Horry Telephone Cooperative

Horry Telephone Cooperative (HTC) is America's largest telephone cooperative The cooperative was incorporated on June 16, 1952 to serve the rural areas of Horry County, South Carolina where it was cost prohibitive for national telephone companies to provide service.

Product Offerings

Telephone (ILEC)

Since 1954, HTC has offered telephone service to the residents of Horry and Georgetown Counties in South Carolina. The cooperative first offered party line service and eventually transitioned its customers to private line service as facilities were upgraded. Following the deregulation of AT&T, Horry Telephone Cooperative was awarded the status of incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC).

Long Distance

Because many of the beach areas were served by national providers such as GTE, Horry Telephone introduced Measured Extended area service (MEAS) in 1988 to reduce the cost of phone calls between the western portion of Horry County and the beach areas. This was expanded to include full long distance service under the name Horry Telephone Long Distance. National long distance service was first offered in 1992 by HTC Communications, Inc.

CLEC

In 1998, HTC Communications, Inc., received approval from the South Carolina Public Service Authority to...
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