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Gardonville Cooperative Telephone Association

About Gardonville Coop Telephone Association

Gardonville Co-op Telephone provides service for 4 exchanges in west central Minnesota, serving the towns of Brandon, Erdahl, Evansville, Garfield, Leaf Valley, Melby and Millerville. Its main office is located in Brandon, MN.

Gardonville Co-op Telephone is a member-owned cooperative that pays capital credits to its members. For more detailed information about our cooperative status, read our membership information.

Gardonville Co-op Telephone is a cooperative telecommunication system that was formed in the early 1940’s by a group with a desire and understanding of how important telecommunications would be in the future. Gardonville was started primarily from the formation of consolidation of small farmer-owned rural line systems, which were consolidated at that time into offices in each town that it currently serves. Each system was served by individual operators and tied together with overhead wires. The first board was comprised mostly of directors from the local creamery systems. Most of the telephone lines in operation were party lines that consisted of several customers on one line. In 1973 a major upgrade took place, changing the rural party line to private line service. Since that time new cable has been plowed, again updating the system and new digital switching offices have been installed to provide the latest in technology to the members of Gardonville.

Gardonville’s mission is to provide state of the art telecommunication services to its members.

A few things you should know about Gardonville Co-op Telephone Association:

  1. Gardonville Co-op Telephone business office is located in Brandon, MN. Our office is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
  2. Cost of service:
    • Basic Installation Fee is $13.00 and up depending on services rendered
    • Monthly Service Pricing: Brandon $5.75; Evansville $6.00; Garfield $7.25; Millerville $6.00 - Plus federal and state mandated charges and taxes
    • Subsidized discounts are available to customers meeting certain low income criteria. Information concerning these plans are available from your Gardonville Co-op Telephone representative at 1 (888) 236.3574 or (320) 524.2211
    • Service Fee - $15.00 on all Returned Checks
    • Non-Payment Reconnect Fee - $13.00
  3. Gardonville Co-op Telephone Association offers a variety of Internet Services. For more information regarding Internet Services, please call us at 1 (888) 236.3574 or (320) 524.2211, or see our Internet Service information page!
  4. Gardonville Co-op Telephone has its own long distance service:
    • $0.14 per minute – Any time, Any day or Anywhere is USA
    • Volume discounts provide rates as low as $0.08 per minute
    • One bill for local and long distance services
    • 800 – 888 (Toll Free) service for Gardonville Long Distance customers
    • Travel Cards $0.25 per minute
  5. Because you belong to a Telephone Cooperative you get all of the following:
    • A local company staffed with local people – a neighbor you know and trust
    • A vote at the Annual Meeting in the election of your Board of Directors who make the decision on how YOUR COOPERATIVE is run
    • Lower rates and ever improving service because revenues generated are put back into the company
    • Net profits are returned to members through distribution of capital credits
    • A cooperative that is total Telecommunications Center – from local telephone service – to long distance – to the Internet. We’re here to serve YOU!

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