Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
MCLEOD-USA
MCLEOD-USA. McLeodUSA, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was one of the nation’s largest independent competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) during the years before its acquisition in 2008. The company also had offices in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and The Woodlands, Texas.
McLeodUSA provided integrated communications services, including local services, in 25 Midwest, Southwest, Northwest and Rocky Mountain states. The company was a facilities-based telecommunications provider with, as of September 30, 2005, 38 ATM switches, 38 voice switches, 697 collocations, 432 DSLAMs and approximately 1,700 employees.
The company was founded by former Cedar Rapids teacher Clark McLeod who entered into the long distance re-sale business. Eventually he sold that business and went into Local Exchange Carrier (LEC), using the State of Iowa funded fiber backbone as a helpful parallel. The company went public during the dot com boom, entered Chapter 11, reorganized, and then met the same fate a few years later. At one point the company had a market value in the billions.
On March 22, 2007, the company filed a prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for another initial public offering (IPO).On September 17, 2007, PAETEC Holding Corp. announced plans to acquire McLeodUSA in an all-stock merger for $557 million. The acquisition was completed in 2008. PAETEC became a subsidiary of Windstream Communications.
On March 17, 1998 the Dubuque City Council voted unanimously to give a $500,000 low-interest loan to the company to install a state-of-the-art digital telecommunications switch in Dubuque. The existing switch had been installed in 1983 by U. S. WEST. Business owners complained that the switch was outdated and U. S. West was reluctant to install the digital switch. (2)
See: MCLEOD TELEMANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION
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Source:
2. Wilkinson, Jennifer. "City Fills McLeod Dance Card," Telegraph Herald, March 18, 1998. p. 1. Online:https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=aEyKTaVlRPYC&dat=19980317&printsec=frontpage&hl=en