MLGC: Making Connections for over a Century

Page 03: Who We Are Page 04: Meet The Team Page 06: MLGC Timeline (1906 - Present) Page 09: The State of Fiber Page 11: Rural Broadband Deployment

MAKING CONNECTIONS For over a Century

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MLGC has been delivering cutting-edge communication technology to rural North Dakotans for more than 116 years.

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MLGC:

Family-owned and locally operated since 1906 MLGC has been delivering cuttingedge communication technology to rural North Dakotans for more than 116 years. What began with a single switchboard and a hand-cranked, wall-mounted telephone has evolved into a 100 percent fiber optic network powering some of the fastest speeds not just in North Dakota, but in the nation.

So, how did we get here?

From Copper to Fiber MLGC was founded in 1906 when Moore & Liberty Telephone and Griggs County Telephone Companies were established in the communities of Enderlin and Cooperstown, respectively.

For our first 90 years of operation, MLGC’s primary focus was expanding telephone service to rural communities. Each time someone told us that it could not be done, that homes in North Dakota were too few and far between, we proved

them wrong. From party lines to touch tone dialing, our predecessors worked tirelessly to keep up with the evolving industry, ensuring that North Dakotans had access to the same adequate, affordable communications technology as the rest of the nation.

of Dakota Carrier Network (DCN) and our relationship with the Broadband Association of North Dakota (BAND), we have been able to leverage our relationships with other rural providers and build the most robust fiber network in the nation.

Our work began as an effort to connect small family farms to one another. As technology has evolved, so have we— connecting rural communities first to the rest of the state, then to the nation, and now, to the world.

MLGC’s first four generations have been powered by collaboration, innovation, and good, old-fashioned hard work. As long as we remain true to these values, the possibilities for the next four generations are endless.

Near the turn of the millennium, we turned our attention from voice traffic to moving data. In 1996, MLGC announced the launch of dial-up internet. We spent the better part of two years utilizing our existing infrastructure of telephone lines to introduce consumer internet to our communities.

In 2009, we began the long process of converting all customers in our service territory from copper wire to fiber optic internet. Today, we have more than 1,200 miles of fiber in the ground, providing television, internet, and phone services to more than a dozen communities. Our existing service territory is covered by a seamless, 100 percent fiber optic network, enabling speeds up to 5 gig—for now.

MLGC Board of Directors

Tyler Kilde President

A Formula For the Future MLGC has dedicated the past century to providing cuttingedge technology to communities across North Dakota, and we are not slowing down anytime soon. Our current priorities are improving our infrastructure to allow everincreasing speeds and expanding into areas that do not currently have access to high-speed internet.

Over the past decade, our service territory has expanded to include communities such as Hatton and Leonard, ND. Most recently, in 2020, MLGC was awarded southern Cass County through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. We began dirt work in 2021, and are currently investing $10 million to bring broadband to unserved and underserved areas in this region.

And we have not done it alone; as a proud owner company

Dion Brown

Joyce Brown

Karalyn Burnside

Deidre Kilde

Vice President

Treasurer

Secretary

Asst Secretary

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MEET THE

TEAM

Joyce Brown

Shelie Bunn

29 years of service

23 years of service

HR Manager

Business Manager

Loren Briss

Operations Manager 21 years of service

Bradley Bunn

Rudolph Fischer

Jill Baarstad

18 years of service

25 years of service

11 years of service

Plant Manager Enderlin

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Our story began in 1906 when both Moore & Liberty Telephone and Griggs County Telephone Companies were established in the rural communities of Enderlin and Cooperstown, ND. With both companies merging in 2012, now known as MLGC, we are a fourth-generation, FAMILY owned Rural Local Exchange Carrier (RLEC) which started with a switchboard and a telephone hanging on the wall that was cranked by hand.

Plant Manager Cooperstown

Billing & Customer Care Manager, Marketing

In an era of exploding technology, our goal is to continue to deliver FUTURE technologies that make our rural communities in North Dakota vibrant places in which to live and do business, with a skilled and experienced TEAM who live in the same communities we serve.

We are your LOCAL provider who prides itself on its unmatched customer service with a ‘small-town’ touch.

