Pinnacle Telecom sells to Oklahoma City-based Dobson Fiber
by February 22, 2021 2:25 pm 2,327 views
Pinnacle Telecom, which began as a telephone company in Lavaca in 1941 and merged with Newroads Telecom in 2016, has sold to Oklahoma City-based Dobson Fiber. Terms of the deal, which closed Feb. 19, were not disclosed.
According to Dobson, the deal adds 4,500 fiber miles to the company’s network which also includes operations in Texas. The tri-state regional fiber-optic network provides high-speed internet, data and cloud connectivity, and voice-over-internet-telephone (VOIP) solutions. The company has around 125 employees.
“Our acquisition of Pinnacle complements our overall vision. This investment represents an important strategic opportunity that allows us to expand our geographic presence and continue our mission of building the most reliable and fastest fiber-optic network throughout the areas we serve,“ Everett Dobson, executive chairman of Dobson Fiber said in a statement.
Pinnacle Telecom has 48 employees and reported 2019 gross revenue of $3.544 million in 2019, the most recent revenue data available from the Arkansas Public Service Commission. The company had more than 7,150 access lines.
Dean Gibson, a vice president at Pinnacle Telecom, told Talk Business & Politics that Dobson wants to keep offices open in Arkansas and may add employees. He said Pinnacle operations in eastern Oklahoma overlapped with Dobson, and the Oklahoma City company wanted to expand in that area and east toward Fort Smith.
“They wanted to get in Arkansas and do some stuff moving eastward, so we seemed to be a good fit for them. it was just a good geographical fit,” Gibson said, adding that he believes Dobson wants to expand its newly-acquired eastern Arkansas footprint.
Gibson, who is also chairman of the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority Board of Directors, said Pinnacle customers will not see any changes in service.
Part of what Dobson will acquire is broadband expansion in the Ozark area. Pinnacle in September 2020 received a $1.909 million Arkansas Rural Connect contract to add broadband in and around the Franklin County city. The funds were from $25 million in federal funds Arkansas received to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.