Consolidated Telecommunications Company will hold its Annual Membership Meeting June 5, 2013 at the Crow Wing County Fairgrounds beginning at 11 a.m. 

Ballots for the election of directors will be mailed out shortly and should be returned by May 30, 2013. Candidates for directors include: 

• District 3, Mission, Outing – Stan Johnson
• District 4, Leader, Motley, Pillager, Staples – Mike Wetzel

 Following the Annual Membership Meeting, CTC will be holding our Community Picnic starting at noon. Families are welcome. 

Compliments of Twin Valley Telephone http://www.twinvalley.net/lcr/

THE ISSUE 

You might have experienced Least Cost Routing (LCR) if you have experienced any of the following:

• Someone tells you they tried to call you but your phone never rang.
• Someone tells you they tried to call you and the phone rang on their end, but didn’t ring on yours.
• A call came through but the quality was poor.
• A call came through but the Caller ID was incorrect.

THE PROBLEM

The problem starts with the carrier used by the person who makes the call, not your local telecommunications provider. The problem can only be resolved by the carrier of the person who makes the call.

Rural areas are more expensive for these large carriers to serve because of lower population density. Certain providers that route the long-distance calls do not wish to incur these higher charges so they either refuse to
transport calls on certain rural telephone companies’ networks or they route the call in a way to try minimizing the cost.

Diagram (Click to Enlarge)

In layman’s terms, the carrier of the person who makes the call is trying to the find the absolute least cost to get the call from point A, the caller, to point B, you. Think of it like a car driving across the nation taking only back country roads to avoid paying tollways to use interstate. The end result is less than satisfactory. The call might be very poor quality by the time it has taken all those “back roads,” or worse, not get to you at all.

This nationwide epidemic is negatively affecting rural businesses, public safety, and our relationship with our customers. In other words, we’re just as frustrated as you are! Rural carriers have complained to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and state agencies. The FCC has created a task force to investigate and address this issue, and rural telco advocates are encouraging swift and severe action against all the providers who are the center of the problem.

HELP US HELP YOU FIGHT LEAST COST ROUTING!

We are hopeful that these large nationwide providers involved in these issues and the FCC will act quickly to address these problems and tighten the restrictions against these carriers who utilize Least Cost Routing. As a company we are fighting this, but we need your help. Every voice counts, and our state and national legislators need to know the depth of the issues involved with Least Cost Routing.

• Complaint to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC):  Click this link to be taken to an online submission form that will be immediately submitted: FCC Complaint Form. You can also submit your form by calling 888-225-5322. For the FCC to take action on your complaint, you must provide the caller’s number, the called number, and the date the attempted calls or problem calls were made. If possible, you should also identify the long distance or wireless telephone service provider that serves the caller.

• HELPFUL LINKS
• Call Termination (Informational Flier)
• Rural Call Completion (Q&A)

CTC Board of Directors Elections

Consolidated Telecommunications Company (CTC) is accepting applications from members that are interested in joining the CTC Board of Directors for Director District 3- Mission, Outing and Director District 4 – Leader, Motley, Pillager, Staples.

Interested individuals must meet the following qualifications:

• Be a member in good standing and subscribe to CTC telephone service.
• Reside within District 3 or District 4 service territory.
• Have the skills, interest and time to devote to overseeing CTC business.
• Attend 12 monthly meetings, plus other industry assemblies and training.

Members of the CTC Board of Directors are responsible for representing the Cooperative membership and for developing strategies, policies and objectives for the Cooperative.   

Those interested in becoming a candidate for District 3 or 4 should contact our office at 218-454-1120 for an application.

Applications must be received by March 1, 2013.

CTC currently has an open position for a Central Office Technician. If you or someone you know is a qualified CO Technician and is interested in joining the CTC team, please send resumes to hr@ConnectCTC.com. For more details visithttp://connectctc.com/About_CTC/Careers.html.

We thank all our customers today for their patience while we worked through some service outages. We ran across some issues while performing some overnight maintenance. We’ll continue to monitor services. -CTC Technical Support

Each year CTC awards $500 scholarships to students in our service areas that are beginning their college careers. For more information and applications please visit: http://connectctc.com/About_CTC/scholarship.html

Also available are applications for scholarships from the Minnesota Telecom Alliance and the Foundation for Rural Service. 

Lakeland TV will be airing local debates next week on CTCTV channel 2 or in HD on channel 502. Here is a look at the dates and times. 

Monday, October 1st

7pm - Senate 5  Tom Saxhaug & John Carlson

8pm - House 5A  John Persell & Larry Howes

9pm - House 5B  Tom Anzelc & Carolyn McElfatrick 

Tuesday, October 2nd

7pm - Senate 2  Rod Skoe & Dennis Moser

8pm - House 2A  Roger Erickson & Dave Hancock

9pm - House 2B  Brita Sailer & Steve Green 

Thursday, October 4th

7pm – Senate 9  Al Doty & Paul Gazelka

9pm – House 9B  Adrian Welle & Ron Kresha 

Friday, October 5th

7pm - Senate 10  Taylor Stevenson & Carrie Ruud

8pm - House 10A  John Ward & Chris Kellett

9pm - House 10B  Joe Radinovich & Dale Lueck

CTC will be hosting a blood drive on October 12, 2012 from 10:00-3:00 at our Baxter location. If you would like to donate call us at 218-454-1234 and ask for Jennie. 

Every day more than 21,000 people receive blood from an American Red Cross donor. It’s the generosity of volunteer blood donors, like you, on which patients rely to get the lifesaving blood products they need.

• Blood is often needed by trauma victims, heart surgery patients, organ transplant patients, premature babies, and patients receiving treatment for leukemia, cancer or other illnesses. 

• All blood types are needed now.

Please consider donating, you could save a life.