About Western Iowa Networks
One Company.
Local Choice, Local Service
Breda Telephone Corporation ~ d.b.a. Western Iowa Networks (WIN) ~ is a leading communications company based in Breda, IA. We are one of western Iowa's largest independent telephone companies, and one of the areas most diverse service providers.
WIN services over 10,000 customers in 33+ communities in western and southern Iowa. Retail offices include a corporate headquarters building completed in 2002 located in Breda, IA, a remodeled Carroll, IA location along Highway 30, and a cellular kiosk in the Carroll Wal-Mart store. In addition to Breda, IA technicians, several technicians are based out of the southern Iowa office in Farragut.
WIN was founded in 1905 as Breda Telephone Company and today provides telephone, Internet, cellular, cable, and many complementary services to over thousands of businesses and families across western Iowa including the cities of Arcadia; Auburn; Bayard; Beaver Lake, NE; Breda; Carroll; Churdan; Farragut; Glidden; Grand Junction; Halbur; Hamburg; Jamaica; Lake View; Lanesboro; Lidderdale; Lohrville; Macedonia; Malvern; Neola; Oakland; Pacific Junction; Ralston; Riverton; Roselle; Shenandoah; Sidney; Thurman; Treymor; Westside; Willy; and Yale.
WIN has become a leading provider of telecommunication services by offering great customer service, a wide array of innovative services and products, and online tools to help customers communicate easier.
Our diverse selection of communications services includes: Local Telephone Service, Long Distance Service, Calling Features, Voicemail, Dial-Up Internet, DSL highspeed Internet, Web Page Hosting, Cable Services, Cellular Service, Paging Services, Teleconferencing, Wireless and Digital Phone Accessories, and more.
Complete History
| 1905 | The presidents of the Breda rural companies and the Breda Telephone Company got together and formed the Breda Switchboard Company. At that time, they voted that a switchboard be purchased and placed in Breda. By a majority of votes, P. Pelmnlder was chosen to serve as first operator at a salary of $35.00 per month. In 1905, there were 26 town subscribers and 14 rural lines. In this same year, a phone was placed in the Chicago N.W. depot and a phone booth was put in one of the business places where shareholders could come to use the phone free and non-shareholders had to pay 10 cents to use the phone. The switchboard was open for business and common conversations from 5 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. in summer and 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in winter. The length of a call was not to exceed 5 minutes. |
|---|---|
| 1907 | In July of 1907, the switchboard was moved to the home of Mr. And Mrs. C.A. Bruning where the switchboard was to remain for 33 years. |
| 1910 | The popularity of the telephone increased to such an extent that in 1910 a new switchboard was necessary and an American Bell type was installed. |
| 1920 | Another new switchboard was installed due to demand. In the early days of the exchange, all the ringing had to be done by hand. Being on a rural “party” line meant sharing the line with as many as 21 other subscribers. The installation of electric power made great improvements in the service and added to the convenience of the operators. Before the days of radio and daily newspaper, the telephone operator’s job included a daily reading of the market reports over a general line call. |
| 1940 | In 1940, the exchange had 138 town subscribers, 18 rural lines and four toll lines. In this same year the switchboard moved to the City Hall building and resided there until 1966 when the Breda Switchboard Company, The Breda Telephone Company and the Breda Farmers Coop joined together and formed the present company known as the Breda Telephone Corporation. |
| 1966 | The Breda Switchboard Company, the Breda Telephone Company and the Breda Farmers Coop. joined together and formed the present company known as Breda Telephone Corporation. |
| 1967 | The Breda Telephone Corp. built a new office and equipment building at 111 N. 1st Street in Breda. The new equipment provided touch-tone service; this was the first complete touch-tone company in the United States. All rural lines were buried at this time. |
| 1973 | The Lidderdale Telephone Coop. was dissolved and shares were purchased for them in the Breda Telephone Corp. All lines were buried and mobile telephone service was installed. |
