BendBroadband is a
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
and internet provider in the U.S. state of
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 ...
. Based in
Bend, it serves
Central Oregon
Central Oregon is a geographic region in the U.S. state of Oregon and is traditionally considered to be made up of Deschutes, Jefferson, and Crook counties. Other definitions include larger areas, often encompassing areas to the north towards ...
and also owns several television stations and a
data center
A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommun ...
. As of September 2014, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of
Telephone and Data Systems, Inc.
YSE: TDS a Fortune 500 company.
History
The company was founded as Bend TV Cable in 1955.
Don Ries and Fred Hartman worked to start the company that started with three channels and charged $3.69 per month.
Donald Tykeson bought the company in 1983. In 1997, the company, then known as Bend Cable Communications Inc., started providing internet service.
It announced in 1998 it would expand its fiber optic network to
Redmond and
Sisters
A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...
. By 2004, the company had moved to the BendBroadband moniker, and that year introduced high-definition video-on-demand to its system utilizing technology from
nCUBE
nCUBE was a series of parallel computing computers from the company of the same name. Early generations of the hardware used a custom microprocessor. With its final generations of servers, nCUBE no longer designed custom microprocessors for mach ...
.
In 2009, the company started a wireless network to provide internet and telephone service, which was upgraded to
LTE in 2011.
BendBroadband opened a data center, the Vault, in 2011.
In February 2014, it sold off its LTE spectrum to
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 ...
.
[ The company sold itself to ]Telephone and Data Systems
Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. is a Chicago-based telecommunications
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in ...
(TDS) for $261 million in May 2014.
Operations
BendBroadband serves 36,000 cable customers, 22,000 landline customers, and 41,000 internet customers.KOHD
KOHD (channel 18) is a television station in Bend, Oregon, United States, serving as the American Broadcasting Company, ABC affiliate for Central Oregon. It is owned by local cable television, cable company BendBroadband alongside low-power broad ...
, and COTV11, plus an advertising division.[ which is now part of OneNeck IT Solutions, a TDS Company.
]
References
{{reflist, 30em
1955 establishments in Oregon
Companies based in Bend, Oregon
Telecommunications companies established in 1955
Cable television companies of the United States
Internet service providers of the United States