Direct Communications is a family owned and operated rural telecom provider with roots going back to 1951 when Lee May bought Rockland Telephone from T. H. Bell, future Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan.  Lee ran the company until 1977 when he sold Rockland Telephone to his son Leonard May.  Upon assuming ownership of Rockland Telephone, Leonard executed plant upgrades to the network to make Rockland Telephone a state of the art telephone network, including being the first independent telephone company to install a digital switch.

In the 1990’s Rockland Telephone changed its name to Direct Communications Rockland and along with its non-regulated affiliate, Direct Communications Star West, began to grow both vertically and horizontally.  Direct Communications Star West first launched a satellite entertainment franchise in 1993.  It then began to provide Internet Services in 1996 with deploying high speed broadband by 2000.  Direct Communications Rockland acquired another telephone exchange in Southern Bear Lake County that moved its subscriber count to 1500. 

Direct Communications involvement with the City of Eagle Mountain began in 2000 when Leonard May was introduced to the City’s Telecom System Administrator, Dan Valentine, at a telecommunications event.  Direct then offered its expertise and help to the fledgling system as it endeavored to purchase a billing and accounting system.  The relationship began to grow and as Direct Communications became involved with the City of Eagle Mountain, Direct could see the opportunities for business growth in this area.

Direct Communications began its official interest in acquiring the City of Eagle Mountain’s Municipal Telecom System in November, 2001.  With the election of Mayor Kelvin Bailey it became clear that the City of Eagle Mountain was deeply interested in selling its Telecom System to a potential buyer.  As a consequence of Direct Communications’ relationship it approached the City to make it clear that it was interested in evaluating if an acquisition would be mutually beneficial.  Direct Communications and the City of Eagle Mountain entered into an intent to purchase agreement in November, 2001 and began the necessary regulatory and financial work to consummate the acquisition.

The first step was to come to a conclusion of what a fair market value for the system was.  Per the City Ordinance this was necessary for the City to sell any utility.  This was performed and a target price was established.  After the target price was established the motion to sell the Telecom System was taken to the voters of Eagle Mountain who overwhelmingly, 96% in favor of, approved the sale to Direct Communications.

The next step was to identify exactly what assets comprised the Telecom System.  As a consequence of the rapid growth and the bifurcated construction obligations between the City of Eagle Mountain and the Sub-Developers, the network records were lacking.  Direct Communications contracted with a local telecom engineering company to evaluate the plant assets and asses its value.  This process took the entire year of 2003.

In 2004 Direct Communications was comfortable approaching the Utah Public Service Commission seeking a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity that would allow it to be a regulated telecom provider in Eagle Mountain.  Through the year of 2004 Direct filed its petition and was involved in various technical conferences and open hearings as the Utah Public Services Commission evaluated if the acquisition was in the public interest.  The Utah Public Services Commission ruled that the acquisition was in the public interest and the new corporation, Direct Communications Cedar Valley, was set to begin operations once the Federal Communications Commission recognized it as an eligible telecommunications carrier.

Direct Communications Cedar Valley filed a docket to become a fully recognized eligible telecommunications carrier in the fall of 2004.  As things frequently go with governmental agencies it took some time for the FCC to analyze the findings of the Utah PSC and the filings from both Qwest and Direct Communications.  With the help of Utah’s Congressional Delegation, led by Senator Orrin Hatch, the FCC finally ruled in November, 2005 that Direct Communications Cedar Valley could serve as an eligible telecommunications carrier and awarded it the exchange area of Eagle Mountain.  With that ruling the City of Eagle Mountain and Direct Communications chose to consummate the acquisition on 01 February, 2006 and on that day Direct Communications took ownership and responsibility for operations at Eagle Mountain.

One of the first positive steps Direct Communications took in bringing the local communications service in line with industry standards was to decrease DSL prices. The cost of building and maintaining the network would have driven the city steadily towards bankruptcy, and with no federal cost recovery structures in place, the city had to charge exorbitant prices to try recover costs on its network.  Before DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS bought the network in 2006, residents who wanted DSL had to pay the city a $250 install fee and 1.5 Meg DSL service was $100 a month. DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS introduced a 256kb DSL package at a starting rate of $29.95 per month, with the installation fee being waived with a 1-year commitment. During 2006 DSL subscribership in Eagle Mountain more than doubled.  

The most important change that has taken place since Direct Communications assumed ownership is the investment in new technology, and investment in the local network. Each year since 2006, DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS has invested several millions of dollars into the network plant. Immediately after the sale, DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS began significant network upgrades to ensure that the telecommunications network in Eagle Mountain was the most state of the art and robust network along the Wasatch Front.  DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS began laying Fiber-to-the-home in most new sub-developments. With significant capital investment in fiber optic deployment to the customer’s premises, new redundant fiber optic routes to connect to all the major carriers in Salt Lake City and new electronic equipment, Direct Communications was ensuring that no other Wasatch Front community could provide the same connectivity as Eagle Mountain can.

Direct Communication’s state of the art FIBER OPTIC network offered 2 major advantages:
Bandwidth
Direct Communications has direct fiber optic connectivity to all the major carriers in Salt Lake City.  This provides the option of  multi-Gigabit connections.  It is total fiber all the way.
Redundancy
By 2009, Direct Communications had deployed 3 separate fiber optic routes to connect the fiber optic network in Eagle Mountain to the world.  This means that if one fiber optic route is cut, instantly the traffic will be seamlessly routed on one of the other two routes.  This ensures the protection and integrity of a business’ telecommunications information.

2007 and 2008 were watershed years for the telecommunications industry as a whole, as more homes began to substitute traditional landline phone service with wireless service only. DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS management soon predicted that in order to compete effectively in the wake of industry trends, the most important service for the future was broadband, and specifically, how much bandwidth a company could deliver. These years were spent trying to evolve, build and prepare the network for massive future broadband deployment over fiber. DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS purchased a new digital switch in 2008, and invested several millions in new fiber optic cable and digital equipment. DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS also introduced their first real product bundle which included local phone, calling features, 350 minutes of long distance, and 3Mb DSL for $89.95. They also successfully petitioned the Utah PUC to lower residential phone prices in Eagle Mountain by $1, to $16.50 per line.

In 2009, a positive development in the federal regulation of local telephone networks, along with the completion of major new fiber routes going out of Eagle Mountain, allowed Direct Communications to offer the first true 20Mb connection to homes on fiber optic cable in Eagle Mountain. DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS was now even offering homes on copper speeds of up to 12Mb. The smallest broadband package on offer was now 3Mb.