| 1975 | The city lines in Breda were buried. The company purchased 100% of the stock in Praire Telephone Company in Yale. |
| 1978 | The Farragut and Pacific Junction telephone exchanges were purchased and service was upgraded from rotary dial and open wire to touch-tone and all buried lines. |
| 1983 | A new subsidiary called Tele-Services LTD. was formed to provide cable TV service in Breda. |
| 1985 | The company purchased the Macedonia telephone exchange and service was later upgraded to single party and touch-tone. |
| 1986-1990 | The company was able to become partners with other telephone companies and obtained licenses to provide cellular telephone service in the Southwest one-forth of Iowa including Des Moines. |
| 1990 | Tele-Services LTD purchased the TV assets of Communications Construction, Inc. Tele-Services began to provide TV service to Hamburg, Sidney, Farragut, Riverton, Thurman and Beaver Lake. |
| 1992 | The company purchased the rights to provide satellite TV service or Direct TV to nine counties in Iowa and Nebraska. These included: Carroll, Crawford, Sac, Ida and Fremont in Iowa and Otoe, Richardson, Nemaha and Cass in Nebraska. |
| 1993 | Tele-Services purchased the assets of Oak Cable Vision and began to provide TV service to an additional 9 communities. These are: Grand Junction, Bayard, Lohrville, Oakland, Neola, Treynor, Malvern, Tabor and Churdan. |
| 1995 | The company partnered with other telephone companies to form Alpine Communications. Alpine operates as a telephone company in Northeast Iowa serving 6500 customers around Elkador. |
| 1998 | Breda Telephone Corp. purchased 100% of the stock in Westside Independent Telephone Company and Westside Communications. These companies provide telephone service in Westside and TV service in Westside and Arcadia. The Auburn TV system was purchased from New Path Communications. |
| 1999 | The company sold substantially all of its assets of the satellite TV system to Golden Sky Systems. |
| 2000 | On April 6, 2000, Breda Telephone Corp. opened its first retail location in Carroll, Iowa. While all company services are sold at this location, it primarily functions as the retail outlet for U.S. Cellular services, cellular phones and accessories. Prairie Telephone Co., Inc. sold its interest in the cellular partnership that provided cellular services in the Des Moines, Iowa metropolitan area. |
| 2001 | The telemarketing subsidiary, Pacific Junction Telemarketing Center, Inc., discontinued its remaining operations in Breda, Iowa on July 26, 2001. In February 2001, the company started marketing its products and services under a new branding/logo, Western Iowa Networks (WIN). |
| 2002 | On August 1, 2002, Breda Telephone Corp.added a second retail location when it took over the management of the U.S. Cellular kiosk in the Carroll, Iowa Wal-Mart location. Breda's staff had doubled by this year, and a new office building was built and attached to the central office building in Breda, Iowa. The move to the new office occurred on September 13, 2002. On September 20, 2002, the office functions for Westside Independent Telephone Company were moved to the new headquarters building in Breda, Iowa. |
| 2003 | In January 2003, BTC, Inc., a subsidiary of Prairie Telephone Company, Inc. finalized the purchase of the old Carroll Post Office Building at 603 N. Adams in Carroll, Iowa. The renovation and remodeling work on this building was completed by early October 2003, and the retail and sales operations located at 526 N. Carroll were moved to this location at 603 N. Adams on October 4, 2003.
BTC, Inc. also became a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) in the Carroll, Iowa exchange area served by Qwest. BTC, Inc. began offering local dial tone, in addition to its high-speed and dial-up Internet services and its long distance services already offered in the Carroll exchange and surrounding areas. The CLEC operations became operational in October 2003. |
| 2005 | The year 2005 marked 100 years of service! Through all the changes over the past century, Western Iowa Networks has worked hard to keep its customers connected to the outside world. Two thousand five was also a big year in new services and business ventures. |
| Today | Go to our Newsletter for the latest information on our progress. |