Company History

In 1950, with the desire to improve and expand telephone service in northern Wisconsin, Steve Berry, Jacob Maciosek and John Dwyer, all of Cable, joined a group of residents to form the Chequamegon Telephone Cooperative, Inc. A meeting of the original incorporators (John Schweiger, Alice Hallen, Stephen Barry and Marcia Dwyer), along with the entire membership present, (Onne Beeksma, William G. Ziemer, Jacob Maciosek and Oiva Erkilla) were all elected as members of the Board of Directors.

The new President Maciosek and Secretary Ziemer were authorized to enter into contracts to purchase seven independent telephone companies in the surrounding areas. Attorney Carl Thompson of Stoughton, (later State Senator) and Thomas M. Anich of Ashland were retained as legal counsel. Stephen J. Barry was appointed General Manager and held that office until his retirement in 1972.

In November, 1951, a special meeting was held at the Dwyer residence on Lake Owen to authorize the officers to borrow from the Northern State Bank of Mason to carry on organizational work. The officers were also directed to apply to the Rural Electrification Administration for a loan of $425,000 for the original and reconstruction of the existing telephone systems that were purchased. Member contributions in the form of equity payments were $54,637. By August, 1952, six companies had been purchased by the newly formed Chequamegon Communications, Inc. They included Clover Telephone Company of Herbster, North Wisconsin Telephone Company of Brule, Cable Telephone Company, Port Wing Telephone Company, Waino-Oulu Telephone Company and the Brule Telephone Company. These small companies had been facing a bleak future since they had neither the money nor the equipment to meet the demands for expansion and improved service which the subscribers had been expecting.

A membership fee of $5.00 was established, in addition to an equity contribution of $41.50. Many members worked off their contribution by clearing right-of-ways for the Cooperative in lieu of payment. The equity was eliminated in January, 1963 and the Cooperative was directed to refund equity payments to all members. Membership fees were discontinued in 1988 and all members were credited their $5.00 fee. Chequamegon was able to expand its territory in July 1954 when they received authorization to provide service to the village of Clam Lake. The Clam Lake Telephone Company had served that area, but their last phone had gone out of service in October 1953.

Chequamegon continued to grow and by 1965 had included the exchanges of Barnes, Brule, Cable, Drummond, Grand View, Herbster, Marengo, Mason, Namakagon- Clam Lake, Port Wing and Waino. We now served subscribers in a four-county area. In 1971, the Iron River exchange was purchased from Dahlberg Light and Power Company, which brought us to a total of 12 exchanges.

The birth of Project Sanguine in 1970 brought our company into a discussion before the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin. Although General Telephone presented itself as the company to best serve the project, the U.S. Navy preferred that Chequamegon Communications be allowed to provide the telephone service. To our delight, the Public Service Commission agreed with the Navy's request and we were awarded the opportunity to provide service to the navy site.

General Manager Steve Barry, a man long responsible for our growth and success, retired in 1972. Alan Olson, First employed by Chequamegon Communications in 1954 as a lineman and later as Plant Superintendent, was appointed by the Board of Directors as the General Manager following Mr. Barry's retirement.

By 1976, the Cable area had outgrown the small switchboard that had been a part of the headquarters building. We then purchased a piece of land east of Cable on which to build a new central office. 1976 also saw the total conversion of all lines to single party service.

Digital switching equipment was first installed in 1980. This digital equipment includes the capability to offer our customers many extra services such as speed calling, call forwarding, call waiting and three-way calling. Caller ID is also available. In 1977, the first patronage refund was issued to members who had accumulated capital credits in the Cooperative. Since that time, we have made refunds totaling more than $4,871,873. The most recent refund was in October 2000 in the amount of $198,891.

On March 1, 1989, the purchase of Benoit and Cornucopia exchanges from Wisconsin Bell brought our service area to approximately 1500 square miles. We immediately began replacing the plant and switch equipment to improve the quality of service to the residents of these two communities. The Madeline Island Telephone Company was purchased on March 23, 1993. The entire plant was rebuilt, as directed by the Public Service Commission, by November 15, 1993. Madeline Island is the largest of the Apostle Islands located on Lake Superior. Ferry service runs to the island from Bayfield when the lake is free of ice, and during the winter various modes of transportation are utilized; wind boat, snowmobile, cars and trucks when the ice road is passable.

Our most recent acquisition was the Maple Telephone Cooperative in August 1994. This single exchange cooperative faced a crossroads as their manager and only office employee looked to retirement. The addition of Maple was very smooth, since their switchboard was already a remote office of our Iron River exchange. All switchboards are equipped with Northern Telecom equipment. Additional switches have been installed at various locations throughout our territory due to the continual subscriber growth we experience. Access lines now total 8,556, making us the largest telephone cooperative in the state. Local monthly rates range from $10.00 to $24.00 per month, which is still a bargain these days.

