Arvig Celebrates 75 Years: A Legacy of Innovation, Growth and Transformation

/EIN News/ -- PERHAM, Minn., Jan. 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In the early 1990s, Allen Arvig heard rumblings about a relatively obscure, largely untested, and somewhat clunky new technology.

In the telecommunications industry at the time, it was common to hear of promising innovations, even if they didn’t all live up to the hype. This particular technology, in its own right, was still unproven—and from a business standpoint at least—risky. 

But if you kept an ear to the ground, as Arvig did, the chatter about this fledgling new development kept getting louder. So Arvig, a seasoned executive at the helm of a family-owned phone company, kept listening. 

As time would tell, it’s a good thing he did.

This year, Arvig—the company Allen’s parents, Royale and Eleanor, purchased in October 1950—will celebrate 75 years. For the independent, Perham, Minn.-based company, It’s a milestone marked by a transformation from a small, rural telephone company to one of the nation’s largest independent broadband providers. 

However, it's hard to make such a leap without a few bold moves throughout the company’s history, including a pivotal bet in the 1990s on a relatively unknown technology—the internet.

“All you heard about was internet, internet, internet,” Arvig recalled. “We said, ‘That is the future of telephony—it’s the fiber optics and the internet.’”

Phones, fiber and the future

Over the decades, gutsy decisions and a commitment to innovation have defined the company’s journey. Arvig has had many trailblazing moments throughout its history, with its family operators never shying away from being industry leaders and early adopters when the opportunity is called.

In 1955, Arvig, then known as the East Otter Tail Phone Company, was only the third in the nation to transition to buried cable phone lines. By 1965, the company had become one of the first in Minnesota to start moving from party lines to private lines.

Arvig played a part in pioneering fiber optics. In 1990, Arvig took the reins of a pilot program to install phone and TV connections via fiber to 110 homes in the New York Mills area. At the time, fiber was untested and expensive to build. Arvig’s project would become a model for the modern fiber-to-the-home services that are commonplace today.

“We’ve always been a leading-edge company in technology,” Arvig said. “If something was coming along, we liked to get in first and try it.”

Forward-thinking has paid dividends in an industry where innovation drives growth; growth means competing, and competing means surviving. Mention the internet today, and it’s a no-brainer, but in its infancy, the information superhighway had a few speed bumps along the way.

“There were times when ‘the leading edge’ felt a little more like the bleeding edge,” Allen said. 

Some technology, though, just takes time.

“The internet wasn’t a big success at first,” said David Arvig, Vice President and COO. “It was expensive to build and costly for customers. But even with the ups and downs, I think we still saw tremendous potential in the internet and the impact it would eventually have on people’s lives—so we kept investing in it.”

Arvig’s investment in the internet eventually paid off, becoming the company’s core service. Arvig has built one of Minnesota's most expansive and densely connected fiber broadband networks, with almost 17,500 route miles, growing rapidly yearly.

“We’ve set a goal of trying to build at least 1,000 route miles per year,” David said. “A key area of focus is getting fiber to as many communities as possible—especially in rural areas.” 

Bigger than broadband

Arvig has diversified through the years to include four wholly-owned affiliate companies: Arvig Answering Solutions, a 24-7 live call answering service; Arvig Construction, a full-service construction division offering fiber to the home, conduit, and duct systems, directional boring and underground utility construction; Arvig Media, which provides custom website and graphic design, digital advertising and video production; and All State Communications, which provides communication and data wiring, fire alarms systems, security and video systems, access control technology, structured cabling and audio-visual systems.

Four generations of family

The company is now in its fourth generation as a family operation. 

Allen serves as President and CEO; and his wife, Carmen Arvig, is Board Secretary. They have five children also active in the company: 

• David Arvig is Vice President and Chief Operating Officer 
• Ashley Arvig is Vice President/Chief Operating Officer at Arvig Answering Solutions 
• Jay is Arvig’s Fleet Manager and Director of Building & Grounds 
• Michele Arvig-Biederman, Marketing Team
• Dennis Arvig, Software Development Team 
  

David’s daughter, Elena, representing the fourth generation, is the Director of Customer Experience. 

Arvig employs more than 900 people and became an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) company in 2002. Today, 40 percent of Arvig is employee-owned. In 2014, Carmen Arvig led an effort to create a program for employees called Arvig Way. Through Arvig Way, employees can donate PTO or cash gifts to other employees who have experienced a life-changing event, such as an illness or personal tragedy.  

If Royale and Eleanor Arvig could see what has become today of the small telephone company they purchased in October of 1950, they’d be in for a surprise, Allen said.

“It would be unrecognizable.”

About Arvig

For more information about Arvig’s 75th-anniversary celebration, visit arvig.com/75thanniversary.

Arvig is a local, employee-owned broadband and full-service telecommunications provider headquartered in Perham, Minnesota. Committed to delivering cutting-edge technology to customers throughout the region, Arvig provides residential and business internet, television, phone, security, and mobile services. Additionally, Arvig provides a wide variety of business technology solutions. Visit arvig.com for additional information.

Arvig’s School Partnership Program allows customers to donate $1 from their internet payment each month—at no extra cost—to a school in the Arvig service area. Arvig created the program in 2010 to offset the cost of technology and supplies for area schools. Since then, the program has generated over $1 million to provide laptops, tablets, and other technology for schools in the service area.

Arvig established the Royale B and Eleanor M Arvig Memorial Scholarship Fund to emphasize higher education and encourage future leaders to create and maintain strong, vibrant communities that will lead to growing the rural economy and shaping a prosperous future. More than $100,000 in scholarship funding is awarded annually to high school students in the Arvig service area.

Arvig awards more than $500,000 to 160 Minnesota communities and counting each year, supporting local Boys & Girls Clubs, 4-H chapters, schools, recreational centers, arts and culture groups, and many other local organizations.

Media Contact:

Rachel Laudenbach, Communications Manager

Arvig | 150 Second Street SW

218.346.8653 | Rachel.Laudenbach@arvig.com