On November 6. 1915, a complaint was filed against the Onida Telephone Company for what was considered insufficient nighttime and Sunday telephone service.
In 1915, the use of the telephone changed life to the extent that customers expected and demanded more services. Even though the control points for many of those systems, and party-lines, might be from a switchboard installed in a local home.
Although telephone service had been available in parts of the state for almost 30 years, it would be almost another 75 years before cell phones arrive on the scene.
The State Historical Society publication “South Dakota Communicates” documents the following…
One of the earliest local phone systems was the Dakota Emner Telephone Company, later Dakota Central, headquartered in Aberdeen. German immigrant J.L. Zietlow established the company in 1886 and it flourished. And within a year and a half, Aberdeen had more telephones in service for a city its size, than any other place in the world.
The Golden West Telephone Company was created in 1916. Severe damage from an ice storm in 1937 eventually put it out of business. However the West River Electric Association started the Golden West Telephone Cooperative in 1952. The two companies eventually split to share service east and west river, but remain one of the largest independent telephone companies in the state.
South Dakota set up a Board of Telephone Commisioners in 1916 to regulate telephone rates but those responsibilities were shifted to the Board of Railroad Commisioners two years later. That board officially became the Public Utilities Commission in 1939 to regulate a broad range of public utilities from phones, electricity, and even pipelines today.
But on this day in 1915, some customers of the Onida Telephone Company wanted additional services and filed an official complaint seeking additional service during the nighttime and on Sundays.
Production help is provided by Brad Tennant, Dakota Wesleyan University.