Founded: 1953
Address: 400 Pine St., La Motte, Iowa
Employees: 7
Phone: 563-773-2213
Online: lamotte-telco.com
LA MOTTE, Iowa – A wooden, cabinet-style switchboard full of plugs has given way to thousands of miles of underground fiber connections, but Lynn Sanders said a guiding principle has remained over the seven decades of service by a small, independent telephone company.
“Communication is our thing,” said Sanders, president of the board of directors of La Motte & Andrew Telephone Co.
The community’s original, wooden switchboard sits in the company’s office only a few feet from a climate-controlled room of routers and fiber cables that helps provide internet and phone service to more than 1,100 customers in northern Jackson County.
“The commitment to customer service and state-of-the-art technology is very important,” said Sanders, who has served on the company’s board since 1999 and spent about 20 years as board president.
The original switchboard remains a symbol of an earlier era of customer service.
“That (switchboard) ran the La Motte telephone system prior to 1953,” Sanders said. “It was located across the street (from the current telephone company) at Nemmers Store. They sold food items, sewing and laundry supplies and they had the post office in there.”
What the store didn’t provide was 24-hour telephone service.
“When the Nemmers girls went to bed at night, the phone (system) was turned off,” Sanders said.
A local veterinarian, Charles Bregman, set about improving La Motte’s telephone service.
“He convinced people that if La Motte was to grow and thrive, we needed better communication, and that meant a dial phone system,” Sanders said.
Bregman’s persistent convincing led to the establishment of La Motte Telephone Co. in 1953.
“When the company was formed, businesses in town had to (purchase) four shares of stock — that would have been (worth) $200,” Sanders said. “The in-town residents bought one share (each) and all of the farmers in the country bought at least four shares. Everybody helped. When the original phone lines were put in, and the line was being placed past your farm, you went out and helped dig holes and place poles and string wire.”
Sanders said small, independent telephone companies emerged in Iowa in places that were unattractive to larger communication companies.
“Where you have lots of farms, the population is dispersed,” he said. “The big (telephone) companies like concentrations (of customers) because it’s more efficient.”
La Motte Telephone Co.’s service area originally extended west to Zwingle and east to the Mississippi River so that it included St. Donatus.
“It also went north, to the northern part of Jackson County, where we meet Dubuque County,” Sanders said. “South, we went a little bit past Cottonville, to the Bellevue-Cascade Road.”
The company began expanding in its second decade of existence.
“In the 1960s, the La Motte company took over the Zwingle exchange,” Sanders said.
The company’s technology advanced by the end of the 1960s.
“Huge copper cables were laid throughout our franchise (area) and instead of (shared) party lines, everything went to a private line,” Sanders said. “That was a big leap forward.”
The company’s expansion continued in the 21st century when in 2011 it purchased Andrew Telephone Co.
“Andrew is a wholly owned subsidiary of La Motte (Telephone Co.),” Sanders said. “Since that time, to today, we have rebuilt the backbone of the whole system, including Andrew. We have put fiber everywhere. It’s a big endeavor.”
La Motte & Andrew Telephone Co. General Manager Mike Olsen has worked at the company for a little more than six years.
“Every month, something changes around here because in this industry, things change monthly,” Olsen said.
Plant Manager Rod Engler has worked for La Motte Telephone Co. for 20 years.
“When I started here it was a copper-based (company) and we were just starting dial-up (internet),” he said. “We progressed to DSL (digital subscriber line) and then the move to fiber was a total shift. We sell phone, TV and internet, and fiber lets you get all services to everyone.”
The federal government helps support the technology upgrades of small, rural telephone companies through loan and subsidy programs. The Rural Utility Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides rural telephone companies with loans at favorable rates so they can expand broadband services. The Federal Communications Commission provides subsidies to help fund communication infrastructure for people living in areas considered remote.
“We receive a substantial subsidy based on the fact that our (customers) are remotely located,” Sanders said.
The company’s fiber lines are underground and protected from the elements. They also are backed up in case an errant dig cuts a fiber, which are cables comprised of strands of glass as thin as a human hair. These cable bundles send pulses of light to transmit information.
“We have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on routers,” Sanders said. “So when someone cuts one of our fibers, we’re ready. The routers instantaneously switch the traffic.”
The company’s fiber is connected through a network.
“We have fiber that piggybacks though the fiber of other small, independent phone companies,” Sanders said. “Because of the little companies working together to provide these huge fiber rings, we have ensured our resiliency of service.”
Sanders said the company continues to progress with technology.
The company recently installed three electric vehicle chargers in La Motte.
“It appears to be the way of the future, and we need to move along with the times,” Sanders said.