CC Communications: A Decade of Transformation, Part 3

CC Communications has always been part of Churchill County’s story, first as a telegraph company in 1889, then a telephone provider, and today as a modern broadband utility. Over the past decade, the company has undergone a remarkable transformation, shifting from traditional phone service to an ultramodern telecommunications provider connecting rural Nevada to the world.

In 2007, CC Communications was a full-service telecommunications provider offering telephone, long distance, Internet, television, computer repair and support, and managed data services. But keeping pace with rapidly evolving cellular technology made it cost-prohibitive to maintain local cellular service. By December 2008, the company had begun the process of selling its cellular division, a decision noted in the County Commissioners’ meeting that month.

When Chief Executive Officer Mark Feest took the helm in 2013—the fourth person to hold that role in nearly 40 years—he inherited a company ready to reinvent itself.

At the time, only 18 percent of homes nationwide had fiber-to-the-home access. In contrast, CC Communications was already delivering fiber connections to 80 percent of Churchill County and expanding services into personal emergency and home and business security monitoring.

Over the last decade, CC Communications has invested more than $60 million to modernize and expand its network. The company upgraded electronics along the 60-mile fiber route to Reno, improving reliability and speed, and expanded the statewide transport network by more than 400 route miles, connecting Reno and Las Vegas and establishing points of presence in Silver Springs, Yerington, Schurz, Hawthorne, Mina, Tonopah, Beatty, Amargosa Valley, and Pahrump. Additional points between Reno, Fallon, Elko, and Salt Lake City now strengthen redundancy and open opportunities for further growth along the I-80 corridor. Around Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, more than 50 new fiber route miles have been deployed to support carrier and data-center customers.

Partnerships have also been key. Agreements with Elko and Storey Counties and with the Walker River Paiute, Yomba Paiute, and Te-Moak (Elko Band) Tribes are helping extend fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) service into rural and tribal communities. The company is simultaneously completing the final few hundred copper-based connections in Churchill County.