Ontario & Trumansburg Telephone acquired by Oak Hill

Ontario & Trumansburg Telephone Companies (OTTC) announced April 1 that it had officially been acquired by an entity of the private equity firm Oak Hill Capital. According to OTTC, the company will now be able to expand its Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) network in the upstate New York region and deliver fast, reliable broadband internet to residential customers.

OTTC has been owned and operated by the Griswold family for more than 100 years. Fourth-generation owner Paul Griswold said that the sale was a great opportunity for the company to grow and that things won’t change much for the residential communities they serve.

“The phone company is not going away,” Griswold said. “The employees are going to stay employed, and we’re going to actually hire people.”

Most homes in upstate New York currently use Direct Subscriber Line (DSL) for internet, which is delivered via copper telephone lines. FTTH is a modern alternative to DSL that uses thin pieces of glass to transmit light to deliver internet. Fiber is a quicker, more reliable and more environmentally friendly way to bring internet access to the masses.

Upstate Fiber Networks (UFN), an extension of OTTC, is getting ready to begin construction in Waterloo, Seneca Falls and Geneva. Griswold said the company plans to offer FTTH service to these communities later this year. To bring fiber into a new place, it must be added to telephone lines or buried underground.

Griswold will stay on with the company as president, and his two children will stay with the company, too.

“I finally have a boss now,” Griswold said. “We report to a board of directors on a quarterly basis. We have goals that we have to hit. With this private equity company, when you do what you’re supposed to do, they stay out of your business and let you work.”

This is the second time Griswold has worked with Oak Hill. In 2017, he sold Finger Lakes Technologies Group to them, which has built 3,000 miles of fiber stretching from Buffalo to Binghamton for commercial customers.

Griswold’s daughter Ashley Gustafson, director of customer operations and marketing, said that COVID-19 and people’s new work and school habits created an urge and necessity for fiber internet in homes.

“When the pandemic hit, there was a huge rush of people wanting service,” Gustafson said. “Our staff had to band together and handle a volume we had never really experienced. It was great to give people a way to connect again and get kids back in school, and let people work from home and maintain jobs.”

She said last year, their goal for home installations was 135 per month, but their crew routinely did between 200 and 300 all last summer and fall.

“FTTH is something that people have been talking about for years,” Gustafson said. “But the pandemic has accelerated the need because everyone’s home. There’s been a big shift because everybody has realized how much you need reliable internet, and when you don’t have it, you notice it a lot more when you’re home all day.”

She said the driving force behind the sale was to be able to help more people and give them another option for reliable internet.

“To have the capital investment behind us allows us to build faster and farther, we can do more,” Gustafson said. “This new venture will allow us to create a more affordable service and reach more people in our community.”

Gustafson said she’s excited to see what the future holds for OTTC.

The Trumansburg location of OTTC is currently closed to the public due to COVID-19. Visit their website to learn more at https://ottctel.com.