During May of 1945, a citizen’s meeting was held and was proposed that a Cooperative be formed. A Board of Directors was elected and Articles of Incorporation were drawn up and explained at a July meeting. The new Association was to be named Rockwell Cooperative Telephone Association. The Cooperative purchased the assets of Farmers Telephone Company, which included Rockwell and Dougherty, on October 1, 1945. Shares were issued at $10.00 per common stock and remain at that price today.
In December of 1958, Aredale Cooperative Telephone Association voted to sell their exchange to Rockwell Cooperative Telephone Association. Bristow later joined RCTA in 1965.
During the Annual Meeting of 1966, the stockholders were informed that the first patronage dividends would be allocated and refunded to members in 1967. Since that time, substantial dividends have been paid yearly.
In 1968, the Rockwell and Dougherty exchanges were converted to one party service. Construction of all buried plant was begun. By the end of 1970, the entire aerial plant was retired and had been replaced with buried cable.
In October of 1971, the Aredale exchange was converted to all private lines.
New touch tone phones were installed in all four exchanges to all subscribers in 1980 and 1981. Wiring and jacks were all updated and repaired at that time.
Early in 1988, RCTA joined with other Iowa Independent Companies to establish a fiber optic company, Iowa Network Services, Inc. to carry toll through the entire state.
Equal Access and E-911 services were both initiated in 1989.
In December of 2004, RCTA began selling i Wireless cellular service and a cell tower was placed in Rockwell. In 2005 a cell tower was built in Sheffield and plans continue for other towers in our area.