Tyler Kilde

Christopher Ebens

19 years of service

2 years of service

General Manager

Tim Lerud

Office ManagerCooperstown <1 years of service

Network Manager

Dion Brown

Combination Tech 16 years of service

Larry Muth Construction 50 years of service

Martin Briss

Network Customer Support, Security Sales 26 years of service

Megan Schlecht

Administrative Assistant, Customer Service Representative

Wanda Myers

Customer Service Representative 9 years of service

Joel Ueland

Eric Swenson

7 years of service

6 years of service

Combination Tech

Combination Tech

Jared Ness

Rick Glarum

Robert Christensen

Clay Briss

1 years of service

1 years of service

<1 years of service

<1 years of service

Combination Tech

Combination Tech

Combination Tech

CombinationTech

1 years of service

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2022 – MLGC signs deal with Ciena on 400G transport.

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1986 – Transport fiber deployment begins. Around 1990, Joyce begins working at Moore & Liberty Telephone Co.

2021 – MLGC brought fiber-optic service to Golden Lake and Leonard, ND, in addition to bringing fiber to the entire city of Kindred and surrounding rural areas.

1988 – Red River Cellular partnership with Verizon is created.

2021 – MLGC pioneered streaming TV service in North Dakota. Customers began converting in January, but most conversions happened in Q3 and Q4 2021.

1910

1976 – Gordon Brown retired, and Ray Brown assumed the manager position for Moore & Liberty Telephone Company. Ray married Joyce in 1977.

1994 – Griggs County Telephone acquired the Finley telephone exchange from US West Communications. Moore & Liberty purchased the Sheldon telephone exchange. The purchases were approved in 1995.

1973 – Construction began for the Binford & McHenry exchange buildings. Each was completed in 1974. Direct Distance Dialing usage began, allowing customers to make long distance calls without an operator.

1996 – Partners with DCN to become a member owner. In partnership with 14 other rural providers, DCN is created to provide connectivity to schools, courthouses, libraries, etc.

2020 – MLGC participates in the RDOF auction to bring broadband to rural areas. Southern Cass County is awarded to MLGC. Dirt work to begin in 2021.

July 2020 – MLGC mourns the loss of owner and true pioneer in rural telecommunications, Ray Brown.

1919 – McHenry Telephone Company was secured and rebuilt by Griggs County Telephone Company. The first lead cable was buried in this telephone system.

1997 – Moore & Liberty upgraded to a Mitel Switch improving voicemail and caller ID. Throughout 1996 and 1997, dial-up internet is announced and installed.

2020 – Despite a difficult year fighting through the COVID-19 pandemic, MLGC crews worked hard to bring the best services available and begin offering 5 Gigabit internet speeds. Installations for residents in Amber Plains and Round Hill (South Fargo) were completed.

2020

2022 – Tyler Kilde, General Manager, received a personal invitation to visit the White House. President Biden and Vice President Harris recognized MLGC along with 19 other Internet Service Providers at the White House for stepping up to offer a no-cost, high-speed broadband service to households in financial need.

Early 1980’s – The Enderlin City Council grants MIDA Bond to Moore & Liberty Telephone Company, allowing for improvements to the telephone system and technical facilities. Work was also being done on the new Moore & Liberty office – set to open in 1983.

1980

1984 – Moore & Liberty Telephone changeover was completed on October 8, 1994. Replacing the switchboard from 1948, the state-of-the-art switchboard technology meant customers would be assigned their own telephone numbers. The Enderlin prefix (437) was established.

1985 – North Dakota Legislature authorized the development of an “emergency services communications system”.

1908 – A property was acquired for a telephone building in Binford. Many lines were sold to farmers’ groups and switched by the company during World War 1. These lines would be purchased back about 60 years later.

1907 – Harold and Clara Brown began working at Griggs County Telephone.

Harold would become manager in 1913.

1990

1900

MLGC TIMELINE

April 1906 – Moore & Liberty Telephone Company was incorporated.

November 1906 – Griggs County Telephone Company was incorporated.

