Courtesy photo Michigan Broadband Services’ vehicles in Escanaba show that their team is ready to help new and existing customers in the local area.

EDITOR NOTE: The Daily Press will be featuring a series of articles on local businesses, highlighting their history and what makes them unique. The series will run on a regular basis in the Daily Press.

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ESCANABA — Providing connectivity and communication services to Michiganders has been the directive of one company and its forerunning iterations over the last century. Today, Michigan Broadband Services provides telephone, internet and television in a number of communities and continues to expand, with some projects recently completed and more soon to be announced.

In the early 20th century, The Wallace Telephone Company provided services to Upper Peninsula customers. Over time, Wallace acquired other telephone companies that laid the groundwork for telephone services from the far west end of the U.P. all the way to Drummond Island in the east, according to Phillip Truran, now the president of Michigan Broadband Services. 

66 years ago, it adopted a name still in use today.

Records from the State of Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs show that Wallace Telephone Company, based in Menominee County, changed its name to the Upper Peninsula Telephone Company in 1959.

Back in those days, when calls had to go through operators with switchboards, an exchange was where a central office housed connections and wires and ports where human operators would plug cords into ports corresponding with phones in different locations.

“Nowadays, we’ve got modern ways of doing it. There used to be copper cables that connected the exchanges. Those would be called trunk cables. But now, fiber optics connect the offices, and your voice call gets turned into a data stream that gets sent down to the next office over a light signal and then gets modulated back out into a voice conversation,” Truran explained.  “All exchanges get interconnected so that you can make phone calls across exchanges. …That’s why exchanges even exist today. It’s because that’s how the system was set up originally.”

According to a 1977 Daily Press article, Upper Peninsula Telephone was the first telephone company in Michigan to offer fully-automatic car telephone service, which began ten years prior in the Copper Country and Menominee County. In ’77, a third car system for Marquette County was being constructed at Michigamme Forest Exchange, the article stated.

When the internet grew in popularity, digital subscriber lines (DSL) became a faster alternative to dial-up by using existing phone lines to carry internet signals. It made sense for telephone providers to offer internet as well. Today, DSL is still common, but many companies have been rolling out fiber-optic cables to provide internet. 

In different areas, a single company may be either an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC), meaning it is the primary provider there, or a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC).

The better part of a decade ago, Upper Peninsula Telephone Company brought an exchange to Escanaba, where it is a CLEC. Most of the other territories it serves are rural, and there, the company is the ILEC.

A nationwide broadband company called LICT Corporation owned the local business, whose headquarters are now in Carney, until fairly recently. In September 2023, MachTen, Inc. — based in Traverse City — spun off and is now the holding company for Upper Peninsula Telephone Company, Michigan Central Broadband and Alpha Enterprises, all three of which collectively do business under the name Michigan Broadband Services.

“We’re in the process right now of building out fiber everywhere. We started our own construction company, and we have our own employees doing our own work… people that live and work in the communities they serve,” Truran said.  “(We’re) hiring local people to come put the fiber in, giving them W-2 jobs, good wages, benefits, 401K.”

He said they’re doing the best to work year-round and don’t lay people off in slower seasons.

In spring of 2024,  the company expanded with a launch of fiber-based broadband services in St. Ignace. The city at the bridge is, like Escanaba, a CLEC territory for them.

Across its coverage areas, Michigan Broadband serves a mix of residential and business customers. They offer internet, phone services, TV service, wi-fi and camera security. A variety of bundling options are available. Very soon, MBS Mobile is going to publicly launch; Truran said that employees are using the network currently to test it out.

Michigan Broadband Services is beginning a unique program for philanthropy. Rather than the company selecting a charity to donate to, they’re putting the choice in the hands of the customers. For 12 months, five percent of a customer’s bill may be put towards a charity of their choosing.

People interesting in starting service may visit michbbs.com to sign up online or call the main line at 906-639-5000. Residential customers may contact Jim LaFave at 906-295-8627.

Existing customers can refer friends to Michigan Broadband and receive a month off their bill each time.

Truran said the company is posed to make a big announcement possibly as soon as this week.