Dakota Telecommunications Selects Lucent to Build Telecommunications Networks of the Future
[Another interesting coincidence. Doesn't ASND have an ATM/FR/RA contract with Dakota?]
PR Newswire - August 18, 1998 07:42
MURRAY HILL, N.J., Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Dakota
Telecommunications Group (DTG), an independent telecommunications
company based in South Dakota, today announced it has selected
Lucent Technologies to build new fiber optic communications networks
in the upper Midwest. The contract is valued at $100 million over five
years.
DTG's new networks will provide people in rural communities across
several states with access to advanced telecommunications services,
including a full array of advanced voice, data, and video services.
Services available through DTG's networks will include local telephone,
long-distance, operator services, Internet access, computer networking,
cable television, high-speed data transfer, telemedicine and distance
learning.
"Our mission is to link people within the four basic communities of
interest: business, education, government and medicine," said Tom
Hertz, CEO and chairman of DTG. "Combining Lucent's networking
expertise with DTG's operating experience and customer focus will
enable us to build communication systems that will provide customers in
rural areas and smaller communities with telecommunications services
that are now available only in America's largest cities. Out here, people
can choose a rural lifestyle, and still have equality of opportunity."
Lucent will supply DTG with 5ESS(TM) AnyMedia switches, the
industry's most reliable, according to a recent analysis of data from the
Federal Communications Commission. Lucent will also provide local
access equipment along with SONET equipment and fiber optic cabling.
"DTG's plan is to build networks from scratch so they can offer their
customers the most advanced telecommunications services available.
We're delighted they chose Lucent to help them build not only their
network, but their business," said George Cozzolino, vice president,
Independent Telephone Company sales for Lucent. "We have the
experience and the expertise, through Bell Labs, to design networks of
any size, with the flexibility necessary to serve consumers in any area and
to generate revenue quickly."
DTG's development efforts have expanded significantly over the past
year. "The need for new networks and the services they make possible
is high in our region," said Craig Anderson, president and chief financial
officer of DTG. "We have revised our plans to include the many
additional communities that have asked us to extend our facilities to their
area. The demand is strong, and we are currently the only company that
has developed the systems to satisfy these smaller markets."
In 1997, the company completed competitive facilities in four South
Dakota communities: Tea, Harrisburg, Viborg and Centerville. DTG
recently received franchises from Luverne and Marshall, Minnesota, and
Canton, South Dakota, and has franchise applications pending in
Yankton, Vermillion, North Sioux City, and Elk Point in South Dakota
and in Pipestone, St. James and Worthington, Minnesota.
Hertz describes DTG as "a 96-year-old start-up company." Two years
ago, the business had 6,500 customers and 35 employees; today it has
more than 30,000 customers and about 175 employees. DTG has
offices in Irene, Sioux Falls, Viborg, Rapid City and Yankton, South
Dakota, and Marshall, Minn. The company traces its history to the
Hurley, S.D., Telephone Company in 1902. In 1997, DTG became the
first cooperative telephone company in America to convert to a public
corporation. Currently, DTG is the only telephone company that has
commercially deployed, facilities-based competition for local dial tone
anywhere in South Dakota. For more information on DTG, visit the
company's web site at dtg.com.
Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., designs, builds
and delivers a wide range of public and private networks,
communications systems and software, data networking systems,
business telephone systems, and microelectronic components. Bell Labs
is the research and development arm of the company. For more
information on Lucent Technologies, visit the company's web site at
lucent.com.
SOURCE Lucent Technologies
/CONTACT: Vhonda Miller of DTG, 605-263-3301,
vhonda.miller@dtg.com; or
Paula Horii of Lucent Technologies, office, 908-582-5522, home,
908-301-0344,
phorii@lucent.com/
/Web site: lucent.com
/Web site: dtg.com
(LU)
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