ABOUT US
The Martin Telephone Line was put through Stanhope in 1893, giving the town telephone connections with the County Seat, Des Moines, and all neighboring towns. A switchboard was installed in 1902 which became known as the Jacobsen Line. The switchboard was operated by Frank R. Jenkins and his family until 1934. It was taken over by Melford Olson, who worked in the telephone business until 1946.
Up until 1946, there were 23 lines connected to the switchboard that served twelve separate companies. They were consolidated into one company in 1946, becoming the Cooperative Telephone Exchange.
In January 1958, dial telephones came to Stanhope. A block dial building was constructed to house the new dial equipment. The business office for the cooperative was moved to new office quarters in 1967, which is still being used today. The dial office was further updated to all private lines, with all telephone lines buried and all touch-tone telephones in 1969. The Cooperative Telephone Exchange was the first exchange in the United States to have all one-party buried lines and push button phones.
Kamrar became part of the exchange in March 1969. A dial building was constructed in Kamrar to house the equipment.
In December 1972, direct dialing came to the Stanhope and Kamrar area.
In January 1985, a DMS 10 digital multiplex system 10 was installed in both Kamrar and Stanhope offices, giving the subscribers features like call waiting, call forwarding, three way calling, and speed calling. New dial buildings were built at that time.
In 1989, Internet was available to Stanhope and Kamrar customers.
In November 1993, the equipment at Kamrar and Stanhope was switched from the DMS 10 system to Mitel GX 5000. DSL Internet service was offered to customers in 2001.
In 2006, Cooperative Telephone Exchange replaced all buried cable with fiber optic cable. The switching equipment was replaced with class A 5 system to enable us for future technologies. Video services were deployed in September of 2009.