2012 – Moore & Liberty and Griggs County merged, dba MLGC. 2011 - 2015 – Fiber to the home is deployed to customers, starting with Enderlin & Sheldon, then Davenport and part of Kindred.

November 2001 – Started to roll out DSL service. August 2002 – First DSL install completed.

2011 – Digital Cable TV was added to offerings.

1940

2002 – MLGC, LLC is incorporated in November to provide TV services in Kindred and Northwood, ND.

November 1957 – By now, all Griggs County Telephone Company telephones were operating on a dial basis.

2004 – Started connecting exchanges. Construction on the Northwood building takes place in August 2004. Kindred building progress is made in October 2004.

2011 – Page office was completed and equipment was installed. Our four switches were upgraded to a softswitch allowing voice calls to travel over an IP connection.

1953 – Harold Brown died and his son, Gordon became President. During the 1950s the Broadband Association was formed (originally North Dakota Association of Telephone Cooperatives) to guard against unfavorable legislation, exchange information, and promote welfare of telephone companies.

October 2005 – Began plowing Finley to Enderlin and Northwood.

2006 – Started offering highspeed internet in Kindred and Northwood ND.

August 2011 – Cooperstown and Finley fiber to the home is installed.

Above are pictures of the Enderlin fiber to the home equipment installation which occurred around the same time.

2010 – Began tracking usage – over 45 TB today.

August 2010 – USDA awards MLGC with over $22 million in funding to upgrade to fiber.

1950

1965 – Switchboards were filled in Coopertown and McHenry. The existing aerial cables were replaced by underground cables, making most of the system underground.

1940 – Binford was cut over to dial service, followed by Cooperstown. The Brown family purchased the Moore & Liberty Telephone Company from shareholders.

2007 – A tornado hits the town of Northwood, creating catastrophic damage to the town and our satellite dishes.

It took several months and required an abundance of man hours and manpower to rebuild.

2010

2019 – MLGC sold the Northwood exchange to Polar Communications and upgrades to Calix 10G XGS PON equipment.

A large fiber build was completed to serve residents of Bison View Estates and South Fargo.

1998 – Moore & Liberty celebrates employee Doris Hansen for 60 years of service.

Doris began as a telephone operator in 1938 and retired soon after celebrating 60 years.

2000

1998 – Joined NDLD original founders with 9 other ND companies and cooperatives to offer customers a new choice for long distance services.

1930 – Through stock purchases, the Browns became owners of Griggs County Telephone Company with Clara as the manager.

1960

1970 – An effort to rebuild our system began in Cooperstown where a new switchboard was installed in 1972 with seven-digit dialing.

1930

1928 – The stock market crash caused very little activity to take place in the telephone industry. Efforts were put toward removing telephones and regrading to party lines.

1970

1920

1927 & 1928 – In Cooperstown, the major telephone lines were laid underground in cable.

2009 – Tyler Kilde became General Manager of MLGC.

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FIBER TERRITORY

Our Communities: Binford Cooperstown Davenport

McHenry

Glenfield

Jessie Binford

Sharon Finley

Enderlin Finley Glenfield

Golden Lake Jessie Kindred

Leonard McHenry Sharon

Sheldon Amber Plains/ Round Hill

Golden Lake

Cooperstown

Fargo

Enderlin

Davenport

Amber Plains/ Round Hill

Leonard Kindred Sheldon

McHenry

Glenfield

Jessie Binford

Sharon Finley

Golden Lake

Cooperstown

1909 BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM

Fargo

Enderlin

Davenport

Amber Plains/ Round Hill

Leonard Kindred Sheldon

MLGC Territory MLGC’s Fiber Optic Backbone |8 8MLGC | MLGC

The State of

Fiber

Since 1906, MLGC has been committed to bringing state-of-the-art technology to communities across eastern North Dakota. We’ve laid more than 1,200 miles of fiber optic cable across our region, empowering North Dakotans with Internet that is faster, more reliable, and more secure than ever before.

