Rural phone woes persist in Minnesota, across the country

Rural telephone connection problems continue to plague remote communities in Minnesota and across the country. A national test of 2,150 rural calls in 2011 showed that 344 never reached their destination and another 172 were “unacceptably delayed or of poor quality,” according to the Federal Communications Commission. Critics claim that some cut-rate long distance routers moving calls in the middle of the nation’s telecommunications network simply do not connect rural calls to avoid expensive connection fees. No one is sure how many of these intermediate carriers exist because they don’t have to register with the government. They can set up operations simply by downloading free software on the Internet and filing a rate plan with phone companies.

“It’s outrageous to have fly-by-night carriers just dump the calls,” said Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who with Sen Jon Tester (D-MT) and Sen Jeff Merkley (D-OR), recently introduced legislation to try to fix rural call problems that she calls ­“literally devastating.” When health care, law enforcement and emergency personnel cannot reach each other or the public, the threats are obvious. But telecommunications breakdowns can upend rural businesses, too. “It almost bankrupted us,” said Roger Brazier, sales manager for Mattracks Inc., a 50-employee manufacturer in Karlstad (MN), 30 miles from the Canadian border. “People we talked to said, ‘Did you guys get bought out? You never answered your phone so I ended up buying from a competitor.’ ”

It happens in small communities all over the state, from Chokio (MN), where an insurance agent got angry e-mails from would-be customers who said they would not do business with him because they could not reach him by phone to Brainerd (MN), where a tire dealer plagued by failed calls made a symbolic point by slapping his local phone company with a bill for $50,000 in lost business. “In rural areas it costs more to deliver long distance calls [than in urban areas] so they just don’t put them through,” explained Brent Christensen, who heads the Minnesota Telecom Alliance, a group of rural phone service providers. “We’ve been dealing with this for years.”