The Legacy of Telecommunication in South Dakota
Telecommunications has been a backbone of South Dakota’s economy, connectivity, and communities since the first telegraph wires were strung prior to statehood. Despite being a rural state with wide-open spaces, South Dakota’s community-based rural telephone companies, including cooperatives, municipalities, tribal and small family-owned companies, have built and maintained networks across our vast state, dating back to the “party lines” many decades ago. This continues today, with our high-capacity broadband networks supporting fiber-to-the-premise and emerging 5G technologies.
The South Dakota Hall of Fame has been exhibiting five of the historic telecommunications companies in a recent exhibit at the Visitor and Education Center. We are now expanding this exhibit to travel across various locations in the state where more viewers can read about the history and impact of these companies.
Learn a bit more about these five companies below and watch the recent virtual interview on the telecommunications exhibit here.
Midstate Communications
Since 1952, when Midstate Communications was incorporated as a telephone membership cooperative, they have proudly serviced the communication needs of central South Dakota with state-of-the-art telecommunications technology and services. Headquartered in Kimball, SD, Midstate currently services nearly 5000 access lines and approximately 3,000 route miles of fiber optics throughout central South Dakota. In 1952 the Articles of Incorporation for Midstate Telephone Company were drafted and signed. During the almost half-century of service provided by Midstate Communications many things have changed, personnel, technology, and customers. Through all this change Midstate Communications has always maintained a simple business philosophy: “Delivering the best technology, customer experience, and value to our members.
SDN Communications
SDN Communications interconnects the largest fiber network of the Northern Plains. SDN got its start more than 30 years ago as South Dakota Network when today’s rural independent broadband companies were telephone companies looking to offer more affordable long-distance options to their rural customers. Collectively, those 17 rural South Dakota broadband companies that own SDN cover 76 percent of the state’s Geography. The network, built by SDN and its member-owners, now touches more than 300 communities within South Dakota and eight neighboring states. SDN’s partnerships with broadband companies in South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota have improved connectivity and internet options for businesses throughout the region.
SDTA
From the first telephone installed in 1899 to state-of-the-art high-speed fiber-optic networks, communications are essential in promoting community and prosperity in South Dakota. Half of all South Dakotans live in small communities and rural areas, and the 18 member companies of the South Dakota Telecommunications Association (SDTA) are dedicated to providing broadband connectivity, enabling people to engage in commerce and society online. SDTA members know that broadband infrastructure and services are revolutionizing life in small cities and rural communities throughout our state. And understand that important aspects of our great South Dakota way of life – agriculture, business, health, social, and education – are substantially dependent on the availability of high-speed, high-quality broadband services.
Venture Communications
Responding to opportunity and providing new technology to central and northeast South Dakota is the hallmark of Venture Communications since its beginning in 1952. Known as Sully Buttes Telephone Cooperative at its start, the newly formed enterprise revolutionized communication. Growth was rapid and by 1955, 15 telephone exchanges were active. By the mid-1970s, Sully Buttes Telephone had nearly 4,000 telephone lines in service and connected businesses, homes, and ranches across a large territory. Currently connecting areas of rural South Dakota to the world with gigabit-speed internet via a recently placed fiber to the home network. The cooperative, renamed Venture Communications Cooperative in 2002, remains solidly rooted in its home communities and committed to its customers.
Kennebec Telephone Company
Serving friends and neighbors in central South Dakota, Kennebec Telephone Company has been family-owned and operated since 1908. Benefiting from progressive leadership since its earliest days, the company is continually upgrading technology products and service lines. Being central to the life of the community is the way Kennebec Telephone Company does business. The days when someone would call the switchboard and ask, “what time does the train come in with the mail?” are long gone, but the company continues to bring people together. A member of the South Dakota Network (SDN), the Kennebec Telephone Company has changed lives achieved much and is integral to economic and community life
To learn more about this exhibit and others, visit our current exhibits page.