RTC opens new facility
RTC opens new facility
By Jerry W. Kram
Like the rest of Mountrail County, Reservation Telephone Cooperative is racing to keep up with the growing populations and other changes being brought about by the oil boom. The co-op has used this challenge as an opportunity to upgrade its network and offer new services to the communities it serves.
When the cooperative received federal stimulus funding to upgrade its service in New Town from copper wire to fiber optic cable, it faced a choice. The new cable would have to be physically connected to the rest of the world through an exchange. The cooperative had to decide whether to put that exchange in its old building in New Town or to build a new facility.
“We had to make a decision to remodel the existing building and bring our fiber cable for the entire community into that area,” said Royce Aslakson, general manger of RTC. “We could see that we were going to need something bigger. This building allows us to gather our fiber cable at a point outside the city proper. Our old central office is right across the street from the Farmers Union downtown. For us to bring all our fiber into that area would have been a real challenge.”
