About Us

On March 1, 1898 Ethan and Allen Morrison started Central Union Telephone Company

They started with five lines, each person was responsible for servicing their own telephone / Line. Eventually Carl Swaim along with Roy Nelson were the company's first servicemen. Charges for service began at the rate of $12.00 a year and later were raised to $15. The first switchboard was installed in the Morrison Hardware Store. Switchboard operators were hired and the need for service grew and the switchboard was moved to the new telephone building near the train depot.

Telephone Serviceman,

J Carl Swaim, 1913

Switchboard Operators,

Mayme Hadley and

Monna Hadley, 1902

The Bloomingdale Company

Incorporated in 1922

In the years to follow Bloomingdale Telephone Company purchased the Annapolis Telephone Company, the West Union Telephone Company and the Citizen's Telephone Company of Tangier.

In 1958, the company cut over to dial service, the first to do so in Parke County. This ended the era of switchboard operators.

In 1961, the outside lines were buried and the poles were removed from roadsides.

In 1966, the Mobile Service (car telephones) were introduced to customers.

In 1978, PIC filled cables were installed underground to provide the opportunity for customers to have private lines.

Internet available on November 17, 1997

U.S. Cellular came to Bloomingdale in 1990

Partnering with CCI of Roachdale, cellular telephones were available for service in our area.

Company entered the age of fiber communications in 1996

The installation of the fiber cable allowed the company to install a new switch which offers a wide variety of options to the customer and incorporate future needs.

1983 the company installs digital capabilities

Northern Telecom DMS 10 switch was installed with the new technology services of touch-tone, call waiting and other features. Equal Access was added in 1990, giving customers the opportunity to chose their long distance carrier.

In 1960, Ronald Cook became Owner/Manager of the Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company

With the state of the art equipment and software, Bloomingdaletel.com was introduced to the public.

Network Management Statement

Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company (BHTC) is dedicated to providing the open and non-discriminatory use of the Internet by its customers. This task requires that Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company deploy logical network management practices to guarantee an open Internet and provide access in accordance with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC’s) Open Internet Rules and in compliance with any future rules adopted by the FCC.

Transparency

Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company will not block or otherwise prevent end user access to lawful content, applications, service or non-harmful devices.

Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company will not throttle/degrade or impair access to lawful internet traffic on the basis of content, application, service, user, or use of non-harmful device.

Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company does not directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other traffic, including through use of techniques such as traffic shaping prioritization or resource reservation to benefit an affiliate of an ISP or exchange for consideration, monetary or otherwise.

Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company uses generally accepted technical measures to provide acceptable service levels to all customers, such as application-neutral bandwidth allocation, as well as measures to address service attacks, illegal content and other harmful activities to protect network integrity and reliability. BHTC has different internet packages which limits the speeds a customer can upload and download data from the internet. For more detailed information on the different tiers of internet service refer to our web site www.bloomingdaletel.com (service tab). BHTC monitors customer usage to efficiently manage the performance of the network to ensure a sustainable quality broadband service is provided. Congestion due to malfunctioning hardware and/or software will be remedied as quickly as network engineers can diagnose and identify the offending hardware/software. Congestion due to malice will be remedied using any technique available, including protocol-aware filtering and rate limiting, to control and limit the offending source.

It is not acceptable to use the Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company network for any purpose that violates local, state, or federal laws or to transmit communications that might be highly offensive or damaging to any recipients or to use the service in a manner that is unintended. It is not acceptable to interfere with, violate, circumvent, misuse, distribute or disrupt network users, equipment or services, which include but are not limited to:

Attempting to obtain unauthorized access to any network or account. This includes accessing data not intended for end user customers, logging into a server or account without being expressly authorized to access or probing the security of other networks.
Attempts to interfere with the Service of others including users, hosts and networks. This includes “denial of service” attacks, “flooding” of networks, deliberate attempts to overload a Service and attempts to “crash” any host.
Reselling any Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company’s Internet Services, without Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company’s written consent.
Distribution of Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company’s Internet Services beyond the scope of your end-user account.
Equipment, accessory, apparatus, circuit or devices that are harmful to the network, shall not be attached to or connected with BHTC’s facilities.
Circumventing copyright laws and regulation, including the unauthorized download of music, video, images, books, software or content and/or other copyright protected works.

Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company provides Spam filtering with each customer’s email address. BHTC will not ask you for your password in an unsolicited telephone call or email. If you believe your password has been compromised, you should immediately change your password to prevent the unauthorized use of it.

Non Discrimination

Bloomingdale Home Telephone Company, Inc. is the recipient of Federal Financial Assistance from the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and is subject to the provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended; the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended; and the rules of the U. S. Department of Agriculture which provides that prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD).
The person responsible for coordinating this organization’s non-discrimination compliance efforts is Ronja Branson, General Manager. Any individual, or specific class of individuals, who feels that this organization has subjected them to discrimination may file a written complaint with this organization; or the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S. W. Washington, D. C. 20250-9410, or call toll free (866) 632-9992 (voice) or (800) 877-8339 (TDD) or (866) 377-8642 (relay voice users). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Complaints must be filed within 180 days after the alleged discriminatory action, or by such later date to which the Director of the Office of Civil Rights or the Administrator of RUS extends the time for filing. Identity of complaints will be kept confidential except to the extent necessary to carry out the purpose of the rules and regulations of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact BHTC customer service at: 765-498-1000