BendBroadband is a cable television and internet provider in the U.S. state of Oregon. Based in Bend, it serves Central Oregon and also owns several television stations and a data center. As of September 2014, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. [NYSE: TDS], a Fortune 500 company.
History
The company was founded as Bend TV Cable in 1955.[1] Don Ries and Fred Hartman worked to start the company that started with three channels and charged $3.69 per month.[2] Donald Tykeson bought the company in 1983.[3] In 1997, the company, then known as Bend Cable Communications Inc., started providing internet service.[1] It announced in 1998 it would expand its fiber optic network to Redmond and Sisters.[4] By 2004, the company had moved to the BendBroadband moniker, and that year introduced high-definition video-on-demand to its system utilizing technology from nCUBE.[5]
In 2009, the company started a wireless network to provide internet and telephone service, which was upgraded to LTE in 2011.[6] BendBroadband opened a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) data center, the Vault, in 2011.[7][8] In February 2014, it sold off its LTE spectrum to AT&T.[6] The company sold itself to Telephone and Data Systems (TDS) for $261 million in May 2014.[9] At that time the company had $70 million in annual revenues and 280 employees with Amy Tykeson as CEO.[1]
Operations
BendBroadband serves 36,000 cable customers, 22,000 landline customers, and 41,000 internet customers.[1] It also owns Zolo Media, which operates KBNZ, KOHD, and COTV11, plus an advertising division.[8][9] The company also owns a data center, the Vault,[8] which is now part of OneNeck IT Solutions, a TDS Company.