• City Only: Davenport & Leonard • Outlying Developments: Golden Lake (Rural Finley), Amber Plains/Round Hill (South Fargo), Bison View Estates (Rural Kindred), Evergreen Lane (Rural Kindred), Woodlawn Drive (Rural Kindred), Red Willow (Rural Cooperstown), St. Benedict (Rural Horace) We are continuing to deploy fiber in rural Kindred, Horace, Leonard, Mapleton, Davenport, South Fargo, and West Fargo. And we’re not stopping there; we promise to continue expanding our network and improving our technology to bring as many North Dakotans as possible the best Internet in America.

MLGC is dedicated to expanding our services to areas that have been previously underserved.

The fiber communities currently within our service territory are: • City and Rural: Binford, Cooperstown, Enderlin, Finley, Glenfield, Jessie, McHenry, Sharon, Sheldon, Kindred

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MLGC has placed more than 1,200 miles of fiber cable in the ground, reaching approximately 3,000 customers.

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Rural Broadband

Deployment When MLGC was founded in 1906, we made a commitment to provide rural North Dakotans with the technology they needed to stay connected. Over the past 116 years, we have worked tirelessly to extend that technology- from copper wire to now future-proof fiber-to more people in more communities.

At last count, MLGC had placed more than 1,200 miles of fiber cable in the ground, reaching approximately 3,000 customers. But our work is far from done.

While many MLGC customers can now connect at speeds

communities are limited by fixed wireless, with internet

exceeding 5 Gbps, North Dakota has identified 7,500

speeds topping out at 50 Mbps.

homes across the state that still do not have access to even 1 Gbps service. This is an unacceptable disparity, especially

By 2026, we intend to deploy fiber to approximately 800

in the most connected state in America, and MLGC is

businesses and households in these communities, with the

working to be part of the solution.

ability to offer up to 10 Gbps. Our goal is to bring these North Dakotans the affordable, ultra-high-speed internet

We are excited to announce that MLGC is investing

that our current customers use daily, along with the

approximately $18 million to bring broadband to unserved

support and service they have depended on from MLGC for

and underserved areas in southern Cass County as part of

the past 116 years.

our Broadband Rural Access Deployment project.

At MLGC, we believe that all North Dakotans deserve The areas we are targeting with this deployment lie south

access to the same high-speed, reliable, and affordable

of Interstate 94—a region that, until now, broadband

internet, regardless of where they live. We are proud to do

providers have deemed too rural (and therefore too

the work that others will not, connecting the communities

expensive) to serve. Today, most residents of these

of southern Cass County and beyond.

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A Message from the General Manager Here in the upper Midwest, we are surrounded by stories of family farms: a few hundred acres and a love of the land passed down from parents to children across centuries. I have so much respect for these families, because as the President and General Manager of MLGC, I understand the time, work, and dedication it takes to build and maintain a family business.

Since 1906, MLGC has provided rural communities across North Dakota the technology they need to stay connected. We’ve been doing this work for over 116 years. That time can feel like an eternity, especially considering how drastically the technology we use has changed. However, as we began to work on this written history of MLGC, I realized just how little time has actually passed since our story began. I was preceded in this role by my father-in-law, Ray Brown, whose grandfather started this business just two generations prior.

look toward the future. Only by honoring the men and women who have worked so hard to get us where we are today, by celebrating their successes and learning from their frustrations, can we continue to grow and evolve for many generations to come.

I believe that MLGC’s success over the past century can be attributed to one thing: how deeply we care for each other and the communities we serve. We have done an excellent job of hiring teammates who share our commitment to providing cutting-edge technology and unmatched customer service at a fair price—who are willing to make the investments and take the risks required to stay ahead in this industry, and who know that it is not just about getting the job done, but about doing it right.

This is how we have been able to evolve from a switchboard and a hand-cranked telephone to operating one of the fastest fiber optic networks not just in North Dakota, but in the nation.

Just like the family farms that have fed this region for hundreds of years, MLGC has been built, grown, and passed down by four generations of hard-working, passionate individuals. I can only hope that my son will be the fifth, but until then, I am proud to share the story of MLGC with you.

Thank you,

That’s why I wanted to share our story with you.

As a fourth-generation, family-owned company, it is important for us to reflect on the past even as we

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Tyler Kilde President and General Manager, MLGC