REGIONAL- Subscribers to Paul Bunyan Communications (PBC) services may see a welcome credit on their August bill or a check in their mailbox, as the cooperative is returning over $3.2 million to its members in 2023, the cooperative announced Monday.
“There is no membership fee to join PBC and there are no annual membership dues. All you need to do is subscribe to either one line of local phone or broadband Internet service and you become a member,” said Dave Schultz, PBC Chief Financial Officer.
As a cooperative, membership in PBC includes the opportunity to share in the financial success of the company. When profits are earned, they are allocated to the members based on their proportional share of the allocable revenues. These allocations may then be returned to the individual members through capital credit retirements.
For current members with a distribution amount of $100 or less, a credit has been applied to their August bill. Checks have been mailed out for distributions of more than $100.
“The state of our cooperative remains strong. We are the largest broadband cooperative in Minnesota with over 28,000 active members throughout our 6,000 square mile service territory. We have been very busy building and expanding one of the largest all-fiber optic rural Gigabit networks in the country, the GigaZone®, which is revolutionizing the way members live, work, and play. It is rewarding to see all those efforts continue to pay off and return these profits to our membership” said CEO/General Manager Gary Johnson.
Marketing Supervisor Brian Bissonette said the company’s regional focus is a key to their success.
“In a highly competitive industry with national competitors our cooperative has been successful because we put our region and our members first,” Bissonette said. “We don’t have to worry about customers all over the place like in Sioux Falls, Fargo, Minneapolis, or anywhere else. Our investments go here, back into our network, our services, and our communities in northern Minnesota.”
If you were a member of the cooperative in 2003 and/or 2022 and accrued more than $10 in total capital credit allocations, but do not receive the credit on your account or a check by September 1, please contact Paul Bunyan Communications at (218) 444-1234 or (218) 999-1234.