Horry Telephone Cooperative (HTC) is America's largest telephone cooperative[1][2] and the 25th largest telecommunications company in America[3]. The cooperative was incorporated on June 16, 1952 to serve the rural areas of Horry County, South Carolina where it was cost prohibitive for national telephone companies to provide service.
Product Offerings
Telephone (ILEC)
Since 1954, HTC has offered telephone service to the residents of Horry and Georgetown Counties in South Carolina. The cooperative first offered party line service and eventually transitioned its customers to private line service as facilities were upgraded. [3] Following the deregulation of AT&T, Horry Telephone Cooperative was awarded the status of incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC).
Long Distance
Because many of the beach areas were served by national providers such as GTE, Horry Telephone introduced Measured Extended area service (MEAS) in 1988 to reduce the cost of phone calls between the western portion of Horry County and the beach areas. This was expanded to include full long distance service under the name Horry Telephone Long Distance. National long distance service was first offered in 1992 by HTC Communications, Inc.
CLEC
In 1998, HTC Communications, Inc., received approval from the South Carolina Public Service Authority to offer local telephone service to additional areas of Horry and Georgetown Counties as a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC).
Cable TV
HTC Cablevision is the brand name of cable television service from HTC. Cable TV was added to menu to bring the service to the rural areas of Horry County where national firms would not provide service.[3] HTC Cablevision offers digital cable service, premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.) and pay-per-view service.
Internet
HTC offers both dial-up Internet service and HTC Netracer, broadband Internet service. HTC began offering local dial-up Internet in 1995. HTC Netracer is the name for both DSL and cable modem offerings depending on the customer's service area.[3]
Mobile Phone
Through a partnership with Cingular, now AT&T Mobility[1], HTC offers mobile phone service under the HTC Horizon brand. The cooperative began offering service in 1997. HTC Horizon also offers paging, though that technology is being phased out.
Fiber to the Home
HTC began the roll out of Fiber to the Home to customers in 2006[3] under the brand name HTC Bluewave. Fiber to the Home offers larger amounts of bandwidth which allows more cable TV channels and faster Internet to be delivered to the customer. Bluewave powered HTC Netracer offerings differ from the DSL and cable modem alternatives by offering symmetrical speeds for upload and download[4].
References
- ^ a b Google Finance Profile
- ^ HTC Corporate website
- ^ a b c d e HTC History
- ^ About HTC Bluewave
