Watch for our 50th Anniversary Celebration in October!

A BRIEF  HISTORY OF
NCC



      From a one-room office in the Ray Co-op Credit Union building, to providing our members with a modern communications network, Northwest Communications Cooperative (NCC) has prospered in many areas since it was incorporated in 1951.

      In December of 1949, the first meeting was held in Williston to discuss forming a county-wide telephone system. An organizational meeting was held in Wildrose in July 1951, and Northwest Mutual Aid Telephone Corporation was born.   Elected to serve as the first directors at that organizational meeting were: Arthur Johnson, Ray, President; J. Agnes Lucy, Powers Lake, Secretary; Edwin Dordahl, Hanks; Harvey Jacobson, Crosby; Alvin Anderson, Epping; Olaf Opedahl, Tioga, and George Bourdeau, Columbus. Documents of incorporation were signed on October 19, 1951. The Cooperative's name was changed to Northwest Communications Cooperative at the annual meeting in Alamo in 1986.

      Since its inception, NCC has seen a change in both manager and Board president just three times. Art Johnson, first president of the Cooperative served in this capacity from 1951-1957. His successor, Wayne Johnson, held this position from 1957-1990. Arvin Larson is currently serving as President of the Board.

      Art Johnson was not only the first President, he was also the first manager of the Cooperative. Art managed the Cooperative from 1951 to 1953 and again from 1957 to 1986. Serving as manager from 1953 to 1957 was Orlando V. "Duke" Ellingson. Present manager, Kenneth Lund, Jr. , has served in this capacity since 1986.

      Dean Winkjer, formerly of Wildrose, became very involved in the telephone movement in 1949 and was NCC's legal counsel from the beginning until 1998.  Mark Stenehjem, Williston, currently serves as legal counsel.

      The headquarters building, which was built in 1966, served us well for 25 years but as your Communications Cooperative grew and prospered, so the office and employee work areas grew. Construction of the new office addition was started in September 1990 and completed June 1991.

      Between 1951 and 1957, telephone companies were purchased to make up the 13 original exchanges operated by NCC. In 1953, the Epping Telephone Company, the Wildrose Mutual Telephone Company, the Williams County Mutual Telephone Company, Ray, the Williams County Farmers Mutual Company, Williston, the Farmers Northwest Telephone Company, Williston, and the Tri-County Telephone Company, McGregor, were purchased. In 1954, the Columbus, Flaxton and Lignite exchanges were purchased from North Dakota Telephone Co. Purchased in 1955, the Larson Farmers Telephone Company, in 1956, the Grenora Telephone Company and the Bowbells Telephone Company, and in 1957, the Powers Lake Telephone Company. On June 1, 1996, the Crosby and Tioga exchanges were purchased from U S West.

      Between 1955 and 1960, all of the original 13 exchanges were converted to modern dial service. Between 1970 and 1975, all of these exchanges were converted from party lines to private line service.

      In 1981, NCC became the first telephone company in North Dakota to operate a Cable TV system.

      In 1985, NCC was the first telephone company in North Dakota to have an all digital switching and transmission network.

      In 1985, NCC became the first telephone company in North Dakota and the first REA borrower in the United States to operate a single mode fiber optic cable system.

      In 1990, NCC became the first telephone company in the United States to own and operate a Wireless Cable TV system.

      In 1996, NCC installed a Siemens EWSD digital switching system in all 15 exchanges. With this new digital switch, the latest up to date communications services, including ISDN, are available to northwest North Dakota.

      In 1997, NCC became an Internet Service Provider with 56k dial-up service. In 1999, ADSL was made available to most of the 15 exchanges, and in late 1999, wireless high-speed Internet was premiered in our area.

      In 2001, NCC purchased cable television systems in Crosby, Lignite, Columbus and Tioga from Mid Continent Cable, Inc.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            In 2001, NCC completed an OC-48 firber-optic ring infrastructure thereby expanding their data capacity.

E-mail: ncc@nccray.com