About Shawnee

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Contact Us

E-mail

Customer Service E-mail: custserv@shawneetel.com

Visit

Office Locations:

P.O. Box 69
120 W. Lane
Equality, IL 62934

P.O. Box 350
111 State & Broadway
Lovington, IL 61937

Support

24/7 Technical Support for voice and internet-related Issues: 888.247.5119

24/7 Support for voice and internet related issues in and around Lovington: 844.369.3617

Email: custserv@shawneetel.com

Send Us a Note

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Fiber Technology

Fiber to the Home (FTTH) is the next wave in communication technology. It uses fiber-optic cable instead of traditional copper cable to deliver telephone, Internet, and video service. The upgrade to fiber-optic cable provides capacity for unlimited amounts of data, which is particularly relevant to Internet and video communication technologies. As Shawnee Communications completes burial of fiber-optic cable and installation of the required equipment, your home service will be ready for the demands of today’s telephone, Internet, and video communications.

Benefits

Fiber optic equipment will allow Shawnee Communications to offer cleaner, more reliable home telephone service. You may not notice any change in your service except that you’ll have a supplied battery back-up that will maintain your phone service in case of a power outage.

With fiber-to-the-home, you’ll enjoy a faster Internet (data) experience. A fiber-to-the-home system will also give Shawnee Communications the ability to provide necessary bandwidth for high tech services developing in years ahead.

Progress Reports

In September 2008, Shawnee connected our first subscribers to our FTTH Network. Over the next six months, Shawnee would convert over 400 subscribers in Simpson and nearly 200 subscribers in the Leamington and “rural” Equality exchanges. By the end of 2008, Simpson and Leamington would be our first two fully FTTH exchanges.

On July 8, 2010 Shawnee was awarded $7.35 million in grants and loans from the federal government and $1 million in state matching funds for its “Southern Illinois Sustainable Broadband Transformation” project that would build a sustainable broadband network to support additional economic development in Southern Illinois. The federal award, which was awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility Service and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications Information Administration, was one of 66 funded nationwide, for a total of $7.2 billion. The state matching funds would come through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The project would see FTTH adoption in the Cave In Rock, Eddyville, Elizabethtown and Rosiclare exchanges, along with the township of Golconda, which is outside Shawnee’s traditional service territory.

In early August 2011, after many months of preparation, Shawnee began migrating the entire Cave In Rock exchange (minus Boyd’s Addition) to the FTTH network. Cave In Rock, which was the largest exchange in our stimulus project, consisted of over 500 subscribers. Over 95% of the subscribers were converted by mid-October and remaining work was completed in December 2011.  Boyd’s Addition would be addressed at a later time.

In October 2011, we began migrating our “in-town” subscribers in Elizabethtown to our FTTH network, which consisted of over 150 subscribers.  Progress was swift and all subscribers were converted in less than two months. Rural sections of Elizabethtown would be addressed at a later date.

In early November 2011, we began working to convert our “in-town” subscribers in Eddyville, which consists of approximately 150 homes. After a few short weeks of work, the project was 50% complete and by mid-December, all of the subscribers had been converted. Rural sections of Eddyville will be addressed at a later date.

In mid-November 2011, we also targeted “in town” Rosiclare for the next phase of FTTH conversions. Over the next three months, Shawnee would connect over 350 subscribers to the FTTH Network. Rural sections of Rosiclare would be addressed at a later date.

In early December 2011, we began work in the township of Golconda, which is located outside the traditional Shawnee ILEC service territory. In past years, Shawnee was only able to offer Golconda residents with long distance service and wireless Internet access. The addition of FTTH Internet service was sorely needed as this community had no access to fixed wire broadband options. We began migrating our 23 existing Wireless subscribers to FTTH services, added over 100 new subscribers and continue to add subscribers today.

To fully complete the Cave In Rock exchange, Boyd’s Addition was targeted for late August 2012. Since the population of Boyd’s Addition is quite small, the nearly 40 subscribers were able to be converted in a few shorts weeks. Once completed, Cave In Rock became our 3rd fully FTTH exchange.

