While not providing financial benefits yet for Park Region Telephone, Otter Tail Telcom is proving itself a significant help to the growth of its parent company.

Otter Tail Telcom will contribute to phenomenal growth for us in the year 2000, Park Region General Manager and CEO Paul Hoff said. When the fiber optic lines are complete in Fergus Falls this summer, it will add significantly to the services we can provide which will increase customer growth and satisfaction.

With fiber optic technology, park Region and Otter Tail Telcom will be able to provide digitized service to its customers, offering video through data lines and increased Internet access.

Based in Underwood, Park Region has served the Underwood, Ashby, Dalton, Maine, Erhard and Vining areas since 1906. Under federal and state regulations covering telecommunications, Park Region was required to form a subsidiary in order to compete for service with US West. Otter Tail Telcom was formed in April 1997; it began to offer services last spring in the Fergus Falls, Battle Lake and Henning areas.

Using numbers consolidated from Park Region and Otter Tail Telcom, Hoff reported at Park Region’s annual meeting on April 8 that Park Region has experienced a customer growth rate of 55% in the past year. Revenues were more than doubled from last year, coming in at more than $7.4 million. Park Region/Otter Tail Telcom also purchased an adjacent building to expand its Fergus Falls location. Otter Tail Telcom is not seeing a profit yet due to their high start-up costs. However, the increased customer base it provides has added greatly to Park Region’s revenue and customer growth rates.

Of that growth, 37% was due to Internet hook-ups, 50% to customer access lines (lines that provide telephone and/or Internet service) and 13% to other services, Hoff said.