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Industry: Telecommunications

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  1. Severe weather reminds businesses to practice response plans
    When disaster strikes, communication is everything. If emergency responders and healthcare facilities can’t communicate, lives are at risk. If companies can’t communicate with customers, business is threatened. The list goes on.
  2. More than an intern, at SDN, I was a valued member of the team
    As a student studying at South Dakota State University, we were bombarded with encouragement to attend job/internship fairs the day we stepped on campus. I never understood why I should attend as a freshman who barely has his life together, until now.
  3. Reaping what he sowed: Mark Shlanta’s name lives on at new Technology Park
    Mark knew little to nothing about farming, but when he spearheaded the company’s effort to buy a farmstead just northwest of Sioux Falls and transform it into a data center and future technology park, he got involved in every detail of the acreage.
  4. Former long-time SDN Board President Bryan Roth loses fight with cancer
    Long-time SDN Board President Bryan Roth died on Labor Day after battling cancer for years. As the general manager of TrioTel Communications in Salem, he served on the SDN board for 19 years and helped shepherd the company’s remarkable growth.
  5. SDN mourns loss of board member Rod Bowar of Kennebec
    SDN Communications and its Member Companies mourn the loss of long-time board member Rod Bowar, owner of Kennebec Telephone Company.
  6. Digging into Silver City - ReConnect gets under way
    Crews have broken ground on the first of two major projects to lay 85 miles of fiber in the Black Hills, bringing connectivity along Highway 385 from Hill City to Lead/Deadwood and three communities like never before.
  7. Who needs 3 satellites when you have ReConnect?
    Even with the three satellites and a cell booster, making a cell phone call in Silver City is inconsistent. It makes running businesses challenging to say the least. Luckily, things are about to get easier thanks to ReConnect.
  8. Internet is coming to Sioux Falls’ neighboring communities
    Alliance was awarded a little more than $6 million to expand its broadband fiber network farther into the southern Canton area. The expansion will bring consistent, high-speed internet services to the Larsons for the first time since they bought their acreage 10 years ago.
  9. Amber Hopper’s relationship building approach benefits SDN customers
    Fostering relationships has been key to Amber Hopper’s personal life and career, whether on the court or over the phone. She built a career that started in athletics and pivoted to telecommunications - an unusual transition that will become clear in this article.
  10. SDN Communications' membership elects three new industry leaders
    SDN Communications’ member/owners elected board leadership, including three new leaders to the board of managers.
  11. Heather Kranz leads TrioTel’s 100% fiber network into the future
    As a staff member at TrioTel Communications, Heather Kranz saw major transformations over the past 21 years, from digital television options to fiber. The challenges of adapting to ongoing change are what keep Kranz engaged in the industry, especially in her new role as CEO/General Manager of TrioTel Communications, Inc.
  12. SDN names expanding data center site 'Mark Shlanta Technology Park'
    How does a business show appreciation to its visionary? In the case of SDN Communications, its data center site northwest of Sioux Falls will be named the Mark Shlanta Technology Park in honor of its late, long-serving CEO. SDN Board of Managers President Denny Law, who also leads SDN Member Company Golden West Telecommunications of Wall made the announcement Wednesday evening at an industry dinner.
  13. From digging ditches, to vice president of sales; Meet Ryan Dutton
    Ryan Dutton, SDN Communications’ newly promoted Vice President of Sales learned the industry from the ground up, literally. Dutton spent his high school summers digging ditches for Bevcomm, a rural independent broadband provider based in Blue Earth, Minnesota.
  14. Mark Shlanta to be inducted into South Dakota Hall of Fame
    We’re proud to announce that Mark Shlanta, former SDN Communications Chief Executive Officer, will be inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame (SDHoF) this fall.
  15. Meet Ryan Punt, our new CEO
    Ryan Punt didn’t always dream of a career in telecommunications. The Stickney High School grad studied accounting his freshman year of college, at the urging of his parents. But it was the mid-1990s, and this thing called the internet was exploding around the world.
  16. Fiber, fiber and more fiber in 2022
    SDN Communications' teams have plenty of projects on their plate for 2022. The fiber footprint is growing more than ever before and the SDN Data Center is doubling in size - all in an effort to support and deliver UPTIME to customers and member companies.
  17. Former SDN CEO, board president bonded over advancing broadband, living with cancer
    Starting 23 years ago, two young men working to advance South Dakota broadband services met for breakfast before every SDN Communications board meeting. Newly hired SDN CEO Mark Shlanta and newly elected SDN Board President Bryan Roth found value in the face-to-face meetings to drive success for the young company.
  18. Ten lessons I learned from my boss, Mark Shlanta
    The recent passing of our visionary and former, long-serving CEO Mark Shlanta casts a dark shadow over our office. But as we try to find our bearings in his passing, Vernon Brown shares the more personal leadership gifts he provided.
  19. SDN mourns loss of former CEO Mark Shlanta
    SDN’s employees and Member Companies mourn the loss of its former, long-time visionary Chief Executive Officer Mark Shlanta. He died February 23, 2022, just more than a week after his 57th birthday and following a two-year battle with cancer.
  20. Rural telecommunication companies future-proof SD
    The independent broadband companies of South Dakota have made huge strides in delivering fiber internet services across the state. In fact, 93% of South Dakota homes, businesses and farms served by rural telecommunication companies are connected by high-speed fiber,