Pacific Telecom, Inc., originally Telephone Utilities, Inc. and now CenturyTel of the Northwest, Inc., was an independent telephone company that owned over 600,000 telephone lines in 12 states prior to its acquisition by

CenturyTel Lumen Technologies, Inc. (formerly CenturyLink) is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, that offers communications, network services, security, cloud solutions, voice, and managed services. The company is ...

History

PTI started as a holding company for Ilwaco Telephone and Telegraph. Norman Howerton sought to upgrade the telephone equipment that Ilwaco Telephone had been using. To build capital, he organized Telephone Utilities to attract investors and modernize his telephone network. As customers began to join IT&T, the company began to expand. In 1966, Telephone Utilities acquired its first company, Gem State Utilities of Idaho. By 1972, it acquired 22 companies that provided telephone service to 60,000 customers in four states. Telephone Utilities also began to consolidate management of its telephone operations into semi-autonomous districts to allow for greater efficiency. In 1973, Telephone Utilities was acquired by Pacific Power and Light Company of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. PP&L already owned telephone companies located in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

and

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

serving 40,000 customers through its Northwestern Telephone Systems. PP&L's existing telephone operations were placed under control of Telephone Utilities. It continued to grow and acquire small telephone companies and, in the process, upgrading switching facilities. Electronic switching was introduced in

Kalispell, Montana Kalispell (, Montana Salish: Ql̓ispé, Kutenai language: kqayaqawakⱡuʔnam) is a city in, and the county seat of, Flathead County, Montana, United States. The 2020 census put Kalispell's population at 24,558. In Montana's northwest region, ...

in 1975. In 1979, 14 separate telephone companies that Telephone Utilities acquired were merged into Telephone Utilities of Washington. In 1979, Pacific Power and Light acquired

Alascom Alascom, Inc., d/b/a AT&T Alaska, is an Alaskan telecommunications company; specifically, an interexchange carrier (IXC). AT&T Alascom is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. AT&T Alascom, previously known as Alascom and many other ...

from

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

. In 1982, Pacific Power and Light placed the two companies into one company called Pacific Telecom, Inc., headquartered in

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...

. Pacific Power and Light became

PacifiCorp PacifiCorp is an electric power company in the western United States. PacifiCorp has two business units: # Pacific Power, a regulated electric utility with service territory throughout Oregon, northern California, and southeastern Washington. # ...

. Throughout the 1980s, the company diversified into other fields, including cellular telephony, and then laid a Pacific cable to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Beginning in 1993,

U S WEST Communications Qwest Corporation is a former Regional Bell Operating Company owned by Lumen Technologies. It was formerly named U S WEST Communications, Inc. from 1991 to 2000, and also formerly named Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company from 1911 t ...

, a

Bell Operating Company The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hundre ...

, began selling some of its telephone lines to Pacific Telecom. In 1993, Pacific Telecom announced it would acquire 45 exchanges serving 50,000 telephone lines in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

from U S WEST. The deal closed in February 1995, becoming a part of PTI's Eagle Telecommunications division. Later that year, Pacific Telecom acquired U S WEST Communications telephone lines in Oregon and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, adding 36,000 telephone lines. The transaction closed in October 1995. The sale did not include telephone directories which continued to include PTI companies' listings that were formerly part of U S WEST. In 1995, Pacific Telecom sold

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

and became known as AT&T Alascom for $365 million.

Sale to CenturyTel

In 1997, PacifiCorp sold PTI to another largely rural carrier, Century Telephone. In 1998, the company's legal name was changed to CenturyTel of the Northwest, Inc. and all of PTI's subsidiaries' corporate names were changed to reflect CenturyTel ownership.

References

{{CenturyLink Lumen Technologies Companies based in Vancouver, Washington 1956 establishments in Texas Telecommunications companies established in 1955 Telecommunications companies of the United States American companies established in 1955