Pacific Telecom
Company type | Private (Subsidiary of CenturyLink (1997-present) |
---|---|
Subsidiaries | CenturyTel of the Gem State CenturyTel of the Midwest-Kendall |
Pacific Telecom, Inc., originally Telephone Utilities, Inc. and now CenturyTel of the Northwest, Inc., was an independent telephone company that owned over 600,000 telephone lines in 12 states prior to its acquisition by
History
PTI started as a holding company for Ilwaco Telephone and Telegraph. Norman Howerton sought to upgrade the telephone equipment that Ilwaco Telephone had been using. To build capital, he organized Telephone Utilities to attract investors and modernize his telephone network.
As customers began to join IT&T, the company began to expand. In 1966, Telephone Utilities acquired its first company, Gem State Utilities of Idaho. By 1972, it acquired 22 companies that provided telephone service to 60,000 customers in four states. Telephone Utilities also began to consolidate management of its telephone operations into semi-autonomous districts to allow for greater efficiency.
In 1973, Telephone Utilities was acquired by Pacific Power and Light Company of Portland, Oregon. PP&L already owned telephone companies located in Montana and Oregon serving 40,000 customers through its Northwestern Telephone Systems. PP&L's existing telephone operations were placed under control of Telephone Utilities. It continued to grow and acquire small telephone companies and, in the process, upgrading switching facilities. Electronic switching was introduced in Kalispell, Montana in 1975. In 1979, 14 separate telephone companies that Telephone Utilities acquired were merged into Telephone Utilities of Washington.
In 1979, Pacific Power and Light acquired
Throughout the 1980s, the company diversified into other fields, including cellular telephony, and then laid a Pacific cable to Japan.
Beginning in 1993,
In 1995, Pacific Telecom sold
Sale to CenturyTel
In 1997, PacifiCorp sold PTI to another largely rural carrier,
References
- ^ Washington Secretary of State CenturyTel of the Northwest, Inc.
- PRnewswire. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
- ^ (1995-08-18). PURCHASE BY PACIFIC TELECOM GETS F.C.C. APPROVAL. The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
- ^ (1995-08-16). Pacific Telecom Wins OK to buy U S WEST facilities The Columbian. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
- ^ (1995-10-04). PTI ACQUIRES YACOLT-AREA PHONE LINES The Columbian. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
- ^ "COMPANY NEWS; AT&T to Acquire Alascom for $365 Million". Reuters. Retrieved 2018-04-26.