In early November 2012, “in-town” subscribers in Equality began getting connected to the FTTH network. By the end of the year, over 250 subscribers had been moved to FTTH services, making Equality our 4th fully FTTH exchange.

While we were waiting on the last few Equality subscribers to be converted in December 2012, we got a head start of on the first of three sections of the Hicks exchange. This project would benefit everyone along the intersection of RT 34 and Karbers Ridge Blacktop South to the intersection of RT 34 and Humm’s Wye. From late December to mid-February, over 120 subscribers were brought onto the FTTH Network. In June 2013 we started work on the 2nd of 3 sections of the Hicks exchange. This project would benefit over 60 subscribers along the Karbers Ridge Blacktop. The remaining section of the Hicks exchange is still being planned.

In mid-September 2013, Shawnee began finishing up the “rural” section of Rosiclare. By the end of the year, over 200 subscribers were migrated to the FTTH Network, making Rosiclare our 5th fully FTTH exchange.

In mid-December 2013, Shawnee revisited Elizabethtown by addressing the “rural” areas of the exchange.  Subscribers in this area were migrated to the FTTH network during the late 1^st quarter/early 2^nd quarter of 2013, which made Elizabethtown our 6^th fully FTTH exchange.

After a lengthy delay in receiving contract approval from Rural Utility Services (RUS) regarding the Eddyville exchange, construction for “rural” Eddyville began in December of 2014.  Inclement weather forced multiple delays in our original timeline and pushed project completion to September of 2014.  Upon conversion of the estimated 85 rural Eddyville subscribers, Eddyville became our 7^th fully FTTH exchange.

The lone remaining section of the Hicks exchange was the next phase of our FTTH build out.  This project would benefit everyone along the intersection of RT 34 and Karbers Ridge Blacktop North to the end of our service territory, which is located 1.5 miles North of Herod.  The phase, which brought FTTH services to approximately 300 subscribers, began in the early 4^th quarter of 2015 and was completed in February 2016, making the Hicks exchange, our 8^th fully FTTH exchange

In the 1^st quarter of 2016, construction crews shifted their focus to Renshaw, our last non-FTTH exchange.  The construction phase went better than expected and we are able to convert the approximately 220 subscribers to the FTTH network by the end of June, which made Shawnee the first fully Fiber to the Home provider in The State of Illinois!

We thought we were done.  We weren’t!

On June 8^th, 2016, Shawnee completed the purchase of Moultrie Independent Telephone Company (MITCO) and its subsidiaries, which includes One-Eleven Internet.  MITCO is located in Lovington, IL and immediately upon execution of the purchase agreement, Shawnee immediately began mapping Lovington for a FTTH build.  After months of planning and construction, FTTH conversion in Lovington began in September 2017 and was conversion completed before the end of the year.

2017 served as a launching pad for expansion.  After receiving numerous complaints from residents at The Peninsula at Lake of Egypt regarding their inability to receive telephone & Internet service from their incumbent provider, the Illinois Commerce Commission transferred the responsibility of serving that community to Shawnee.  The Peninsula would be an extension of the Simpson exchange, but serving the new location would require nearly 10 miles of fiber to be buried along Tunnel Hill Rd.  Once construction was complete, homes along Tunnel Hill Rd would also have access to FTTH services.

During the summer of 2018, Shawnee launched their I Want Fiber (IWF) program would help communities that did not have access to reliable Internet service to document their desire for us to bring FTTH services to their community.  By directing Southern Illinois residents to myshawnee.net/iwantfiber, individuals could register their interest in bringing FTTH services to their community.  Once registration goals for a community is met, we would officially sign up prospective customers and begin construction.  Before the end of 2018, the IWF process resulted in FTTH services being built to serve homes on River Rd (Golconda), Windrock Acres (Vienna).  In 2019, services were built and services connected to “in-town” homes in Vienna and homes along Tunnel Hill Rd.

