At PRTC, we are always thrilled to find new ways
our customers can save money! We have created a new
fun way for our customers to to share their savings ideas, tips, tricks and links.

Whether it be a cyber coupon code or printable coupons,
you can submit your favorite ways to clip and save!

WANT TO SHARE?
Send the web address of the link you are sharing, a brief summary of your tips & tricks to us at portal@prtcnet.org

Jackson County's P.A.I.D. ( Prayer Against Illegal Drugs) county wide victory walk was held on Saturday April 23rd, 2011. There were approximately 350-400 walkers participating. Over 200 participants were present at the sign ceremony at the Jackson County Welcome Center.

P.A.I.D. hosts a Prayer & Worship Service once per month in Jackson County. Watch for information in the local newspapers and on Peoples Telecom Channel 9.

P.A.I.D.'s next monthly prayer service will be held on May 5th, National Prayer Day, celebrating their one year anniversary of countywide prayer against illegal drugs. The service will be held at the Sand Gap Christian Church at 7:00PM. Everyone is invited to attend.

For more information on P.A.I.D. ( Prayer Against Illegal Drugs), please contact Debbie at
(606) 965-3223 or (606) 965-2237 or Susan at (606) 965-2654.

PRTC would like to recognize the following employees for volunteering their time to place the P.A.I.D. sign for Saturday's ceremony: Joe Duncan, Will Judd, Robby Isaacs and Greg Rose. (not shown, Howard Price)

Visit the PRTC Facebook Page for more photos!

 

Local Information, Schedules & More – PRTC Community Portal

Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative is a partner in your community. You can Visit the PRTC Community Portal for links to community sites, info, sports schedules and more! The latest Jackson County Kiwanis Baseball and Softball Game Schedule is now online here: www.prtcportal.org

For more information about the PRTC Community Portal or to submit your link to be posted, call us at 287-7101 or send an email to portal@prtcnet.org

 

 

Start Saving Right off the Bat! – DSL & Digital TV Subscribers!

If you already have PRTC Digital Cable TV and DSL Services, you can start saving on your monthly bill by calling to sign up for a new Bundled Services Package! Call 287-7101 or 593-5000 to learn more!

      

PRTC’S COPPER CABLE WAS  AGAIN STOLEN IN THE BLACKWATER/TYNER AREA, NEAR THE FLANNERY BRIDGE JUST OFF OF HWY 30 AT THE END OF THE CART WRIGHT ROAD on the night of Sunday, March 27th around 9:30PM. PRTC is offering a $5000 REWARD FOR INFORMATION leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone stealing PRTC copper cable recently.

Contact any of the following to report info:
PRTC 287-7101
Jackson County Sheriff Office 287-7121
McKee City Police 287-6911
Kentucky State Police 1-800-222-5555

Photos of Cable Theft Areas

Introducing a New Way to Save! Our Spring Savings Packages save you some GREEN all year long! PRTC's Money Saving Bundles are available to all residential customers. Get local phone service, high-speed DSL, digital cable TV and more services for your home in a package you create to best fit your family's technology needs. You can even save on the services that you already have just by signing up for a bundled package. Get phone, DSL and digital cable TV service all for under $110 per month and you'll get just one bill for it all.

We know you have options in communications services these days. So why should you choose PRTC for all of your communications needs? Because we offer important advantages that benefit both you and your community:

Local Customer Service – If you need help or have questions, you can call or stop by our local office and get personal attention from people working in your community. You won't have to waste time being placed on hold after calling an 800 number.

Support of Local Economy – When you choose PRTC, you support your local provider and keep your money right here at home. We're also a local employer and contribute to many local community events and organizations.

Money-saving Bundles – You'll enjoy incredible values when you get multiple services from PRTC. Our bundles offer popular combinations of TV, Internet and phone services at discounted rates. Plus, you'll gain the convenience of receiving just one bill from one company.

Want to know more? Give us a call at 287-7101 or 593-5000.