Alan Olson was appointed Chief Executive Officer on January 1, 1994 and retired on December 31, 1994, ending his 40 year career with this cooperative. Brian Miller, formerly the Plant Superintendent, succeeded Alan Olson as General Manager. Brian was originally hired as a linesman in 1964.

In January 1995, the law firm of Spears, Carlson, Lindsey and Anderson was retained as legal counsel of Chequamegon Communications. Attorney Thomas M. Anich of Ashland had served the cooperative's legal needs for the past 45 years. Early in 1995, Chequamegon Communications Cooperative, along with 20 other telephone companies, made a commitment to provide access to the Internet. Through the combined efforts of all the companies, the commitment has become reality. In September of 1995, Chequamegon Communications went on line and provided local dial access to the Internet for all Chequamegon Communications customers. (Local dial access means that there is no toll charge to the customer when they connect to the Internet.) We have also provided Internet access to the three (3) school districts in our serving area; Drummond, Maple, and South Shore, via a direct 56KB line. Since that time, we have expanded to provide local dial access to the cities of Ashland, Bayfield, Hayward, and Washburn.

We, at Chequamegon Communications are committed to providing educational opportunities to our schools and our entire serving area, so that all of our customers are afforded the same opportunities as people who live in larger cities and urban areas. Chequamegon Communications Cooperative has always been a leader in offering services to our customers, and we are determined to continue to do so in the future.

On May 16, 1997, Chequamegon Communications became a long distance competitor by offering Chequamegon Long Distance (CLD) to all subscribers. Several small telephone companies in northwestern Wisconsin agreed to pool their customers usage, thereby providing the same buying power of a large company. This gave the companies the ability to share in volume discount pricing. Chequamegon Communications now provides local connection for all of our customers long distance service, and provides a single point of contact for all telecommunications needs.

Our paging service was expanded by installing a transmitter in Duluth in August 1997 for coverage in the Duluth/Superior area. We also upgraded our base paging terminal in mid-October to offer a feature rich system such as voice mail, custom greeting, subscription packages, voice numeric, and alpha numeric pagers. Our paging boundaries encompass an area from Trego to the Duluth/Superior area, Port Wing, Bayfield, Ashland, Saxon, North Glidden area, Stone Lake, and all communities lying within these boundaries.

Many of our services, particularly internet, have really taken off in the Ashland area. In response to the large number of customers we serve in the Bay area, we opened a retail store at 1310 East Lakeshore Drive in Ashland on September 1, 1997. The store allows us the opportunity to become a part of the community while providing our customers with better accessibility of our staff and services.

Your Chequamegon Communications Cooperative has been pursuing contracts with both Ameritech and General Telephone, which when complete, will allow us to directly compete with them in providing local service to residents of Ashland, Bayfield, Hayward, Superior and Washburn. The contracts are referred to as interconnection agreements and are a reciprocal arrangement, meaning that those companies could then begin providing local service to our customers.

In September 1998, a Chequamegon Communications branch office was opened in Hayward. the store is located at 15861 West 3rd Street. This office will provide better customer service for our customers in the Hayward area.

Phase l of our Central Office conversion began in 1998. A building addition was made to the Central Office building in Iron River to accommodate the new Northern Telecom DMS 100 Central Office Switch and a new standby generator. Chequamegon Communications employees are also installing six Northern Telecom remotes in Brule, Cornucopia, Herbster, Maple, Port Wing, and Waino-Oulu. These switches will give our customers new class features such as call-waiting caller ID, ISDN 1 Meg Modem lines, voice mail, etc. Phase ll is scheduled for August 1999. This will include new central office equipment for Cable, Namakagon, Drummond, and Barnes. Phase lll will take place in 2000 with new equipment for Mason, Benoit, Grand View, Marengo, and La Pointe.

We have also completed our alternate toll route to connect Chequamegon Communications with Indianhead Telephone, and onto Eau Claire, WI. This alternate toll route is constructed of fiber optic cable, and the equipment is state-ofthe- art sonet based. This should eliminate the possibility of being isolated from the world so we can make long distance calls at all times, and will give us diversity by having two toll access routes to the world.

Brian Miller retired as General Manager on January 1, 2000, ending his 35 year career with the cooperative. David Carter, formerly the Assistant General Manager, succeeded Brian Miller as General Manager. Each year, your cooperative awards scholarships to area graduates who are attending a post secondary school. The total amount awarded is generally $5,000-$7,000, split between 10-15 recipients. The funds for these scholarships are generated by uncashed refund checks. Applicants must complete an application and submit a written essay for consideration.

In addition to providing telephone service, we sell, install and maintain alarm systems for homes and businesses throughout the region. We also provide personal pagers with the largest coverage area in Northwestern Wisconsin.