Representatives from diversiCOM Melrose Telephone Company and dozens of other rural Minnesota telephone companies visited the state capitol in Saint Paul last week. There they urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would bring the state telecommunications regulation in line with the competitive marketplace that Minnesota’s rural telephone companies are facing. “The laws that diversiCOM Melrose Telephone Company are operating under were created for an era when we did not have the technology we have today, nor the competition that exists today,” said COO Dean Mohs. As a result of the investments made by diversiCOM and dozens of other rural telephone companies in the state, rural Minnesota is well-connected with high-speed internet access. A just-released survey by the National Exchange Carrier Association ranked Minnesota sixth nationwide in the number of customers of small rural telephone companies with access to Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) service. “In order for us to be able to continue to provide these types of state-of-the-art services and meet our competition, we need to update our state’s regulations to acknowledge the world that we are in today,” Mohs suggested. Among the services that could be provided are expanded calling areas that can be custom designed to meet the needs of individual rural communities.
