Hood Canal Communications

Hood Canal Telephone Co., Inc. was founded in Union, Washington in 1934 by Morisen Pixley. Pixley, a former newspaper man from New York, also founded Washington State’s first Public Utility District #1 in Potlatch. In 1956, Richard (Dick) and Eleanor Buechel purchased the Telephone Company from Walter Karnop. At that time, the company had 123 telephone customers and offered ten- party lines. The switching equipment was located in the basement of a home, while the business office was located at the Union City Garage. In 1967, the company converted from operator-assisted long distance dialing to direct distance dialing. A community antenna system, known as Hood Canal Cablevision, was formed in 1971. In 1995, HCC began offering dial-up Internet service and has since added high-speed options such as DSL, cable modems and fiber optics. HCC’s Internet access was also expanded to include 24-hour tech support, web site hosting, SPAM and virus filtering and free Internet classes. The name Hood Canal Communications was adopted to better reflect the variety of services that the company offers. In 2000, a new business office was opened on Olympic Hwy North in Shelton to better serve our customers in that community. A fiber to the home project was completed in 2004 that brought high-speed Internet, Cable TV and phone service to the Squaxin Island Indian Reservation. Today, Hood Canal Communications strives to continue bringing the latest in telecommunications technology to Mason County.