This is a brief picture of the evolution of HBE Yakabit — from a one-person satellite shop run out of the owner's home in 1984, to a leading IT company delivering FWA, 5G wireless and VoIP business phone service today.
The road so far
Satellite TV. Consumer electronics. Dial-up. DSL. Fixed wireless. 5G and VoIP. Each time the ground shifted, HBE moved first — here's how it happened.
In the beginning the company was a small one-person operation that sold and serviced large-dish home satellite TV systems. The owner had purchased his own satellite system a couple of years prior and found himself working on all his neighbors' and friends' systems.
A year or so later, finding himself too busy to keep up as a secondary job, he created P.S.S., Inc. and began working full-time for his own company.
After a year of working into a position with a satellite distributor, P.S.S., Inc. was one of only 60 independent retailers, by its distributor, chosen to sell its systems throughout the entire United States.
It was the beginning of a long journey with no idea where the road would lead. Within ten years the small satellite company that started out of the owner's home was a leading satellite, home theater, cell phone and general consumer electronics retailer — within several years close to $1 million in total gross sales and service annually.
After years of selling, servicing and building equipment for the satellite industry, rumors began about a small satellite system being built and evaluated by RCA and a company no one knew called DirecTV.
The owner had sources from years in the industry, and he knew the future of satellite was being formed by digital technology — making it possible for an 18-inch dish to take the place of a 10-foot one.
In 1997 P.S.S., Inc. was approached by a friend and trusted engineer who asked if we had ever thought about starting an Internet Service Provider company. Within a few months we were an Internet Service Provider.
A few short years later P.S.S., Inc. formed DBA Home and Business Electronics. Quickly it was full speed ahead in internet, computers and IT services.
By 2003 HBE had a large dial-up customer base that was adding around 30 customers per month. Then HBE got information that the local cable company was starting to roll out high-speed internet.
HBE contacted the local telco — Alltel at the time — leased their copper lines, added HBE bandwidth and rolled out HBE-DSL. Dial-up was disappearing as fast as it had appeared; within two to three years the dial-up industry was failing, and companies that had not planned for the end were going out of business.
One day in 2004 an engineer stopped by the HBE offices and talked with the owner about creating his own wireless internet network. Within a few months HBE had built the first leg of the soon-to-be-known HBE Internet, a Wireless Internet Service Provider.
Within three years HBE Internet had put up three main towers that it owns, pushing out the main backhaul structure of the wireless network — plus contracts with other tower companies, cities and counties, using their structures to locate access points for customers to connect to.
In 2023-24 HBE Internet added the first of the three main U.S. cell carriers' services to its line-up. Today HBE Yakabit is proud to announce that we offer all three carriers' 5G residential and business level internet.
We also carry a selection of high-quality 5G indoor and outdoor equipment to ensure you and your company have the best QoS for your 5G possible.
Today's company evolution has brought us to the newest DBA of the corporation, HBE Yakabit. From P.S.S., Inc., to Home and Business Electronics, to HBE Internet, to Yakabit Phone — we now introduce ourselves as "HBE Yakabit."
What had started out as a home-based one-person operation has evolved over 40+ years to become a leading IT company offering professional services that include FWA, 5G Wireless and VoIP business phone service.
