PTCI United States
Panhandle Telephone Cooperative, Inc. has come a long way since its inception in the early 1950s when a representative of the Rural Electrification Administration in Washington, D.C. met in the Beaver County Farm Bureau facilities with some 35 individuals who were intent upon acquiring telephone service for themselves and their neighbors.

Delegates from Beaver, Cimarron, Ellis, Harper, Texas, and Woodward counties were present at the many meetings which followed. Many obstacles had to be overcome, including getting a statute passed that would permit telephone cooperatives to operate in the State of Oklahoma.

The original board of trustees consisted of Carlyle Brown, Carl Cline, W.A.Colvin, W.M. Deck, Royce Mires, Marion Peters, and Wesley Sanders, who were all members of the original group of individuals who helped form the cooperative. The first manager was Earl Alden, who retired in 1959 due to ill health.

In 1956, the cooperative acquired its first REA loan in the amount of $515,000 for improvement of service to 506 subscribers, including 266 new members. Two years later, the cooperative cut over service to its first four exchanges: Adams, Balko/Bryans Corner, Floris, and Tyrone, with about 600 subscribers.
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