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Service Area

Services from Shawnee are available in the following Southern Illinois areas:

• Cave-In-Rock
• Eddyville
• Elizabethtown
• Equality
• Golconda
• Herod
• Karbers Ridge
• Leamington
• The Peninsula at Lake of Egypt
• Renshaw
• Rosiclare
• Simpson

Services from Shawnee are also available in the following Central Illinois areas:

• Bethany
• Dalton City
• Findlay
• Hammond
• Lovington
• Mattoon
• Sullivan

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The Shawnee Communications Story

In early 1948, the citizen-owned & operated Equality Telephone Company made the transition into a fully-fledged corporation. Over the next several years, advances in technology led the way for Equality Telephone to repair and upgrade much of their infrastructure. One of the key improvements allowed Equality Telephone to evolve from a 14-party operator-handled service to a single-party rotary-dial service.

Equality Telephone Company acquired Hardin County Telephone Company in 1966. Like Equality Telephone in the 1940’s, the newly acquired system was in need of facility repair and upgrades. Once infrastructure improvements were made to bring Hardin County Telephone on par with Equality Telephone, one last task remained: switching from aerial to buried cable. The transition to buried cable was a costly and complicated task due to the large amount of service areas that lie within the Shawnee National Forest.

Equality Telephone Company and Hardin County Telephone Company merged to form Shawnee Telephone Company in early 1985. The name Shawnee Telephone was chosen to pay homage to the beautiful natural wonders located in the Shawnee National Forest and to reflect the ownership’s deeply seeded local roots.

In 1995, Shawnee Telephone Company received FCC notification that local telephone companies would be allowed to enter the long distance market. The only FCC requirement was that the long distance services be controlled by a separate affiliated entity, so Shawnee Communications, Inc. and ShawneeLink Corporation were established. Shawnee Telephone Company and ShawneeLink became wholly owned subsidiaries of Shawnee Communications, however, Shawnee Communications and its subsidiaries remained locally owned and operated.

With long distance service available to the public, Shawnee Communications turned attention to the next technological trend: the Internet. In the spring of 1996, ShawneeLink Corp. began offering dial-up Internet access within the Shawnee Telephone service area. Early 1997 saw dial-up Internet access slowly spread outside of the Shawnee Telephone service area, and by the end of 1998, dial up access was being offered to more than 40 Southern Illinois communities.

ShawneeLink began providing High Speed DSL in over 20 Southern Illinois communities during 2003. With faster speeds and improved stability, DSL quickly became the medium of choice for Internet users. As technology grew, ShawneeLink was able to provide DSL access to qualifying areas in two separate regions. The first region includes towns as far West as Chester, Anna & Marissa, as far North as Sesser and Pinckneyville, as far East as Shawneetown and Rosiclare, and as far s=South as Brookport. The second region included locations as far North as Robinson and Newton, as far West as Flora, Fairfield and McLeansboro, as far East as Lawrenceville and Mt. Carmel, and as far South as Carmi and Norris City.  ShawneeLink discontinued offering of area Internet services in January 2012.

Shawnee Telephone began laying the foundation for future technologies in 2005 with the upgrade to fiber optic cable. The process of burying the fiber optic lines is just as tedious a task as was the burial of telephone lines during the 1940’s and 60’s. However, the fiber network will improve telephone transmissions, solidify Internet speeds and be compatible with emerging technologies. A completion date has not been established although crews are working diligently to complete the network expansion.

In September 2008, Shawnee connected our first subscribers to our FTTH Network. Over the next six months, Shawnee converted over 400 subscribers in Simpson and hundreds of subscribers in the Leamington and “rural” Equality exchanges. By the end of 2008, Simpson and Leamington were our first two fully FTTH exchanges.

On July 8, 2010 Shawnee was awarded $7.35 million in grants and loans from the federal government and $1 million in state matching funds for its “Southern Illinois Sustainable Broadband Transformation” project that would build a sustainable broadband network to support additional economic development in Southern Illinois. The federal award, which was awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility Service and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications Information Administration, was one of 66 funded nationwide, for a total of $7.2 billion. The state matching funds would come through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The project would see FTTH adoption in the exchanges Cave In Rock, Eddyville, Elizabethtown and Rosiclare, along with the township of Golconda, which is outside Shawnee’s traditional service territory.  Guidelines for the grant gave Shawnee a 3-year window to complete the project, however we completed all builds in less than 2-years.

Over the next four years, Shawnee deployed FTTH services to Boyd’s Addition (Cave In Rock), Hicks, rural Rosiclare, rural Elizabethtown, rural Eddyville, and Renshaw.

