SDN Communications has 17 member companies covering more than 80 percent of South Dakota's geography and reaching into southwestern Minnesota, northwestern Iowa and North Dakota. Over the next few months, we'll introduce you to all of the companies. We started with Alliance Communications, Beresford Municipal Telephone Co., Interstate Telecommunications Cooperative, Northern Valley Communications / James Valley Telecommunications, Kennebec Telephone Co. and TrioTel Communications.
Next up is Santel Communications.
Headquarters: Woonsocket SD
Name of CEO/CM and years with company: Ryan Thompson, GM/CEO; 21 years
Other members of executive team: Mark Wilson, Network Operations Manager; Donna Spier, Accounting Manager; Pam Kopfmann, Customer Service Manager; Jordan Thuringer, Tech Solutions IT Operations Manager; Randy Northrup, Sales and Marketing Manager
Year formed: 1952
Number of employees: 30
Website: santel.coop and 990tech.com
History: Sanborn Telephone Cooperative was established in 1952, mostly through the hard work and determination of Raymond Judy, a World War II veteran who returned to his hometown of Forestburg after the war and led the effort to build a new telephone network to serve Sanborn County. Judy went on to become the telco’s first general manager, serving for 30 years until his retirement in 1985. In 2002, the company changed its name to Santel Communications to reflect the broadening array of telecom services it has introduced over the years, including high-speed fiber Internet, digital television and business solutions. By 2021 the entire service territory had been upgraded to 100% underground fiber optic based network.
Services offered: Residential: Fiber Internet, Phone and Television. Business: Hosted Business Phone, Managed IT, Fiber Internet, Local Television Advertising, Special Circuits and access.
Square miles in service area: 2,700
Counties in coverage area: Beadle, Jerald, Sanborn, Davison, Tripp, Hutchinson, Douglas, Minor, Yankton, Clay.
Expansion areas/current construction: ConnectSD funded & completed buildouts in rural Davison, Beadle Counties. Rural Clay and Yankton Counties will be connected by the end of 2025. In total, the grants will service to more than 2,200 homes.
Notable towns, cities in coverage area: Tripp, Parkston, Ethan, Mt Vernon, Letcher, Artesian, Forestburg, Woonsocket, Alpena, Wolsey.
Organizations/charities that Santel supports: Sleep in Heavenly Peace (local bed building events). Santel also supports seven area K12 schools and extracurricular activities now including broadcast & broadband video production distribution and Esports as well as 4H programming. Other programs: South Dakota Adopt-A-Highway sponsor, Big Friend Little Friend program.
Other interesting facts about company: In 1990, Santel joined forces with several other SD telco coops, rolling out cellular service to the region. Santel exited that business and spectrum to what is now Verizon Wireless operating in the same area. ... Also in 1990, Santel acquired local, fixed wireless TV provider Rural Television Network (RTN) that provided up to 23 channels (MTV, ESPN, CNN, etc) via fixed wireless to rural households. Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) was a new competing technology, then Santel discontinued TV operations, converted wireless spectrum use to fixed Internet and continued to operate until 2023.
