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HISTORY
OF THE LOUISIANA TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION
Most independent telephone companies began as family organizations,
often including a few friends. The companies had their beginnings
in an effort to provide service where none existed, and Louisiana
was no exception. One company in Louisiana got its start by
running a wire to a remote oil well in the swamp, another
came when it was found necessary to keep men on irrigation
canals informed when to open and close flumes on rice fields,
but most were formed or an area was extended to give telephone
service to people where there was no telephone company to
give them service.
In 1947 there were 35 telephone companies; small ones, middle-size
ones, and bigger ones, all part of the telephone network.
It soon became apparent that the companies needed to form
an association for the good of their businesses and in order
to provide the telephone service the public had come to expect.
So in 1948 at a meeting held at the Bentley Hotel in Alexandria,
Louisiana, the Louisiana Telephone Association was chartered
and the first officers were:
President - John A. Brady, Sr.
First Vice-President - J. M. Nelson
Second Vice-President - J. E. Shultz
Treasurer/Secretary - Al M. Cobb
Today there are 20 telephone companies in Louisiana, of which
19 are classified as independent telephone companies, with
over 20,000 employees, providing telephone service for over
2,100,000 access lines. Out of these 2,100,000 access lines
in Louisiana, service for one out of every eleven is provided
by an independent, home-owned telephone company. All of these
employees and subscribers - along with all adult members of
their families - are Louisiana taxpayers and voters.
The lines and services of the independent companies are so
smoothly integrated with those of the Bell System that telephone
users are unaware of this combined, automatic service.
In the nation, telephone companies have been around before
1876, independent companies since 1890's, and contributed
innovations and improvements that all add up to America's
leadership in telephone service. To mention a few, independent
companies were first with the hand-set telephone, first with
dial phones, with pay stations, with microwave transmission,
direct distance dialing, rural lines, selective ringing and
countless technical improvements. Not a few of these innovations
now in use the world over were contributions of independent
telephone companies in Louisiana - the majority of which are
still home-owned companies.
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