The Complicated Life of a Rural Telco

Lakedale Telephone diversifies to battle satellite and cable competitors

Gene South, CEO, Lakedale Telephone, sees competition growing
For telecom executives looking to live the simple life by going to work in a rural area, Lakedale Telephone Company, based in Annandale, Minn., can tell them it ain’t gonna happen. For Lakedale, the only thing that’s simple is the experience it tries to bring its customers. And as anyone in the industry can attest, that’s the most complicated job of all.

For Lakedale, simplifying customers’ lives begins with offering them a single bill for what can be a complex set of services. Triple play is already old hat: Lakedale has been providing voice, Internet and video over its copper infrastructure for two and a half years, according to CEO Gene South, who is also board chairman of the United States Telecom Association. More recently, it has been going for the grand slam: adding wireless to the triple play mix.

It’s doing all this for a complicated reason: a complex mix of competitors coming at it from every direction. Although it won’t disclose subscriber numbers, Lakedale is an incumbent local carrier in six communities with a total population of about 16,000, and a competitive local carrier in one community of 20,000. And within that footprint, it has a lot of competition.

By: Robert Poe
America’s Network

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