The Rural Telephone Service Co. was incorporated on February 13, 1951. Western Kansas hasn't been the same since. Nor has Rural Telephone.

The ILEC still serves its communities in northwest Kansas, but the company is much more than that today. The CLEC business it started after the passage of the Telecom Act of 1996 has grown to become its primary business with the 15,000 access lines it has garnered as an overbuilder. In addition to its wide area directory business and its technology services and computer repair businesses, Rural Telephone became one of 26 owners of Kansas Cellular in 1990.

Much to the dismay of Rural Telephone, the majority of investors voted to sell the business to Alltel in 1999.

“Rural Telephone was one of the investors who did not want to sell,” said Jeff Wick, chief operating officer of Nex-Tech, the subsidiary that manages the CLEC and current wireless businesses. “And we have always wanted to get back into the business because when we envisioned the future, we knew cellular needed to be an integral part of our business.”

The Nex-Tech brand took hold, so when it was time to get back into the wireless business, the company partnered with a couple of other rural providers in Kansas to form Nex-Tech Wireless. Nex-Tech Wireless joined Golden Belt Telephone in Rush Center, Kan., and Mutual Telephone in Little River, Kan., as affiliates in the Sprint Rural Alliance (SRA) affiliate program (not to be confused with the affiliate program that caused Sprint so much trouble a few years ago).

The SRA provides affiliates with a national footprint and has a feature Sprint's other program lacked. “We own our own spectrum,” Wick said. “We own and operate our own network. We run our own billing systems. We run our own call centers.”

Nex-Tech explored the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) model, but with Alltel being the predominant operator in the area, it wasn't much of an option. “As an MVNO, you have one arm tied behind your back,” Wick said. “You can't add additional sites. We didn't see that as a long-term growth vehicle.”

Nex-Tech Wireless launched in October 2005. Depending on the county, it has between a 5% and 40% penetration rate. At a time when some rural providers are exiting the wireless business, Wick said he just couldn't see not being in it. “Like other telephone companies, we were losing access business to wireless,” he said. “So we would rather see a high percentage of that business going to a company we own.”

Wick said this isn't something you can do if you only have 10 or 20 sites. Nex-Tech is approaching 150 cell sites and commands much coverage along the I-70 corridor. And you can't do it with voice alone. “Quality voice is still the driver, but it was critical to have the capability for data,” he said.

Being part of the SRA provides Nex-Tech with that data capability. It also gives the operator the scale it couldn't otherwise have and access to Sprint's research and development.

His advice for operators considering a similar move? “You really need a relationship with a national carrier. You need an existing customer base and need to look to your neighbor ILECs for partnerships,” Wick said. “And do your homework. When you're talking this kind of money, don't take anything for granted.”