Established in 1979, STL first produced a telephone answering machine based on a dual standard cassette tape drive. The company started with less than 100 employees inside a factory of 7,000 square feet. Later the company designed and manufactured photoflash units to be used on Kodak and Polaroid cameras. At that time the factory has grown to 95,000 square feet and employing 1,200 people.
In 1981 and 1982 STL started manufacturing telephone answering machines for sale in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Sweden. In 1983 AT&T commissioned STL for the design and manufacture of two microprocessor based answering machines. Both products represented AT&T's entry into the telephone answering system market. By 1984 production of telephone equipment exceeded 10,000 units per day. Employment grew to 1,500 people.
In 1986 STL started the supply of telephone products to Southwestern Bell based on Bell specs and for sale in the US and Europe.
In early 1988 STL started production in the People's Republic of China. The size of the China factory was 220,000 square ft. The size of the HK facility was 37,000 square feet. Employment grew to 2,000 people.
STL engineers worked in collaboration with AT&T Bell Lab engineers in the design of four telephone-answering systems, the 1310, 1510, 1321, and 1521. These products represented approximately half of AT&T's needs in their growing answering system market share.
In 1988 and 1989 STL started manufacturing type approved products for France and Germany. In 1990 the factory was inspected by DBP of Germany and manufactured products for the German Telecom. The factory was also formally certified by BABT for the production of telephone equipment for the UK market.
In 1991 a design-engineering group was set up in the China factory. In the same year STL achieved the Gold AT&T Quality Award.
At that time STL entered the market for Caller Identification (CID) products. By 1995 STL was supplying approximately 4 million units a year to major telephone companies in the US and Europe.
In 1992, STL added SMT capabilities to the manufacturing processes. In 1994 chip on board technology was added to the factory. At that time both the Hong Kong and China facilities obtained ISO9001 Certification. In 1995 STL started the manufacture of cordless caller identification products.
In 2022, STL obtained ISO14001 Certification
STL has a history of flexibility and growth in technical capabilities in the past 43 years. STL is committed to continuing this growth in technical expertise and maintaining flexibility in its quest to satisfy market and customer demand.
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