing behind modern calling and texting. Software companies use its APIs to place calls, send messages and connect emergency 911 service. When it filed to go public in 2017, cloud communications was a crowded field. Bandwidth stood apart because it owned much of its own nationwide network.

Raleigh, Without Much Venture Money

David Morken and Henry Kaestner started the company in North Carolina in 1999, first selling internet connections. Over time they built a voice network and won large customers that needed reliable phone service inside their software. Their bet was that owning the network, instead of renting it, would bring better quality and lower costs. The company stayed in Raleigh and grew without much venture money.

Buying a European Carrier

Bandwidth priced at $20 a share in November 2017. It grew as video meetings, contact centers and messaging apps moved to the cloud. In 2020 it bought Voxbone, a European carrier, to expand overseas. Demand surged during the pandemic, as so much of life moved onto calls, and later cooled. Bandwidth remains a public company in Raleigh, and David Morken stayed on as chief executive.

Cover: U.S. Military Telegraph Construction Corps, Timothy O'Sullivan. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for telegraph line builders (the network).