Allband was conceived by president John M. Reigle in the late 1990's when he built a home near Curran, Michigan and was unable to obtain a telephone to run his home-based business. He soon found that residents in this remote and isolated area has actually died from heart attacks, car wrecks, chainsaw accidents and lost homes in fires due to the lack of access to 911 services. These tragedies promp
ted his interest in starting a Telephone Cooperative. Allband is the first telephone cooperative in the state of Michigan. Allband's ultimate goal is not only to provide a robust network that overtime will improve the quality of life, and the economic, educational and health care opportunities for residents in Northeast Michigan. Allband was incorporated as a non-profit cooperative to provide telecommunications services to previously unserved areas in Michigan. Allband's objective is to serve the public interest by bringing telecommunications services to its members/customers into these unserved areas. On November 5, 2003, with encouragement and assistance from Michigan State University, various non-profit groups and the Michigan Senate and House Representatives, customers in the unserved area decided to incorporate Allband as a non-profit cooperative. Until Allband turned-up service on November 30, 2006, the Robbs Creek exchange was not served by an ILEC, even though it was surrounded by exchanges belonging to Verizon. Due to the low population density (less than 1.6 access lines per sq. mile) and lack of commercial investment, the Robbs Creek area was ultimately ignored by Verizon... and telecommunications services were denied to residents requesting them.
