Company History
Hamilton Telecommunications invites you to discover more about our growth, our commitment to service excellence and our dedication to delivering technological advancements for the past 120 years.
With roots beginning in 1901 as a local telephone cooperative serving Hamilton County, Nebraska, we have grown to encompass seven diverse company divisions that operate on a local, regional, and national basis.
History / Timeline
1901
Hamilton was incorporated as Hamilton County Farmers Telephone Association, a farmer’s cooperative. Calls were made by switchboard operators who worked out of their homes.
1908
The minute books of Hamilton County Farmers Telephone Association report 1,634 telephone subscribers.
1913
A new central office was built at 1109 K Street, Aurora. The cost was $4,500 to build.
1914
A Kellogg universal switch board of 600 drops, with capabilities of up to 1,200 drops, was shipped to Aurora.
1919
The first rotary-dial telephones are installed in Virginia.
1951
A vote at the 50th annual meeting changed the corporate name to Hamilton County Telephone Company.
1961
The beginning of the Nelson family ownership. Hamilton is purchased by Earl Nelson and Paul Dunlap with 1500 shares of stock valued at $70 a share.
1967
Cable television is made available through Mid-State Community TV in Aurora, Albion and Fullerton.
1976
In March of 1976, a winter storm wipes out the entire existing infrastructure of the Hamilton Telephone Company.
Late 1970’s
Hamilton installs its first data circuit connection that travels Interstate from Aurora to Hutchinson, Kansas. The speed of the data connection was 300 bits per second (Bps).
1981
Hamilton had 37 employees including Phil Nelson.
1981
A new digital switching system called the ITT 1210 is installed for telephone operations. The system was only the second one of its kind installed in the United States.
1983
Hamilton Telephone Company began an infrastructure upgrade from copper wire to Fiber to increase the availability, speed and reliability of communications. The first Fiber Sonet Ring was installed.
1985
The company completed its first self-healing fiber optic ring.
1986
Aurora Telemarketing, Inc. was founded. Hamilton’s involvement in diverse business lines, like ATI, was made possible by the deregulation of the telephone industry.
1991
Nebraska Relay Service began with 15 relay operators and two supervisor interpreters through its Hamilton Relay division founded the previous year in 1990.
1995
Due to the wide variety of Telecommunications services being offered by Hamilton Telephone Company, the Company changes its name to become Hamilton Telecommunications.
1997
Hamilton installs a Lucent 5ESS class 5 switch, the newest technology at its time.
1998
Hamilton opens a relay center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1998
Hamilton.net installs its first DSL subscriber line with speed available as fast as 768K or 768,000 bits per second.
1999
Hamilton opens a relay center in Wisconsin. Hamilton founds its Long Distance Division.
2001
Hamilton expands to Grand Island and North Platte, NE., and its Information Systems and Internet Service divisions are established.
2004
Hamilton began offering Captioned Telephone Service through Ultratec, Inc.
2006
Hamilton opens a relay center in Albany, Georgia
2007
Hamilton opens a relay center in Frostburg, Maryland.
2008
Hamilton opens a relay center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
2010
Hamilton forms a partnership with six other telecommunications companies to create NebraskaLink.
2011
Hamilton begins providing captioning services from its headquarters in Aurora, NE with 22 assistants, one trainer and one supervisor.
2011
Hamilton Telephone makes the change to 10-digit dialing due to the growing demand for more telephone numbers in the 402 area code.
2011
Hamilton offers residential DSL speeds as high as 30 Mbps, which is more than 100 thousand times as fast as the first data connection we sold in the late 1970’s.
2013
Hamilton expands data hosting capabilities with additional data center location in Doniphan, Nebraska.
2014
Utilizing a fiber ring and DSL infrastructure, Cobalt TV delivers a more robust television solution with more options for TV viewing than ever before. Oftentimes referred to as IPTV (Internet Protocol TV), Cobalt is among the first services in Nebraska to be offering this latest technology solution for TV.
2015
Hamilton Innovations, Inc. founded.
2015
Hamilton opens a Relay Center in Wichita, KS.
2016
Hamilton switch upgraded from Lucent 5ESS to MetaSwitch.
2017
New corporate building
2017
Launched NG911
2018
Opened Relay Center in Columbus, GA
2021
Hamilton acquires Nebraska Central Telephone Company expanding to include 21 new exchanges and 3,272 square miles of service area in Central Nebraska.