Focus Broadband (stylized as FOCUS Broadband), formerly Atlantic Telephone Membership Corporation (ATMC), is a member-owned, non-profit

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

that provides telecommunications services in southeastern

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. It is the largest member-owned cooperative in North Carolina and one of the largest in the United States.

History

ATMC was founded in 1955 by citizens of Brunswick County who were without

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

service and was the tenth such cooperative organized in North Carolina. Using a $381,000 loan from the

Rural Electrification Administration The United States Rural Utilities Service (RUS) administers programs that provide infrastructure or infrastructure improvements to rural communities. These include water and waste treatment, electric power, and telecommunications services. it is ...

, many rural sections of the county received modern phone service for the first time. It added cable television service in the 1980s, becoming the first co-op in the state to provide TV to its members, and Internet in the 1990s. After receiving an

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

grant, it expanded into parts of

Columbus County Columbus County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina, on its southeastern border. Its county seat is Whiteville. The 2020 census showed a loss of 12.9% of the population from that of 2010. As of the 2020 census, the popula ...

in 2011; in 2019, the company obtained a new $25 million grant to lay fiber-optic cables to connect rural areas of that County. In December 2021, ATMC announced it would change its name to Focus Broadband, reflecting a new emphasis on broadband as its primary service offering.

References

External links

* Telecommunications companies of the United States Cooperatives based in North Carolina Telephone cooperatives in the United States Cable television companies of the United States American companies established in 1955 Telecommunications companies established in 1955 1955 establishments in North Carolina {{NorthCarolina-stub