75 Years And Just Getting Started

Seventy-five years ago, the founders of our cooperative believed something deeply practical and quietly bold: that rural communities deserved the same access, opportunity, and connection as anywhere else. Not someday—but now. Rural areas work hard to deliver resources to the rest of the country. We had work to do then and work to do now. The success of our work requires durable connectivity.

Reliable broadband is no longer a luxury or “nice to have.” Businesses won’t relocate—or stay—without it. Students can’t fully learn without it. Healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, and entrepreneurship all depend on it. When you build a network, you build it for tomorrow, not just today. That’s why fiber matters. Fiber meets future needs. And that’s why we work hard every day to earn your trust and deliver reliable, high-quality service that helps our communities grow.

The idea of “universal service” began in 1934, formally recognized in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, ensuring that all Americans—no matter where they live—have access to comparable and affordable communications services. This was 30 years ago, also opening the door to deliver digital communication over our copper telephone lines – hello dial-up internet! But long before that language existed, rural America was already solving the problem.

In 1951—five years before the Interstate Highway System began stitching the country together—Kanokla was formed as a cooperative to build hundreds of miles of copper telephone lines across south-central Kansas and north-central Oklahoma. Private utilities had passed us by. So local communities did what they have always done: they came together.

The 1936 Rural Electrification Act made it possible by providing low-cost federal loans to cooperatives willing to serve rural areas. Telecommunications were later added, recognizing that connection—like electricity—was essential to economic life. Those programs didn’t create an easy business case; they created a possible one. And often, they supported builds that happened simply because it was the right thing to do.

Today, the Rural Electrification Administration is known as the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), and Kanokla has continuously borrowed, rebuilt, and modernized our network through the decades. Small telephone companies along the Kansas-Oklahoma line pooled resources, shared risk, and connected rural economies to the rest of the nation—and eventually, the world.

Fast forward 75 years. It’s 2026.

Kanokla is still doing what we were created to do: building networks that connect rural communities to opportunity. Like the interstate highways that move people and goods, we carry billions of pieces of information every day across the “internet superhighway.” We build bigger pipes, add fiber strands, expand meet points, and increase capacity. It’s constant, unglamorous, essential work—keeping pace with the demands of modern life, whether you’re standing on Main Street or in the middle of a pasture.

When Kanokla was formed in 1951, the world was changing fast. That year brought color television, transcontinental TV broadcasts, the first computer delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau, and direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service. It was also the year I Love Lucy premiered, presidential terms were limited to two, and history took a sharp turn in countless ways.

Seventy-five years later, that moment feels distant—but the spirit feels familiar.

Despite headlines about rural decline, what we see every day tells a different story: one of resilience, innovation, and possibility. With the right infrastructure, rural America doesn’t just survive—it competes. The future here is not smaller. It’s smarter, more connected, and full of potential.

If the last 75 years taught us anything, it’s this: when rural communities invest in themselves and build for the future, remarkable things happen.

We can’t fully imagine what the next 75 years will bring—but we’re proud to be building the network that will help carry it forward.