A Telecom Co-op That’s Here for You

Creating meaningful connection and improving lives with darn-good communication services is what we do. With our deep commitment to you, and your Minnesota neighbors, we’re here to keep this region we serve strong.

Yet don’t let our up-north ‘Minnesota-nice’ modesty fool you. The fiber-to-the premise internet network we have designed is world-class and super-fast.  Fer-sure.

 

Fast Internet | Telephone
Television | Cellular
Business Communication
and so much more!

We’re Located in Central Minnesota, You Betcha

Gardonville provides service for four exchanges in west central Minnesota, servicing the towns of Garfield, Brandon, Evansville, Millerville, Erdahl, Leaf Valley and Melby. Our business office is in Brandon, Minnesota.

We also provide competitive services to the Alexandria, Minnesota area, and in conjunction with Minnesota and Federal grants have built fiber-optic networks in many previously under-served areas.  Use our service finder map to check your exact location.

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Full of Powerful Advantages for YOU

Your co-op’s technology network is world-class.  The cooperative business model makes it happen.

Profits are invested back into the network, instead of paying private owners.  And what is left over, is paid back to you—the member owner in cash-back dividends. It’s a win all around for members and the community.

Thank you, members, for your support, and if you’re not yet a part, we hope you will join us to continue this rural communication revolution.

The cooperative difference is technology investment, member ownership, and cash-back dividends.

History: Fence Posts to Fiber-Optics

Before the formation of Gardonville Cooperative Telephone Company, this very rural area first became connected through a patchwork of farmer-owned telephone lines strung mostly along fencing.  The need arose to more efficiently handle these systems together.

That’s when the idea for Gardonville Cooperative Telephone Association was formed.  In mid-1943, a group with a desire and understanding of how important telecommunications would be in the future, created the cooperative. The first cooperative board was comprised mostly of directors from the local creamery systems.

There were central offices in each town that we now service (see communities listed above) that connected all the farmer-owned lines. Each exchange system was served by individual, live operators and tied together with overhead wires, that ultimately connected to the rest of the country.

Most of the telephone lines in operation were party lines that consisted of several customers sharing one line. In 1973, a major upgrade took place, changing the rural party line to private line service.

Since that time the pace of change to new technology keeps increasing.  Over the life of your cooperative, we have gone from exposed wires using fence posts and telephone poles, to completely underground copper cables, finally to today’s glass fiber-optic cables that connect directly to each consumer.  Along with the changing lines has also been the transformation from analog to new digital switching and transport that the founders could only dream of.

 

Thank you for choosing Gardonville Cooperative Telephone Association!