174 | Business World Magazine |
June 2013
vices Pioneer provides. Since 1953, the co-
operative’s services have evolved sufficiently
beyond landline to include: Cellular, Broad-
band networking, Security Systems, Direc-
tory publishing, Long Distance, DSL and
IPTV digital television. As services have ex-
panded, so too has the cooperative, indegrees
not only represented by customers served,
but through the opening of more than 29 re-
tail centers and the staffing of more than 550
employees, who manage all manner of opera-
tional aspects. Significant to all that growth
and the drive to satisfy customer needs was
a decision made more than 25 years ago, but
to put that story in proper context requires
a bit of explanation from Richard Ruhl, the
General Manager of Pioneer.
Ruhl harks back to those seemingly an-
cient-of-days when cellular phone service
was beginning to emerge throughout the
country – the era certain grey-hairs often re-
fer to as the 1980s. The rolling-out of those
services prompted the Federal Communica-
tions Commission to create a lottery system
in which providers would be awarded F.C.C.
service area Licenses, and some 320 of the
4GLTE Phase1 Launch
