West River Cooperative Telephone Company

Company Information
History of WRCTC
History of SD Plains
History of WestNet DSL
What is a Cooperative?
Employment Opportunities
Directors / Employees

History of West River Cooperative Telephone Company (WRCTC)

The first meeting to discuss organizing a telephone company was held on July 31, 1950 in Bison, South Dakota,
with the Grand Electric Board of Directors serving on the committee. The next couple of years were spent trying
to get area residents to sign up for the telephone service to make the system feasible. West River Cooperative Telephone Company (WRCTC) was officially organized on October 23, 1953 and was governed by a nine man
Board of Directors. In October 1957 bids were awarded for construction of a dial telephone system for Bison.

WRCTC purchased the Sorum Telephone Company in 1958. In 1972, Bison, the one original exchange was
split into three exchanges consisting of Bison, Meadow and Sorum. On April 7, 1975, WRCTC purchased
Buffalo and Camp Crook from US West. Digital central office switching was installed in Bison during the period
of 1985 to 1987. In 1987, the first fiber optic cable was installed from Bison to Buffalo.

In June, 1996, WRCTC purchased the Lemmon, Newell and Nisland Exchanges from US West. These
exchanges were operated by Stateline Telecommunications, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of WRCTC. Host/remote digital central office switching was installed in 1997-1998 in all West River and Stateline Exchanges.
The Bison Central Office switch now served as the host switch for the seven remote switches at Meadow, Sorum, Buffalo, Camp Crook, Lemmon, Newell and Nisland. Interexchange fiber optic cables were also installed in
1997-1998 to interconnect all West River and Stateline Exchanges and to connect to the South Dakota
Network (SDN) at Maurine.

Effective January 1, 2001, Stateline Telecommunications merged with West River Cooperative Telephone
Company. WRCTC serves approximately 3000 members consisting of approximately 4, 200 access lines.
WRCTC offers its members West River Long Distance service, SDPlains Internet service and WestNet DSL
(high speed internet).