Paul Bunyan Telephone began distributing capital credit checks to its members totaling over $2.4 million today.

“We are very proud to return these capital credits to our members this year”, said Paul Freude, Paul Bunyan Telephone Chief Executive Officer and General Manager, “despite the downturn in the national economy, our cooperative has remained strong because of the high quality of services we provide, loyalty of our members, leadership of the Board of Directors, and our dedicated employees.”

On Thursday, Paul Bunyan Telephone Cooperative mailed out capital credit checks totaling over $2,400,000 to its members. This represents 33% of 1998’s allocation, and 20% of 2008’s allocation. All PBT subscribers who were a member in either of those years and accrued over $10 total in capital credits should receive a check in the next few days. The use of capital credit allocations are the cooperative’s way of individually securing each member’s share of the company’s net margins.

As a cooperative, Paul Bunyan Telephone is owned by the members it serves. Per the Bylaws, membership is established by subscribing to one line of local telephone service. Once a member, other services that apply towards capital credit returns include Paul Bunyan Long Distance, Paul Bunyan Net, Paul Bunyan Television, and Minnesota Gold Yellow Page Advertising.

“You want to talk about a win-win situation. Our members get high quality telecommunication services and they share in our success,” said Brian Bissonette, Paul Bunyan Telephone Marketing Supervisor, “the return a member receives is based on their patronage and our profit margin from that particular year. ”

“It’s rare that a customer gets money back from a service provider,” added Gary Johnson, Chief Operating Officer, “the cooperative structure allows us to give back to those who make us successful. It is truly providing service at cost.”

If you were a member of the cooperative in 1998, and/or 2008 and accrued more than $10 in total capital credit allocations, but do not receive a check by September 27, please contact Paul Bunyan Telephone at (218) 444-1234.

Paul Bunyan Telephone Cooperative has been offering the latest in communication services to Northern Minnesota since 1952. The service area currently spans over 4,500 square miles throughout most of Beltrami County and portions of Itasca, Hubbard, and Koochiching County including Cass Lake, Lake George, Laporte, Deer River, Bemidji, Grand Rapids, Puposky, Ponemah, Turtle River, Kelliher, Squaw Lake, Red Lake, Solway, Becida, Inger-Wirt, Cohasset, and Northome. Paul Bunyan Telephone services include local and long distance phone service, Internet services through Paul Bunyan Net, all-digital television service through Paul Bunyan Television, and more. Certain services are not available in all locations. Capital Credits are distributed whenever economically feasible as determined by the Paul Bunyan Telephone Board of Directors. Past performance of capital credit returns are no guarantee of future payouts.

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