PGTC Takes Fiber to the Farm

Rugged west Washington County’s hills and hollers are alive with more than chickens these days.

Prairie Grove Telephone Co. launched a $20 million network conversion campaign in 1994 that’s taken broadband connectivity to Arkansas’ back roads. Rick Reed, PGTC’s vice president and general manager, said by 2003’s end the firm had spent a total of $32.7 million on the initiative. That included the planting of fiber lines and acquiring switching, data transmission and digital subscriber line (DSL) equipment.

DSL can transmit voice and data over the same pair of wires at different frequencies, allowing more overall volume.

PGTC’s territory covers 400 square miles from Natural Dam in Crawford County, up the Arkansas Highway 59 corridor to Arkansas Highway 16. Prairie Grove, with 2,540 people, is one of the larger towns in the firm’s coverage area.

There are pockets DSL hasn’t even reached in Fayetteville. But by golly, they’ve got fiber connectivity in Evansville, Morrow, Strickler and Dutch Mills. And some of those area’s didn’t even have telephone service until the late 1980s.

PGTC was spending big even when the 99-year-old company saw its revenue grow less than 1 percent last year to $6.69 million. Reed said the reason PGTC has gone to all the trouble of stretching fiber to the farm is simple: Customers want it.

“We’ve always been a progressive company,” Reed said. “It has always been the business philosophy of the Parks family, which still owns the company, to stay on the cutting edge. They are always willing to invest money to provide the best service.”

PGTC, with 38 employees, is owned by the Parks family’s holding company, DD&B Inc. That firm also owns PG Telco Satellite TV and Allcom.

With 8,168 customers in Arkansas, PGTC is the state’s second largest family-owned telecommunications firm. Those customers use 9,700 different lines.

PGTC has about 1,000 DSL customers, up 54 percent from 650 a year ago. Reed said that segment is being driven by customers who want to play video games online or the older generation that wants to share pictures of grandchildren.

“The next big thing will be streaming computer video, where you come home and want to order an episode of ‘NYPD Blue’ from last night,” Reed said. “Our access [phone] line growth has leveled off, but we’re putting in a lot of new plants to service new subdivisions.

“We’re lucky to have level growth. The big firms like Bell are losing access lines at a rapid rate.”

Reed, who’s also president of the Arkansas Telecommunications Association, said graduated funding from sources such as the as the Arkansas and the Federal Universal Service Funds make rural initiatives possible.

Some of PGTC’s biggest commercial accounts include the Prairie Grove, Lincoln and Farmington School Districts, plus Latco Inc. and Arvest Bank-Prairie Grove.

Greg Reed, president of Arvest Bank-Prairie Grove and the PGTC executive’s brother, said it’s the communication company’s commitment to reach rural Arkansas that makes it stand out.

Arvest has it own internal phone system, but the Prairie Grove location leases T-1 lines from PGTC.

“As far as their service, it’s exceptional,” Greg Reed said. “They never say it’s on your end or your problem. They’re ‘Johnny on the spot’ to take care of us. The Parks family has been very committed to this community for years, too, and most people don’t even know all they do for the community.”