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The History of WestCarolinaTel:



As late as 1949, rural areas in Abbeville, McCormick and Anderson Counties had no telephone service except for two small local operations. In the fall of 1951, a group of local businessmen met to discuss the possibilities of forming a telephone company. The Rural Electrification Administration had a loan program to help make telephone service a reality in the rural parts of America. One of the REA requirements for the low interest loan was that there had to be some existing telephone property. In order to satisfy that requirement, West Carolina bought the Due West Telephone company in 1952 from Henry Bowie. The company had about 200 subscribers and had been in business for a number of years. Negotiations were made to acquire the rural lines of the South Carolina Continental Telephone Company in the McCormick area. Shortly thereafter the company bought the Starr-Iva Telephone Company, which had been owned and operated by the Thompson family since 1901. The owner, Lewis Thompson, agreed to become the General Manager and he guided the operations of the cooperative until his death in 1988. Dave Herron succeeded him as General Manager.

West Carolina Rural Telephone Cooperative, Inc. was formed in 1952. Since it's beginning, West Carolina Tel has not only met it’s basic goal of providing basic telephone service to the rural areas of Abbeville and McCormick counties, and the Starr and Iva areas of Anderson County, but has been able to provide the enhanced services others have come to expect in the more metropolitan areas of the United States. Our central offices have been fully digital since October of 1993 and by the end of 2001, nearly 500 miles of fiber optic cable will have been deployed. A major component of this deployment has been installing a fiber optic ring that will "self heal" if there is a cut in the fiber and re-route your call through one of our other offices. Calling Features have been available for some time now and Caller ID services have been available since October of 1995.

Your telephone company began providing local access to the Internet in May of 1995. By dialing either 391-INET (4638) or 348-INET (4638) you will have full access to the Internet. We are obviously proud of this in that we are one of the first Rural Telephone Cooperatives to provide this level of access to its subscribers. West Carolina was also one of the first rural telephone companies to provide high speed DSL Internet access in November of 2000. High bandwidth data services are proving to be the communications technology of the future.

When it was cost prohibitive for West Carolina Tel to accomplish a goal on it's own; we have been able to partner with others in order to be able to reach that goal. A good example is how we were able to prepare for the future and obtain a license to provide wireless digital phone service to the Major Trading Area which includes all of South and North Carolina. Thirty five Rural Telephone Companies partnered with BELLSOUTH WIRELESS , DUKENET COMMUNICATIONS AND CAROLINA POWER AND LIGHT in order to bid on the MTA license at an auction which was conducted by the Federal Communications Commission. Once again, we were able to ensure our subscribers will have access to the same technological advantages as citizens in metropolitan areas. We have a strong relationship with our school systems and are involved in the deployment of distance learning centers for the local Technical College.

We at West Carolina Tel aren't through either. As new service become available and our customers request additional capabilities, we will be working to provide them. One current example of this is central office based voice mail. This digital service can replace all those worn out tape driven answering machines out there at an affordable monthly charge. It can even notify you when you have a message automatically. West Carolina Tel began offering paging service to the area in 1998.


In 1999, West Carolina Communications LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of West Carolina Rural Telephone Cooperative, Inc. was formed offering competitively priced, non-complicated long distance service. Doing business as West Carolina Long Distance, service has been expanded to include calling cards and 800 service.

Being a cooperative, our member/subscribers are the owners. These members, through their elected Board of Directors, ensure they are getting the absolute best value for their dollar. If, through wise and careful management, there are profits made over and above those funds required for annual expenses and anticipated capital expenditures, the members can expect those dollars to be returned to them in the form of capital credit checks.

West Carolina Tel was here for you yesterday, it is here today and will be here tomorrow providing the best quality communications services available, at the most affordable price possible