2023 marks a very special year for D & P Communications, as we celebrate 125 years in business! As we look back at our time in business and reflect on how far we have come, we must start by thanking all our customers who made this possible. Thanks to you, our company has been in the community connecting people to what matters most for over a century. We have continually adapted to the newest technology available and remain the local service provider focused on your needs. A milestone like this one deserves to be commemorated.
Our history goes back to 1898, when the Deerfield Farmers’ Telephone Company first started. The company was started as a way for farmers in Deerfield and Petersburg to communicate with one another. The company was then incorporated in 1908, when any phone subscriber was given one share of the new company’s stock. The company operated out of many locations throughout the coming years.
D & P did not have a central office location until 1971 when the company opened their first office to operate business out of a Deerfield home for their five employees. The communications industry was much less advanced than it is today. Ditches were dug by hand. Wire was hand-pulled. Manual posthole diggers were used for burying poles. In 1984, the office was moved to downtown Petersburg in the building that is now the home of Iott Insurance Agency. In 1988, the switching system took up two 20-foot by 10-foot rooms in each town. Today, all switching for our entire system can be done by a single switch that takes up a small amount of rack space at our Petersburg data center.
During the 1990s, we began offering cable television and Internet services. The company then became known as D & P Communications to incorporate all the communication services we provided while remaining close to our roots in Deerfield and Petersburg. Throughout the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, D & P expanded our service area to include Adrian, Tecumseh, Dundee, Blissfield and more towns in the surrounding area with HFC Internet services. Then in 2008, D & P began constructing its extensive fiber optic to the home network starting in Tecumseh, and continuing through Adrian, Clinton, and Ida. In 2019, we began overbuilding our HFC areas with fiber to the home as well throughout Petersburg, Deerfield, Dundee, and Blissfield. Our network and service areas have continued to expand our fiber infrastructure to connect more of our service areas.
Throughout the company’s history, D & P has also made substantial investments in the types of services offered to customers. Most recently, D & P upgraded the equipment throughout its wireline network so residential fiber customers can now receive up to 1 Gig of Internet capacity with whole-home Wi-Fi systems. Also, D & P customers have over 290 cable channels available with Video-On-Demand and, as of last year, we now offer a streaming cable TV service.
D & P has become the preferred option for many local businesses. The company focuses on redundancy and buries its facilities rather than installing them aerially, which is a great fit for those requiring added security and reliability.
Today, D & P provides services in Petersburg, Deerfield, Blissfield, Dundee, Adrian, Britton, Hudson, Tecumseh, Morenci, Clinton, Ida and many more communities, with new areas coming online all the time. The company has five local offices in Adrian, Dundee, Petersburg, Blissfield, and Tecumseh.
Thank you to all our customers who have supported this local business and we hope to continue to grow and improve as the years go on. We would not be where we are today without you. D & P will be here to connect you to what matters most for a long time to come.
