Shentel

Shenandoah Telecommunications Company, doing business as Shentel, is a publicly traded telecommunications company headquartered in Edinburg, Virginia. It operates a digital wireless and wireline network in rural Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.[4]

History

Shentel was founded in January 1902 as the Farmers' Mutual Telephone System of Shenandoah County (FMTS).[5] This was one of a number of Farmers' Mutual telephone systems established in rural areas of the United States. The company's initial goal was to bring telephone service to rural residents of Shenandoah County, VA.[6] In 1960, the name changed to Shenandoah Telephone Company, then in 1981 to Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel).[4] The company launched cable TV service and a fiber optic network in the 1980s. In 1984, Shentel added mobile and paging services. In 1990, Shentel launched Shenandoah Cellular, the first company in Virginia to offer cellular service to a rural area. Internet service was made available to Shentel customers in 1994.[4]

In the 2000s, Shentel began to expand its cable footprint - purchasing cable assets from Rapid Communications in Virginia and West Virginia in 2008,[7] and acquiring JetBroadband in southern Virginia and southern West Virginia in 2010.[8] Later in 2010, Shentel purchased two small cable systems from Suddenlink Communications (one in West Virginia, the other in Maryland).[9]

In May 2016, Shentel finished acquiring its competitor Ntelos[10] for 640 million dollars.[11] acquiring 297,500 subscribers. The deal also transferred an additional 291,000 subscribers from Sprint in exchange for Ntelos spectrum,[12][13] making Shentel the sixth largest public wireless company in the United States.[4]

In February 2019, Shentel announced the agreement to purchase Big Shandy Broadband, a Kentucky-based cable television, broadband Internet and phone provider.[14]

On August 27, 2020, T-Mobile USA decided to purchase the wireless assets of the company.[15]

In October 2023, Shentel announced their acquisition of The Chillicothe Telephone Company (dba Horizon Telcom) and its assets; thus expanding their "Glo Fiber" branded fiber network into the South-Eastern Ohio area.[16]

In March 2024, Shentel agreed to the sale of its cell tower portfolio to Vertical Bridge, reportedly the largest private owner of communications towers in the US, for $310.3 million in cash.[17]