| SkyLine Membership Corporation is a local, member-owned cooperative, established in 1951 to bring telephone service to rural residents of Alleghany, Ashe and Watauga counties. Today, SkyLine is the second-largest of nine telephone cooperatives in North Carolina. Through its 12-exchange network, SkyLine serves over 36,000 access lines across a five-county, 840-square-mile area in northwest North Carolina and east Tennessee. Democratically governed by a nine-member board of directors representing the membership, SkyLine employs a staff of 125 and operates customer service centers in Seven Devils, Sparta and West Jefferson. Its corporate offices are located at 1200 N.C. Highway 194 North in West Jefferson.
SkyLine, along with two other North Carolina telephone membership corporations, is an owner of Carolina West Wireless, a regional wireless carrier operating in six northwest North Carolina counties. In 1998, SkyLine established SkyBest Communications, Inc. as a wholly-owned subsidiary to assume operations of SkyLine's deregulated businesses.
Today, SkyLine and SkyBest provide a wide variety of telecommunications services - from basic dial tone services to enhanced calling features like Caller ID and Voice Mail to long distance, broadband Internet services and business systems solutions. The companies are currently focused on plans to deploy fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) technology to their customers.
SkyLine Telephone Board of Directors
Seated: I.S. Cooper, Treasurer; John Dixon, Chief Executive Officer; R.C. Mitchell, President; Buster Burleson, Vice-President; James L. Shepherd, Secretary. Standing: Ray Ward, Molly Gambill, J.L. Shumate, Assistant Secretary; D.C. Smith, Joseph McNeil; Raymond A. Parker III, Attorney. |
