The Win History

Western Independent Networks was founded in 1985 as Oregon Telco Services (OTS) by 18 independent telephone companies. The company was formed to address issues resulting from the breakup of AT&T. In the early years, OTS focused mostly on solving regulatory and governmental affairs issues.

Timeline

1996

OTS saw the need to expand into telecommunications products and services.

1997

They formed two Limited Liability Corporations, one to provide switching services and the other to provide signaling through the SS7 network.

OTS changed its name to Western Independent Networks and merged the two companies into one corporation.

1998

Another new project was started in 1998, the Washington Oregon Wireless (WOW) system. WOW built out the rural portions of the Sprint wireless areas in both Oregon and Washington.

1999

In 1999, the company bought a Lucent 5ESS central office switch and two signal transfer points, bringing the company into a new stage of its technology life.

2000

In February 2000, WOW was sold to Alamosa PCS and the focus of WIN was concentrated on growing networking needs in rural Oregon and Washington areas.

As we look ahead, Western Independent Networks anticipates providing additional voice and data services to benefit all of its current 27 telecommunications shareholder companies and other customers.