Townes Tele-Communications to Acquire Pymatuning Independent Telephone Company

Townes to buy Pennsylvania RLEC from Signal Telcom

Lewisville, Ark.-based Townes Tele-Communications, Inc. and Pymatuning Holding Company, Inc. (PHC), an affiliate of Colorado City, Colo.-based Signal Telcom Partners, filed paperwork with the FCC on June 25, 2009 seeking approval for the transfer of PHC’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Pymatuning Independent Telephone Company (PITC), and PITC’s wholly owned subsidiary, P.T. Communications Corporation (PTCC), from PHC to Townes. 

Pymatuning Independent Telephone is an incumbent local exchange carrier that provides dial tone to approximately 2,087 access lines in a single exchange serving portions of the Borough of Greenville in Mercer County in northwestern Pennsylvania.  PTCC resells interstate and intrastate long distance toll services and other telecommunications-related services in and around Pymatuning’s local exchange service area. 

Townes directly or indirectly owns seven rural LECs in serving customers in Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado and Florida including Tatum Telephone Company, Electra Telephone Company, Walnut Hill Telephone Company, MoKan Dial, Inc., Choctaw Telephone Company, Haxtun Telephone Company and Northeast Florida Telephone Company.  According to Phone Lines 2009, the Townes companies served a total of 23,692 access lines as of the end of 2008. 

Terms of the transaction were not announced. 

JSICA Observations:  Signal Telcom Partners is the half of American Broadband Communications that ABB didn’t walk away with when it fell out with its prior equity sponsor – Signal Equity Partners.  After the Pymatuning sale, Signal Telcom, run by industry vet Greg Killpack, will continue to own and operate nine RLECs including 1,045-line Dalton Telephone of Dalton, Neb., 191-line Elsie Communications of Keystone, Neb., 324-line Georgetown Telephone of Georgetown, Miss., 1,258-line Gridley Telephone of Gridley, Ill., 1,034 Oregon Farmers Mutual of Oregon, Mo., 2,265-line Rye Telephone of Colorado City, Colo., 823-line S&A Telephone of Allen, Kan., 189-line South Park Telephone of Colorado City, Colo., and 1,358-line Waverly Hall Telephone of Waverly Hall, Ga.