Shentel

Shenandoah Telecommunications Company, doing business as Shentel, is a publicly traded telecommunications company headquartered in Edinburg, Virginia. It operates a digital wireless and wireline network in rural Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.^[4]

Shenandoah Telecommunications Company

Trade name	Shentel
Company type	Public
Traded as	Nasdaq: SHEN S&P 600 component Russell 2000 component
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1902; 123 years ago (1902)[1]
Headquarters	Edinburg, Virginia , U.S.
Services	Local and long-distance telephone service, cable television, Internet access, wireless Internet access, digital phone, fiber-optic Internet, wholesale
Revenue	$612 million (2017)[2]
Operating income	$46.5 million (2017)[2]
Net income	$-6.995 million (2016)[2]
Number of employees	1200 [3]
Website	shentel.com

History

Shentel was founded in January 1902 as the Farmers' Mutual Telephone System of Shenandoah County (FMTS).^[5] This was one of a number of Farmers' Mutual telephone systems established in rural areas of the United States. The company's initial goal was to bring telephone service to rural residents of Shenandoah County, VA.^[6] In 1960 the name changed to Shenandoah Telephone Company, then in 1981 to Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel).^[4] The company launched cable TV service and a fiber optic network in the 1980s. In 1984 Shentel added mobile and paging services. In 1990 Shentel launched Shenandoah Cellular, the first company in Virginia to offer cellular service to a rural area. Internet service was made available to Shentel customers in 1994.^[4]

In the 2000s Shentel began to expand its cable footprint - purchasing cable assets from Rapid Communications in Virginia and West Virginia in 2008,^[7] and acquiring JetBroadband in southern Virginia and southern West Virginia in 2010.^[8] Later in 2010, Shentel purchased two small cable systems from Suddenlink Communications (one in West Virginia, the other in Maryland).^[9]

In May 2016, Shentel finished acquiring its competitor Ntelos^[10] for 640 million dollars.^[11] acquiring 297,500 subscribers. The deal also transferred an additional 291,000 subscribers from Sprint in exchange for Ntelos spectrum,^[12][13] making Shentel the sixth largest public wireless company in the United States.^[4]

In February 2019, Shentel announced the agreement to purchase Big Shandy Broadband, a Kentucky-based cable television, broadband Internet and phone provider.^[14]

On August 27, 2020, T-Mobile USA decided to purchase the wireless assets of the company.^[15]

In October 2023, Shentel announced their acquisition of The Chillicothe Telephone Company (dba Horizon Telcom) and its assets; thus expanding their "Glo Fiber" branded fiber network into the South-Eastern Ohio area. ^[16]

In March 2024, Shentel agreed to the sale of its cell tower portfolio to Vertical Bridge, reportedly the largest private owner of communications towers in the US, for $310.3 million in cash.^[17]