Glenwood Telephone Membership Corporation of Blue Hill, NE is our inaugural featured HunTel Engineering customer of the quarter. I had the opportunity to sit down with Stan Rouse, who has been the General Manager of Glenwood for the last fifteen years. This gave us a chance to get a feel for what challenges Glenwood faces, to learn a little bit about team Glenwood and to understand how the company has evolved.
Stan what are your challenges today?
“Well obviously, the need to continue to match our service offerings with our customers’ needs. We continue to face stiff wireless competition and the proposed Government’s Broadband plan certainly adds some real challenges. We are in the process of bringing fiber to all of our rural homes. We have three areas done with six to go. With the uncertainty revenue wise, it is hard to know what to do. Do we stop or keep going? It would be nice to have a crystal ball.”
Stan, tell us about your team and the challenges they face?
“Our team is a great group of people. We are transitioning away from being a dial tone provider, to being a data centric company. This necessitates a change in skill sets. It is always a challenge, to keep the employees current with new technology and trends. However, this is an exciting time to be in the business. Things are evolving at a tremendous pace, so it easy to keep the team interested and motivated. Our Glenwood team does an excellent job understanding our challenges and helping us meet them.”
A little History……
Today, Glenwood Telephone serves approximately 2,200 telephone customers, 1400 cable customers, 250 digital cable customers and 3,200 broadband Internet customers. The Company has expanded to all parts of Central Nebraska offering phone systems, networking, computer sales & service, video monitoring, IT consulting, security systems, and much more. However, that has not always been the case.
Like most independent telephone companies, the Glenwood Telephone Membership Corporation sprung from humble beginnings. On January 30, 1897, a line was put in from the First National Bank to the home of its vice-president, C. Koehler. On May 10, 1901, Dr. Franklin had a telephone installed in his office and on May 13, 1901, a new switchboard was installed in a local drug store where a certain area of the store had been set aside for the Telephone Company.
In 1913, the minister of the Methodist Church, the Rev. T.C. Priestly, who was reported to be a mechanical genius, manufactured telephones and strung wire along country roads, raising the wire only at the crossing. When the size of the operation outgrew the Rev. Priestly, the Glenwood Telephone Company was organized. One local resident detailed the installation of the rural lines, “The farmers installed the lines themselves. They just went down the road with a roll of wire, two-by-four post extenders and attached the extenders to the fence posts. When a farm was reached the farmer furnished the pole and he had a telephone.” The entire system, at the time, covered over 1,700 families. Towns included were Blue Hill, Cowles, Rosemont, Bladen, Holstein, Ayr and Roseland. Service was provided by operators from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM. The hours from 9:00 PM to 7:00 AM were for emergency service only.
In the years marked by depression, rural dues were $.85 cents per month and no statements were mailed out. The manager would go from business to business along Main Street to collect the payments. Toll service was prohibitive as one could talk for free with all the connecting companies. There were two lines from Blue Hill to Bladen and one could talk to Red Cloud through Bladen for five cents with no limit on time.
In 1957, The Glenwood Telephone Company became the Glenwood Telephone Membership Corporation. The first annual meeting was held in November of that year. It was at this time that the Company became a Cooperative. In 1960 the system was converted to dial service. In 1975, a loan was received to bury the overhead lines and upgrade service to all one-party phones over the entire exchange. The entire project was completed in 1979, giving the Glenwood Telephone Membership Corporation the latest and most modern telephone service available. In the 1980’s the Telephone Company expanded its offering by adding a subsidiary, Glenwood Telecommunications. This new subsidiary was primarily formed to provide cable television services. At that time the corporation served 2,236 customers. Customer rates, at that time, were $7.50 for residential and $11.50 for business. In 1982, the Funk Telephone Cooperative became a part of Glenwood. The addition brought an additional 250 subscribers into the cooperative.
In 1996, the Company ventured into the Internet business. This was a huge step for the Company. It marked the first time the Company ventured outside of the traditional telephone arena to offer a different service. The new internet offering has allowed the Company to greatly expand over the years. In 2001 Glenwood began offering broadband Internet (High Speed) service and computer sales & service. Glenwood Wireless was formed in March of 2001 to provide wireless broadband outside of the Telephone area. Initially, this service was offered in 6 communities throughout Central Nebraska. It was the company’s biggest venture outside of the traditional telephone area.
In 2004, the Company completed a system wide plant upgrade, giving our customers access to the latest in telephone technology. This upgrade also gave every Glenwood customer access to DSL High Speed Internet. In early 2009, Glenwood completed our Fiber-to-the-Premise project within all of the towns we serve. Currently we are in process of bringing fiber to all of our rural customers. By the end of the year 2013 Glenwood Telephone intends to have all customers (business & residential) connected via direct fiber.
At the beginning of 2001, the Company offered approximately 6 basic services and employed 15 people. Today, the Company offers over 30 products and services and employs over 45 people.