In June 2016, Shawnee completed the purchase of Moultrie Independent Telephone Company (MITCO) and its subsidiaries, which included One-Eleven Internet.  Upon execution of the purchase agreement, Shawnee immediately began mapping Lovington for a FTTH build.  After months of planning and construction, FTTH conversions in Lovington began in September 2017 and were completed before the end of the year.

2017 served as a launching pad for FTTH expansion.  After receiving numerous complaints from residents at The Peninsula at Lake of Egypt regarding their inability to receive telephone & Internet service from their incumbent provider, the Illinois Commerce Commission transferred the responsibility of serving that community to Shawnee.  The Peninsula would be an extension of the Simpson exchange, but serving the new location would require nearly 10 miles of fiber to be buried along Tunnel Hill Rd.  Once construction was complete, homes along Tunnel Hill Rd would also have access to FTTH services.

During the summer of 2018, Shawnee launched their I Want Fiber (IWF) program would help communities that did not have access to reliable Internet service to document their desire for us to bring FTTH services to their community.  By directing Southern Illinois residents to myshawnee.net/iwantfiber, individuals could register their interest in FTTH services.  Once registration goals for a community was met, we would officially sign up prospective customers and begin construction.  The IWF process build brought FTTH service to 11 previously unserved homes on River Rd, just outside of Golconda.

2018 also saw Shawnee start the process of evaluating new equipment which would be utilized to replace legacy wireless equipment that provided limited broadband options.  During the fall of 2018, new wireless equipment was installed for residents in the Bradford Hills subdivision outside of Sullivan.  Field testing was successful and further deployment and conversions will begin in the Summer of 2019

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• Shawnee Communications will develop, service, and maintain modern communications technology for residents and businesses in rural communities in Southern Illinois.
• We will build a telephone and Internet connectivity infrastructure to bring our customers the best, most reliable technology at realistic costs.
• The activities of Shawnee Communications will be beneficial to our communities. In addition to providing improved communications technologies, we will support community organizations that enhance the quality of life in our business areas.

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Shawnee Communications is a proud corporate citizen of Southern Illinois. We’re proud to contribute to the economic welfare of our communities by improving communications infrastructure and technology as well as providing well paying jobs to people throughout the region.

As citizens of the communities of Southern Illinois, Shawnee Communications and our subsidiary companies strive to make positive contributions to the welfare of the region. So we share in the vision of growth and prosperity for all. We participate in community projects and donate to organizations that benefit our communities.

In addition, individuals in our companies actively participate in organizations that benefit by the unique talents and abilities they have to offer. We all understand that the quality of life in our community is directly related to the effort we are willing to give to make improvements or otherwise provide a positive influence.

At Shawnee, We’re Good Sports, Too!
Shawnee Communications is proud to support local high school sports programs in the communities served by Shawnee Telephone. For the past several years, Shawnee Telephone has donated to the Hardin County High School Cougars, the Pope County High School Pirates, and the Gallatin County High School Hawks.

Shawnee Telephone‘s donations provide the high school sports programs at each of the schools with financial flexibility. In 2006, 2007 and 2008 Shawnee Telephones’ gift provided new basketball shoes for the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams at each of the high schools. We’re proud to be able to make these donations, and we are able to do so because of our customers in these communities who have made it possible for us to give back to our area neighbors.

So when you are cheering on your school’s sports teams, know that your friends at Shawnee Communications are there wishing success for those hard-working athletes!

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At Shawnee Communications and our subsidiaries, we consider our employees the pillars of our organization. Our people, like their Southern Illinois neighbors, are woven with strong character, deep ethics, and unlimited drive, and every employee strives for continued individual improvement day to day. The level of loyalty and integrity displayed by our staff is reflected in the quality of service provided to our customers.

Although individuals on the Shawnee Communications staff come to us with diverse technical, business, and clerical backgrounds, they display a unique cohesiveness and cooperation working between departments. This spirit of unity has proven invaluable during project coordination and planning. The ability and willingness to operate as a team has facilitated every aspect of our expansion and growth and will continue to do so well into the future.

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