1901

Hamilton was incorporated as Hamilton County Farmers Telephone Association, a farmer's cooperative. Calls were made by switchboard operators who worked out of their homes.

1908

The minute books of Hamilton County Farmers Telephone Association report 1,634 telephone subscribers.

1913

A new central office was built at 1109 K Street, Aurora. The cost was $4,500 to build.

1914

A Kellogg universal switch board of 600 drops, with capabilities of up to 1,200 drops, was shipped to Aurora.

1919

The first rotary-dial telephones are installed in Virginia.

1951

A vote at the 50th annual meeting changed the corporate name to Hamilton County Telephone Company.

1961

The beginning of the Nelson family ownership. Hamilton is purchased by Earl Nelson and Paul Dunlap with 1500 shares of stock valued at $70 a share.

1968

>Cable television is made available through Mid-State Community TV in Aurora, Albion and Fullerton.

1976

In March of 1976, a winter storm wipes out the entire existing infrastructure of the Hamilton Telephone Company.

Late 1970's

Hamilton installs its first data circuit connection that travels Interstate from Aurora to Hutchinson, Kansas. The speed of the data connection was 300 bits per second (Bps).

1981

Hamilton had 37 employees including Phil Nelson.

1981

A new digital switching system called the ITT 1210 is installed for telephone operations. The system was only the second one of its kind installed in the United States.

1983

Hamilton Telephone Company began an infrastructure upgrade from copper wire to Fiber to increase the availability, speed and reliability of communications.  The first Fiber Sonet Ring was completed in 1985.

Hamilton Telephone Company began an infrastructure upgrade from copper wire to Fiber to increase the availability, speed and reliability of communications.  The first Fiber Sonet Ring was completed in 1985.

1985

The company completed its first self-healing fiber optic ring.

1986

Aurora Telemarketing, Inc. was founded. Hamilton's involvement in diverse business lines, like ATI, was made possible by the deregulation of the telephone industry.

1991

Nebraska Relay Service began with 15 relay operators and two supervisor interpreters through its Hamilton Relay division founded the previous year in 1990. 

1995

Due to the wide variety of Telecommunications services being offered by Hamilton Telephone Company, the Company changes its name to become Hamilton Telecommunications.

1997

Hamilton installs a Lucent 5ESS class 5 switch, the newest technology at its time.

1998

Hamilton opens a relay center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

1998

Hamilton.net installs its first DSL subscriber line with speed available as fast as 768K or 768,000 bits per second.

1999

Hamilton opens a relay center in Wisconsin. Hamilton founds its Long Distance Division.

2001

Hamilton expands to Grand Island and North Platte, NE., and its Information Systems and Internet Service divisions are established.

2004

Hamilton began offering Captioned Telephone Service through Ultratec, Inc.

2006

Hamilton opens a relay center in Albany, Georgia.

2007

Hamilton opens a relay center in Frostburg, Maryland.

2008

Hamilton opens a relay center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

2010

Hamilton forms a partnership with six other telecommunications companies to create NebraskaLink.

2011

Hamilton begins providing captioning services from its headquarters in Aurora, NE with 22 assistants, one trainer and one supervisor.

2011

Hamilton Telephone makes the change to 10-digit dialing due to the growing demand for more telephone numbers in the 402 area code.

2011

Today, Hamilton offers residential DSL speeds as high as 15 Mbps, which is more than 100 thousand times as fast as the first data connection we sold in the late 1970's.