Coop Background

History of Heart of Iowa

On February 19, 1958, the South Hardin Rural Telephone Cooperative was established with 800 members. A loan from REA for $427,000, was received for 200 miles of cable, switching equipment and dial buildings to provide eight party dial service in Union and New Providence.

The following exchanges were added to the cooperative: Albion, Liscomb, Green Mountain, Haverhill, Ferguson. The company had 100% buried outside plant facilites and was completely digital in the spring of 1986. The name of the Cooperative was changed to Heart of Iowa Telephone Cooperative in 1971, to reflect the expanded service area.

Today, Heart of Iowa Telephone Cooperative proudly serves 2000+ subscribers in four counties. Heart of Iowa was one of the founding companies of Iowa Network Services and through this relationship, was one of the first companies to offer centralized equal access to subscribers. In 1991 fiber optic cable was installed to allow one central office host to process the inter-exchange and toll service. In 1992, through a joint venture with three other telephone companies, Heart of Iowa established a toll network that links directly to Iowa Network Services. Currently, we are in the construction phase of providing fiber to the curb and a video conferencing center.

History of Cooperatives

In 1844, over 150 years ago, 28 workers in northern England formed the first successful cooperative. They were weavers, shoemakers, cabinetmakers, tailors, printers, hatters and engineers. They called themselves the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society, after the community they lived in, Rochdale, England. Today there are over 47,000 cooperatives in the United States and they serve 120 million people from coast to coast.

The oldest telephone cooperative operating today is Garden Valley Telephone Company of Ersking, Minnesota, which was chartered in 1912 and has 12,000 member/owners. Like Heart of Iowa Telephone and other independent and cooperative companies, it was established in a rural area that larger, privately-owned companies were not willing to serve. Many rural communities remained without telephone service for years. But, in 1949, the federal government recognized the need for a national telephone system, and authorized the REA to extend financing to rural telephone companies.

By the early 1950's , the nation had over 6,000 independent telephone companies. Many independents and cooperatives found it would be more economical to merge. Today, Iowa has 150 independent and cooperative telephone companies, the largest in the nation.

In 1958, Union Cooperative Telephone Company and New Providence Cooperative Telephone Company joined to form South Hardin Rural Telephone Cooperative. In 1971, the name of the Cooperative was changed to Heart of Iowa Telephone Cooperative to reflect the addition of Albion, Liscomb, and Green Mountain. Today, Heart of Iowa Telephone Cooperative is one of 260 rural telephone cooperatives that serve 1.2 million people in 31 states. And believe it or not, today's rural Americans are using some of the most sophisticated communication tools available anywhere in the world.

Rural telephone cooperatives have introduced new technology far more aggressively than the giant regional Bell companies. Today, the nation's non-Bell systems, including the cooperatives, have converted 92 percent of their central offices to digital equipment (Heart of Iowa Telephone's are 100 percent digital); some Bell companies have only converted half. For that reason most rural cooperatives can offer Advanced Calling Services such as Caller ID, Personal Ringing, Customer Originated Trace, and many other services.

From a simple idea over 150 years ago, cooperatives have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have what really matters in business; staying power.