Dakota Telecommunications Selects Lucent to Build Telecommunications
Networks of the Future
Lucent will supply DTG with 5ESS(TM) AnyMedia switches
August 19, 1998
MURRAY HILL, N.J., Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ via NewsEdge Corporation -- 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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