Our cooperative is proud to serve Turtle River and the surrounding area! We invite you to the annual Turtle River Day Celebration on Saturday, August 25 from 8-4.
There is fun for the whole family including 5k, kiddie carnival with a bounce house, car show, parade, and much more!
Bemidji State University will hold its 13th Annual Community Appreciation Day Thursday, August 30. The free event is Bemidji State’s “thank you” to the residents, business owners and friends in Beaver Nation for all they do to support the university.
The free, public event will run from 4:30-6 p.m. on the lawn near the Lower Hobson Memorial Union followed by BSU Football’s first home game of the season against Northern State with kick off at 6. Free shuttle bus service from the parking lots at Bangsberg Hall and the John Glas Fieldhouse will begin at 4:15 p.m. Guests parking in the Bangsberg parking lot are encouraged to use the lakefront trail to reach the event.
Paul Bunyan Communications is a major sponsor of the event, which will include “A Taste of BSU,” featuring free food samples from local restaurants and organizations along with live music.
There will also be “Meet the Beavers” stations where kids can meet student-athletes from BSU’s intercollegiate varsity sports. The players will be leading a number of interactive games and Bucky the Beaver will be available for pictures.
In addition, dozens of booths from various campus departments/activities and local businesses and organizations, along with a variety of games and activities for children will be available throughout the evening.
The 2018 Cooperative Celebration saw one of the nicest days of the event’s history, drawing over 5,700 to our Bemidji headquarters on May 23 and making the night another resounding success!
The 62nd Annual Business Meeting of Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative was held prior to the Open House at 3:30 p.m. The meeting included reports for the 2017 fiscal year and the re-election of board director Glenda Martin, District 6 and election of new director Mark Matteson, District 4. Both candidates were unopposed at their respective Caucus held in April.
The Cooperative Celebration was open to the public and featured a free walleye dinner prepared by the Bemidji Fire Department Fish Fry Crew and Lueken’s Village Foods, door prizes, kids’ activities like face painting, balloons, temporary tattoos, storytelling, animals and entertainment from the Headwaters Science Center, United States Tennis Association’s Quickstart Tennis, Concordia Language Villages, and special guests The Rugrats from Nickelodeon and Wes Walz, former Minnesota Wild Captain and current Fox Sports North Wild Analyst. The Wrecking Crew from Grand Rapids provided the musical entertainment.
Special thanks to the over 130 employees of Paul Bunyan Communications who made the event possible and run as smooth as possible! We would also like to thank the Bemidji Fire Department, Lueken’s Village Foods, The Party Store, Minnesota State Patrol, Bemidji Police Department, Beltrami County Sheriff’s Department, Paul Bunyan Transit, Minnesota Department of Transportation, Headwater’s Science Center, Bob’s Econo Pump, Bemidji Area Tennis Association, Boy Scouts, Concordia Language Villages, Boys and Girls Club of Bemidji, Sanford Health Accessories, and Raphael’s Bakery for all their help.
Recently new federal legislation was passed that allows Internet Service Providers to sell their customers’ web browsing history. Paul Bunyan Communications wants to reassure its members that no matter what the law allows they do not collect and sell member’s web browsing history.
“Our members’ privacy is of the utmost importance to our member-owned and governed cooperative. We have never sold member web browsing history and have no plans to do so in the future regardless of what the rules and regulations may allow,” said Gary Johnson, Paul Bunyan Communications CEO/General Manager.
“As you might imagine we are getting calls from concerned customers and members of our cooperative as the news of this new legislation spreads. We feel it is extremely important to reassure our customers that our cooperative will not sell their web browsing history. It’s your cooperative and your data, period. Any provider who sells their customers’ web browsing history without their consent is putting profits ahead of the trust of its customers and we believe that flies in the face of common decency, customer privacy, and certainly our cooperative values and principles,” added Johnson.
Paul Bunyan Communications’ GigaZone Gaming Championship, the first stadium-style eSporting event in northern Minnesota, has been awarded the Calix Best Innovation in Residential Subscriber Experience for 2017.
The Calix Innovation Awards are given annually to Calix customers – technology companies from around the world – who demonstrated outstanding creativity when leveraging Calix technology to deploy best-in-class services. The award recognizes innovation in the use of access, premises, and cloud technologies to transform businesses and networks.
“Congratulations to Paul Bunyan Communications on their Best of Innovation in Residential Subscriber Experience Award!” said Michael Weening, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Calix. “Typically, events of this type and caliber are only found in major metropolitan areas. The GigaZone Gaming Championship and other progressive initiatives underscore Paul Bunyan’s commitment to their rural region and their willingness to be industry innovators and leaders, whether that’s building one of the largest rural all-fiber optic gigabit broadband networks in the country or creating this exceptional gaming event. The award is well deserved.”