PRTC is Making Way for Better Service

The expansion of Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative’s Fiber to the Home (FTTH) network throughout Jackson and Owsley Counties is underway and contractors for PRTC may be in your area in preparation for Fiber to the Home deployment.

Vehicles driven by PRTC contractors should be marked with the PRTC logo. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the PRTC business office at 287-7101.

The cooperative thrives on working together and partnering with community.  As a non-profit cooperative for nearly 60 years, its owners are its customers. The PRTC goal has remained the same since 1951-to provide the best technology available at affordable prices to all members.

Fiber-to-the-Home is just another way that PRTC is committed to bringing the latest in technology to its members. For more information about Fiber-to-the-Home, call us at 287-7101 or 593-5000.

 

Spring Showers – May Bring Spring Storms, Be Prepared

When bad weather hits, will your family be prepared? Severe storms and heavy winds can easily disrupt electrical service. Or a power outage could occur for other reasons. One item to be sure and have on hand is a corded landline phone, it could be your backup method of communication during and after a storm.

It's important for you to know:

• Cordless phones require electricity and will not continue to work during a power outage.
• Cellular systems and towers are not required to provide backup power, so cell phones may not operate during a power outage either.
• Fiber-to-the-Home customers should limit the usage of phone to necessary calls during a power outage in order to conserve the battery that powers their fiber equipment during a power outage.

For safety's sake, PRTC urges you to always have at least one corded phone in your home. For more information about the importance of having a corded phone, call us at 287-7101 or 593-5000.

 

Local Information, Schedules & More – PRTC Community Portal

Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative is a partner in your community. PRTC is proud to be a part of the growing and vibrant communities of Jackson and Owsley Counties in Eastern Kentucky. We strive to interactively provide our communities with access to advanced telecommunications services while continuing to foster growth and forward progression in our service areas.

You can Visit the PRTC Community Portal for links to community sites, info, sports schedules and more!
www.prtcportal.org

For more information about the PRTC Community Portal or to submit your link to be posted, call us at 287-7101 or 593-5000 or send an email to portal@prtcnet.org

 

Why You Need Your Landline Phone

You may have considered eliminating your landline phone and replacing it with a cell phone or Internet-based system such as a digital phone or VoIP. Think twice before you make that move, since a landline phone is the most reliable device on the market today and offers these valuable advantages:

• Provides security in an emergency with reliable 911 communication.
• Gives you superior sound quality and clarity.
• Provides unlimited local calling.
• Doesn't drops your calls.
• Can't be hacked.
• Saves you money when you bundle services.
• Provides you with a directory listing.

For more information, call us at 287-7101 or 593-5000.

 

$24,000 Invested In Local Education - Sending Our Young People To College

PRTC will award 12 graduating seniors in Jackson & Owsley Counties with a $2000 scholarship, 6 in each county, for a total of 12. Applicant must live in the PRTC service area of Jackson & Owsley Counties and must be a graduating s

enior & must enroll full time in a post secondary institution or higher education program ...as a beginning freshman in the Fall of the award year. Application deadline will be 4/15/11.

"An education is the single most important thing we can arm our young people with," said Keith Gabbard, PRTC's general manager. "Our hope is that we can help our students obtain a higher education and join our community as thriving citizens, helping us to grow. And with the technology of the local network, a young person can come back and raise their family here and still have all the opportunities of an urban area."

 

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NEW:

Voice Mail - Never Miss Another Message! Click Here for Info!
It’s easy to see why so many PRTC customers are subscribing to Voice Mail. This convenient feature stores incoming messages for your  easy retrieval without on-premise equipment. Voice Mail is more convenient than an answering machine because it’s more reliable and not susceptible to lightning, you never have to hassle with another micro cassette, and Voice Mail takes up no counter space. So whether you’re on the phone, or away from the phone, Voice Mail acts as your most reliable electronic voice messaging system ever!

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Pause Live TV with DVR- Special Deal!

