Small Minnesota Telco Partners with Utility on Stimulus Project

Consolidated Telephone Company, a small telco serving rural Minnesota, recently experienced an unusual business opportunity. The company helped design and build -- and will help operate -- a fiber-to-the-home network located a four-hour drive away. CTC Marketing Manager Andy Isackson explained that the FTTH network belongs to Arrowhead Electric Cooperative, which serves people in another rural area of the state. Previously people in that area “had mostly dial-up and some spotty cellphone service,” Isackson said. Arrowhead Electric Cooperative won a broadband stimulus award to bring a FTTH network to about 4,000 homes in and around its service area.