June 21 – The independent telephone companies of South Dakota re-elected Santel Communications General Manager Ryan Thompson to serve a one-year term on SDN Communications’ Board of Managers during its recent annual meeting.
SDN is owned by 17 member telephone companies – the cooperative, municipal, tribal and family-owned telephone companies in South Dakota. Together, SDN and its owner companies operate a 30,000 mile fiber optic network reaching into eight states. SDN is a business-to-business telecommunications company providing: Broadband connectivity among office locations; business-class Internet services; managed routers, firewalls and remote network monitoring; networking equipment.
SDN specializes in serving banks, health care, agricultural businesses, government, and education.
SDN is governed by nine board members, who are elected annually by the general managers of the 17 owner companies. The entire board includes:
1.    Mark Benton, Midstate Communications, Kimball
2.    Rod Bowar, Kennebec Telephone Company, Kennebec
3.    Jerry Heiberger, ITC, Clear Lake
4.    Randy Houdek, Venture Communications Cooperative, Highmore
5.    Dennis Law, Golden West Telecommunications Cooperative, Wall
6.    Steve Meyer, Swiftel Communications, Brookings
7.    Bryan Roth, TrioTel Communications, Salem
8.    Ryan Thompson, Santel Communications Cooperative, Woonsocket
9.    Ross Petrick, Alliance Communications Cooperative, Garretson.