“We are honored to receive this innovation award from Calix. It’s very rewarding to see how the region is embracing this event that showcases our Calix-enabled broadband technology and creative and talented technical team. Attendance doubled at our second GigaZone Gaming Championship held in September!” said Gary Johnson, Paul Bunyan Communications CEO/General Manager.
This international award is the second prominent recognition the GigaZone Gaming Championship has received this year. In May, Paul Bunyan Communications received the 2017 TeleChoice Award for their complete marketing campaign of the GigaZone Gaming Championship by the NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association. The annual awards program honors excellence in public relations and marketing.
Paul Bunyan Communications has been awarded a Border to Border Broadband Grant from the state of Minnesota to expand its fiber optic services to portions of St Louis, Hubbard and Itasca Counties.
As a result, the cooperative will begin expansion construction next spring that will pass a minimum of 830 locations. The areas include the Hwy 34 corridor between Nevis and Park Rapids in Hubbard County [Map: Park Rapids HWY 34 Cooridor], portions of the Side Lake Area that include locations in both Itasca County [Map: Side Lake Area] and St. Louis County, and an area Southeast of Bigfork and North of Scenic Highway [Map: Scenic Highway North]. The project is estimated to cost $1.78 million, with Paul Bunyan Communications contributing $980,990, and the State of Minnesota Border to Border grant contributing $802,620.
“We are excited to continue our efforts to bring broadband Internet speeds and services to those currently without it in our region. Our cooperative has a long history of expanding our network to unserved areas but it has become more difficult to go it alone without grant support. Thanks to the State of Minnesota Border to Border Grant Program we will be able to reach even more homes and businesses with speeds of up to a Gigabit per second further extending one of the largest rural Gigabit networks in the country!,” said Gary Johnson, Paul Bunyan Communications CEO/General Manager.
Paul Bunyan Communications expects to finalize the expansion plans by early spring and will contact locations along the upcoming expansion routes shortly thereafter. Construction will start in the summer and will be completed by June 30, 2020. Those in the region interested in keeping up to date on the project can look for updates here on our website. Those in Itasca County can also join the Paul Bunyan Communications Itasca County Fiber Projects group on Facebook.
“This is a big deal to those in our project areas. I am excited about the opportunities that Paul Bunyan’s technology will bring to these locations. Employees will be able to work from home, students will have access to vast educational resources at incredible speeds, and seniors will be able to stay in their homes longer with telemedicine.” added Steve Howard, Paul Bunyan Communications Information Technology and Development Manager. “Access to high quality affordable Internet has been our focus at the cooperative since 1999. Our team has built a world class all-fiber optic network that has made it happen.” said Howard.
“I must salute the hard work of our elected officials who have championed the Border to Border Broadband Grant Program. I want to thank all of them and also the Office of Broadband Development that oversees the program. This makes a world of difference in so many ways to a lot of people right here in northern Minnesota!” said Johnson.
All of the cooperative’s services will become available once the network is operational including GigaZone service options like unprecedented Broadband Internet speeds of up to 1000 Mbps – a Gigabit, PBTV Fusion and low cost unlimited local and long distance GigaZone voice telephone service. There is no membership fee to join Paul Bunyan Communications, membership is included by subscribing to either local phone service or GigaZone Internet service.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently approved a plan to rescind “Net Neutrality” rules that prohibit Internet service providers (ISP) from favoring or disfavoring certain Internet traffic, content or websites.
Paul Bunyan Communications wants to reassure our members that they will not be impacted by this FCC action while using our service. The Cooperative has never treated Internet traffic differently based on application or type of traffic and has no plans to do so in the future.
“There are many concerned about today’s FCC action. Time will tell whether ISP’s elect to put profits ahead of what’s best for customers, but as a member-owned cooperative, we certainly will not” said Gary Johnson, Paul Bunyan Communications CEO/General Manager.
Paul Bunyan Communications has earned Apple Premium Service Provider status for 2018! Apple’s Premium Service Provider Program recognizes service locations that deliver exceptional service based upon customer satisfaction for repair quality, repair time and professionalism.
This accolade is given to an elite tier of Apple Authorized Service Providers in recognition of their unparalleled commitment to technical excellence and customer service. According to Apple, “Premium Service Providers consistently deliver exceptional repair support and customer experience that meet Apple’s exacting standard for high-quality repair and prompt service.”
Paul Bunyan Communications Certified Apple Service Center is located at the cooperative’s Bemidji headquarters at 1831 Anne Street. The Apple Service Center is open Monday-Friday from 8:30-5:30 p.m. and services Mac and PC computers along with Apple iPad, iPhone, iPod, Apple Watch, Beats and Apple TV warranty and non-warranty service.
“This is a testament to our outstanding staff and the superior level of customer service they provide our customers. The expertise and care they provide in working with each customer is what makes our Apple Service Center so successful.” said Leo Anderson, Paul Bunyan Communications Digital Services Supervisor.
Great job April, Aurora, Jesse, Adam, and all of our staff that has worked hard to make this possible.
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Paul Bunyan Communications is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
