ABOUT US
Fiber Internet Expansion Across Rural Montana
Northern Telephone Cooperative delivers essential and high‑speed telecommunications and broadband services to more than 1,100 homes and businesses across over 3,200 square miles of north‑central Montana (see map for our six exchange locations). Our construction teams are now executing an ambitious four‑year Fiber‑to‑the‑Home expansion, first replacing long, bandwidth‑constrained copper lines in rural areas and then upgrading the towns of Kevin and Sunburst. This strategic rollout ensures every customer—no matter how remote—will gain reliable, future‑proof fiber connectivity.
The goal of Northern Telephone’s aggressive fiber buildout is to ensure that everyone who lives and works within the company’s vast service area can reap the many social, educational, health care, entertainment and economic opportunities available on the Internet in this new information age.
Our History
Back in the early 1950s, local community leaders recognized that without taking matters into their own hands, the area now served by Northern Telephone Cooperative would be left without phone service. Due to demographic and other factors commercial phone companies found this area uneconomic to serve.
Those community leaders rolled up their sleeves and formed Northern Telephone in 1952, and the company became a cooperative in 1954. The leaders that created Northern Telephone Cooperative hired engineers, construction workers, and technicians and built a telephone network that today serves customers across more than 3,000 square miles of north central Montana.
Now, more than 60 years later, despite the revolutionary changes in technology that have occurred, without Northern Telephone, those who live and work in this beautiful, but sparsely populated area would still have little or no telephone service, or access to the ever-growing list of valuable on-line Internet services.
Our Staff
Office Personnel
- Aimee Dietrich – GM/CFO
- Micah Van Gilder – Senior Accountant
- Hailee Tighe – Member Services Representative
Plant Personnel
- Justin Gallup – Plant Network Engineer
- John Johannsen – Combination Tech III
- Andy Ryan – Combination Tech II
- James Smith – Building Maintenance
Directors
- Hank Coolidge – President
- Kenny Luther – Vice President
- Lynnette Gliko – Secretary/Treasurer
- Kirby Lohr
- Jeremiah Johnson
Need Help?
If you’re not finding what you’re looking for, feel free to reach out and one of our member representatives can help assist you.