Sign up for any Peoples Telecom Movie Package in February 2011 and get 2 months Free rental of a DVR. Call 287-7101 or 593-5000 to sign up! Visit www.peoplestelecom.org for the latest information and channel line-up!

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$24,000 Invested In Local Education - Sending Our Young People To College

PRTC will award 12 graduating seniors in Jackson & Owsley Counties with a $2000 scholarship, 6 in each county, for a total of 12. Applicant must live in the PRTC service area of Jackson & Owsley Counties and must be a graduating senior & must enroll full time in a post secondary institution or higher education program ...as a beginning freshman in the Fall of the award year. Application deadline will be 4/15/11.

“An education is the single most important thing we can arm our young people with,” said Keith Gabbard, PRTC’s general manager. “Our hope is that we can help our students obtain a higher education and join our community as thriving citizens, helping us to grow. And with the technology of the local network, a young person can come back and raise their family here and still have all the opportunities of an urban area.”

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PRTC Food Bank Donations Hit All Time High - Thank you!

Keith Gabbard, PRTC General Manager presenting donations to two of the three local food bank representatives, Joyce Marks and Angela Sparks.

Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative (PRTC) raised funds to benefit the local food banks in Jackson and Owsley County during the 2010 holiday season. The totals are in and this was the most successful food bank fundraiser to date for PRTC. The totals donated to each food bank after PRTC matched money donated at their offices are as follows:
Jackson County Food Bank -$23,676.65
Sand Gap Food Pantry - $9,665.00
Owsley County Food Pantry - $5,159.00
PRTC wishes to thank all of those who donated!

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Cable Thieves Strike Again, This Time in the Blackwater/Tyner Area

PRTC’S COPPER CABLE WAS RECENTLY STOLEN IN THE BLACKWATER/TYNER AREA, NEAR THE FLANNERY BRIDGE JUST OFF OF HWY 30 AT THE END OF THE CART WRIGHT RD. PRTC is offering a $5000 REWARD FOR INFORMATION leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone stealing PRTC copper cable recently.

Contact any of the following to report info:
PRTC 287-7101
Jackson County Sheriff Office 287-7121
McKee City Police 287-6911
Kentucky State Police 1-800-222-5555

PRTC Employee Rex Tillery repairs a cut copper cable. July 2010


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Governor Beshear joins in opening new KY 30 in Jackson County

Celebrates ‘safer, straighter, more modern road’

Gov. Steve Beshear ceremonially opened a section of a new and much-improved KY 30 in Jackson County on Friday, January 21, 2011. The first section of the new KY 30 stretches from its western terminus at the Hal Rogers Parkway to the Green Mount community in northeastern Laurel County. The new section, at its eastern end, intersects the access road to the Jackson County Regional Industrial Park, where the ceremony was held. Many local officials were present at this celebration.   Read More from the Governor's Website here.

 

Keith Gabbard, PRTC General Manager greets Gov. Steve Beshear

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2010
Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative Awarded $25.5 Million in Broadband Stimulus Money

Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative (PRTC) has been awarded $25.5 million in broadband stimulus dollars by the Rural Utilities Service in the form of a partial loan and a partial grant, enabling a quicker expansion of PRTC's Fiber to the Home (FTTH) network throughout Jackson and Owsley Counties.  This expansion is expected to stimulate the local economy by eliminating some of the challenges that our rural geography poses. Historically, the remoteness of the areas in which we live has hindered our economic growth, broadband expansion offers a new avenue around this roadblock.  PRTC's new broadband infrastructure expansion will provide a greater avenue of access to information age jobs, education and opportunities. This investment in technology will enable PRTC to rapidly activate video, data, and voice services over their new FTTH network.  

"Delivery of 21st century information based FTTH technology to the homes and businesses in Jackson and Owsley counties is expected to enhance our local economy, real estate values, education, tourism, and jobs," explained Keith Gabbard, PRTC General Manager. "At PRTC, we are excited to be able to provide avenues to economic growth for our communities. We live and work here and we take great pride in our communities. The benefits of the new network will be both immediate and far into the future ", noted Gabbard. 

Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) is the delivery of a communications signal over optical fiber from the operator’s switching equipment all the way to a home or business, thereby replacing existing copper infrastructure such as telephone wires and coaxial cable. Fiber-to-the-home is a relatively new and fast-growing method of providing higher bandwidth to customers. Connecting homes directly to fiber optic cable provides enormous improvements in the bandwidth that can be provided to customers. DSL modems rely on copper wire to deliver signals to your home – and copper can deliver high bandwidth only over short distances. Optical fiber does not have this limitation and thus is able to carry high bandwidth signals over great distances to homes and businesses. Only fiber-to-the-home can deliver the immense bandwidth that the online and video applications of the future will require. 

With online options of feature length movies for download, online gaming, watching your favorite television programs and news online, as well as the option to upload your own movies to email and the internet for viewing by others, there is a higher demand for more bandwidth than ever before. PRTC's FTTH will also bring expansion to the Peoples Telecom Digital Cable lineup, including HDTV and other features such as Video On Demand. PRTC wants to empower our customers with the fastest and most reliable network, Fiber-to-the-Home will do this. 

PRTC is driven to provide greater access to the latest in technology. Phase one of PRTC's Fiber-to-the-Home project in Owsley County has been completed and deployment of Fiber-to-the-Home has already began in Jackson County. This $25.5 million award will greatly increase the speed in which the entire PRTC network will be completed.   

The cooperative thrives on working together and partnering with community.  As a non-profit cooperative for nearly 60 years, its owners are its customers. The PRTC goal has remained the same since 1951 - to provide the best technology available at affordable prices to all members. Fiber-to-the-Home is just another way that PRTC is committed to bringing the latest in technology to its members.


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Installing New Technology - the Old Fashioned Way 

When installing telephone cable in rural areas, Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative (PRTC) sometimes has to be resourceful. Such was the case recently as PRTC began the first phase of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) cable installation in Jackson County. As you know, part of Jackson County’s beauty is its landscape. With sometimes rugged terrain, steep hills, narrow valleys and forest land, maneuverability can be difficult when using everyday cable installation equipment.

Howard Price, outside operations manager at PRTC, is responsible for all of PRTC’s construction and outside plant, and has several times seen the need for doing things the old fashioned way in areas where trucks can’t easily maneuver. PRTC has utilized R.C. Hibbitts’ crew and mules through contractors for the construction of aerial cable many times. On several of these occasions Hibbitts’ has found an unconventional, however nostalgic, solution to aerial cable installation in our modern times. One such method is that of using a mule to pull fiber optic cable up and along the steep hillsides and narrow roads. Price says, "In cases where pulling cable using trucks and ATVs isn’t a feasible solution, it is either man or mule. Manpower is often needed for traffic control and that takes away from hands needed in the pulling of aerial cable in tough areas." Challenges such as this call for a little reinforcement. Requiring only one man for operation, Hibbitts’ mules provide a unique pulling unit in aerial cable construction, not to mention an interesting site for passersby along local highways.

There is always concern for the safety of construction crews in outside temperatures such as we have been experiencing lately and with Hibbitts’ mules on the job, other crew members do not complain and are quite happy to stand back to the mule’s strength. Hibbitts said that his mule, Old Bub, can pull as much as 8 or 10 men, obeys voice commands and stands quietly while not on the job.

PRTC’s FTTH project is underway to meet the growing demand for high speed DSL service, video capabilities and the latest voice services. PRTC plans to deploy fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) throughout its coverage area. This significant investment in technology lays the foundation for an upgrade that will enable PRTC to rapidly activate HDTV video, data, and voice services over their new FTTH network.

Visit www.prtcportal.org to view more photos and video of R.C. Hibbets’ crew and “Old Bub” at work!

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