About Us

The Annandale Telephone Exchange was purchased from William Kiehn in 1945 and on January 25, 1946, was incorporated under the laws of the State of Minnesota as Lakedale Telephone Company with only a few hundred subscribers.

From the beginning of telephone service in Annandale in 1901 through 1967, every phone call had to go through an operator.  The era of the local telephone operator ended when Lakedale Telephone Company installed direct-dial equipment in 1967 — eliminating the need for operators.

Until the 1960s, there were very few mainline (one-party) telephones.  Doctors and some businesses had mainline telephones, but most other people who lived in town shared one line with up to three other parties.  Business people who didn't have a mainline number often had one number that worked in two locations — one at the business and the other at their home — with the designations "R" for residence and "W" for work.

In the rural areas, up to 18 different families were assigned to one line.  This was necessary because of the expense required to put up a line.  If a rural family wanted a phone, they were added onto a line, which already had a dozen or more parties on it.  Each line had its own code, and operators would ring different families on a party line with a designated code, such as two short rings and one long ring.

The switchboard in Annandale had room for one operator.  During the 1940s, a multi-person board was installed.  The new board allowed up to two operators to work at one time.  The switchboards were operated at all hours of the day.

The first switchboard could accommodate about 30 calls at a time.  When someone would call the operator, a flap on the board would drop down.  The operator would grab a cord and connect them.  During storms (especially lightening), flaps would sometimes drop when no one was calling. Also during lightening storms, the operators had to wear gloves to avoid getting shocks.

To make a long distance call, the operator had to call the toll center in Buffalo.  From there, the Buffalo operator would make the next connection, depending on where the caller wanted to call.

Today, each subscriber of Lakedale receives one-party service through five digital central offices and is connected by a network of over 100 miles of fiber-optic cable.  Each subscriber can enjoy the latest in custom calling features as well as equal access to more than sixty different long distance carriers.

In the past decade, we have relentlessly pursued the challenges of upgrading our outside plant facilities to provide state-of-the-art service to our subscribers and positioning ourselves to take on new opportunities as they become available.

In addition to the many enhancements mentioned, we also have services for cable TV, digital TV, cellular telephones, broadband telephones, business and residential telecommunications systems, Internet, voice mail, data, and various other communications-related equipment.

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