Eastern Slope Rural Technologies

Eastern Slope continued to provide state of the art services to its customers by offering Class features (call waiting, call forwarding, etc.) in 1996 and voice messaging capabilities in 1997. Equal Access to long distance carriers was offered in 1999. Director Lynn Fisher (Genoa) retired with 33 years of service in 2009. Also that year, Patricia L... . White became the 9th General Manager of ESRTA and began implementing plans to rejuvenate its aging telecommunications plant. As traditional legacy switching was being phased out, the digital host switches in Bennett and Hugo were replaced in 2012 with VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) capable soft switches. Director Rod MacLennan (Bennett) retired in 2013 with 37 years of service. With the rapidly changing landscape in telecommunications, it became apparent that the demand for new data services, including high speed internet access, was placing burdens on the existing telecommunications network. Starting with the Bennett and Hugo exchanges, ESRTA made the commitment to place fiber optics and electronics to enhance the availability of DSL to all ESRTA subscribers. In 2010, Eastern Slope applied for an $18.7 Million traditional loan from the USDA-RUS to complete the upgrade in the remaining 8 exchanges. The loan was approved and funds were released in 2012. In 2015, the upgrade will be complete, making high speed internet availability a reality for all Eastern Slope members. Seeing the need to market unregulated services, Eastern Slope Technologies, LLC was formed in 2014. This new entity is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eastern Slope Rural Telephone Association, Inc.Read More