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| The Citizens Mutual Telephone Company
Incorporated January 1, 1904 |
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Telephone service in Davis County began
with the Farmers Exchange. Formed in Bloomfield in 1897, this
exchange started with 50 subscribers and grew to 175 before the
end of the year. Later a second exchange was established and
entitled Steckle Exchange. The company steadily grew through
the early years of 1900s. In November of 1903 eight Davis County
farmers invested $101.78 each to purchase a small telephone exchange
from S.S. Standley, thus The Citizens Mutual Telephone Company
was founded. The Steckle and Farmers Exchanges soon dropped out
of existence.
The Citizens Mutual Telephone Company was incorporated January 1, 1904.
Charles D. Evans, a retired banker, drew up the Articles of Incorporation
and the By-Laws of the company. Representatives were elected to serve on
the Board of Directors.
The first telephone directory was issued in 1905 listing fewer than 200
telephone numbers with 394 subscribers. In 1908 the directory indicated
a growth to 550 subscribers.
To obtain the rights to become a shareholder of Citizens Mutual Telephone
Company and receive service one would have to do more than merely request
service. Farmers would have to form their own organization to build and
maintain lines to the city limits. Town residents would pay for lines to
be installed from their home to the “trunks” built by the company. All
subscribers would pay for a share of stock in the amount of $7.50 each.
The original operations of Citizens Mutual Telephone Company combined the
duties of manager, switchboard technician, installer, and repairman. Service
work was handled with a two wheel cart that was pulled by hand. Four operators
were each paid $13.00 per month to maintain the switchboard on a 24-hour
basis. All subscribers paid for a “drop” on the switchboard. A “drop” was
a metal piece that would drop when a receiver was picked up, thus signaling
the operator. The caller would return the drop to position by giving the
crank a twist after completing a call.
A lot of changes have evolved since the days of the crank telephone:
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| 1930 |
New switchboard was installed enabling the majority
of people in Davis County to receive telephone service |
| 1947 |
Lines were constructed into the country with the
cost shared between the company and the customers |
| 1955 |
Plans were initiated to construct a new dial operating
system |
| 1956 |
After much controversy, the dial program began |
| 1960 |
The first dial system was installed.
Operator service was no longer located in the Bloomfield office. |
| 1980 |
One of the most advanced telephone systems in
the United States was installed in the central office of Bloomfield.
The technological changes enabled touch tone service and custom
calling features to be available to all customers, and all customers
received private line service.
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| 1996-2004 |
New central office, survivable ring service, complete
outside plant redesign and implementation of a broadband network. |
The billing procedures have gone through many changes. The first record
of rates available was for $6.00 per year in 1912. The original billing
for toll calls were hand-written by the operators and given to the billing
department to be typed and mailed monthly. The monthly service charges
were mailed semi-annually. Bills were paid with coal and wood. The typed
method of billing was replaced with a punchcard billing machine. In 1978
a computerized system was installed. The computer network has since then
been changed out three times. Currently the Compaq system is in house
with a network of PCs used for processing most all of Citizen Mutual’s
business transactions from maintaining customers’ billing files to tracking
service orders and trouble calls; maintaining outside plant and mapping
data, in addition to accounting, capital credit records, and payroll;
toll billing and carrier access billing. Programming software is provided
and supported by Martin Group, Inc. from Mitchell, South Dakota.
We accepted the challenge to provide state of the art technology that would
enable our rural Iowa service area to receive the services that large scale
metropolitan areas are enjoying. After many years of research and preparation
the Spring of 1997 gave birth to our new central office switching equipment.
A state of the art Nortel DMS10 system was chosen due to its popularity
and reliability in the telecommunications world. Nortel provides excellent
support and maintains software updates to remain current with the rapidly
changing industry. Our subscribers can now receive in-house voice mail
services in addition to many new class services such as: calling name/number
delivery; automatic recall and redial; a selection of call forwarding options;
selective call acceptance and rejection; call blocking; etc. The source
of power feeding the switching equipment was engineered to provide uninterrupted
service in the event of an electrical power outage via the use of batteries
and a back up generator. Fiber optic technology connects our five remote
offices to our central office switching equipment in Bloomfield. Summer
of 2004 brought the final phase of a five year plan to construct fiber
in the loop which enabled all of our subscribers to have access to high
speed/broadband services.
The Citizens Mutual Telephone Company provides total equal access to long
distance services enabling our subscribers to receive their choice of long
distance provider. Citizens Mutual joined the long distance market offering
our subscribers Citizens Long Distance with very competitive rates.
In 1995 Citizens Mutual Telephone Company entered the wireless cellular
service with Cellcom. In 2003 Cellcom sold some of their service areas
to Midwest Wireless. At that time, the management team and board of directors
made the business decision to no longer participate in cellular service.
On June 10, 2004 at a voluntary election a majority vote was cast by the
stockholders to comply with the provisions of Iowa Code Chapter 499. This
change allowed Citizens Mutual to organize and operate as a modern cooperative
and to bring the Company’s organizational documents into compliance with
the cooperative principles embodied in Chapter 499. The name of the association
was changed from THE CITIZENS MUTUAL TELEPHONE COMPANY to CITIZENS MUTUAL
TELEPHONE COOPERATIVE.
Telephone service is provided to the five local exchange offices of Bloomfield,
Drakesville, Floris, Mark, and Pulaski consisting of nearly 450 square
miles with approximately 1000 route miles of buried cable. Citizens Mutual
Telephone Cooperative employs a labor force of nineteen employees with
a nine-member board of directors who are elected by the members. The Citizens
Mutual Telephone Cooperative will continue the promise to provide the most
efficient telecommunication services possible – We Measure Success One
Customer At A Time!
Over the last century many things have changed since “The Citizens Mutual
Telephone Company” was first incorporated. However one consistent theme
remains the same: a commitment to our customers. It is fitting the company’s
name that includes the “citizens” of the community that it serves, now
also includes the “cooperative” spirit by which service is provided to
our members. After one hundred years of operation, our company has crossed
the threshold into a second century of service with the new name of “Citizens
Mutual Telephone Cooperative”: new name, same commitment to customer service.
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| We're Striving to
Serve You Better! |
| Revised July 2004 |
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