Alliance plays technology leadership role.

History

Alliance Communications has been a leader in bringing new communications technology to the midwest. It all began in the early 1900s when residents shared one telephone, usually located at the lumberyard or drug store, with everyone else in town. Bare iron wires carried those first conversations. Static and interference were unbearable, and linemen often traveled by horseback to fix service problems.

Party lines

Party lines then became the norm, and operators manually plugged in calls on eight, 10, up to 24 party lines. Service drastically improved in the 1960s and 1970s after the telephone systems were converted to dial and one-party service. Later, the systems were upgraded to digital.

Growth years

Alliance Communications officially formed after Baltic Telecom and Splitrock Telecom merged in 2003. Before the merger, both companies expanded by purchasing exchanges from US West in the 1990s. Baltic Telecom, which served Baltic and Crooks, purchased the Alcester and Hudson exchanges. And Splitrock Telecom of Brandon and Garretson bought the Carthage, Howard, Ramona and Oldham exchanges. Alliance expanded even more when it became the sole owner of Hills Telephone Company in 2003 and the Valley Springs exchange in 2005.

Elite fiber-optic infrastructure

In 2005, Alliance Communications began an aggressive multi-million dollar plan to bring fiber-optic technology to every customer, even those living in rural areas. All Alliance customers will be connected to fiber optics by the end of 2013.

Today, Alliance Communications is large enough to provide its customers with elite fiber-optic products, but small enough to offer personal service.