NineStar Connect history

The idea of electric lights on Hancock County farms seemed a distant dream in 1934 when Hancock County Farm Bureau President John T. Wilson of Green Township first brought up the idea at a meeting.

On August 14, 1935, an organizational meeting of thirty-nine people from various Hancock County Townships was held at the Memorial Building in Greenfield to establish the Hancock County Rural Electric Membership Corporation.

At the beginning of 1936, residents in unserved areas were solicited to become members of the new cooperative.

Hancock County REMC applied for a loan on August 5th and on February 1, 1937 was approved for an initial loan of $325,000.

In 1939, the bylaws were amended to allow individuals in southern portions of Hamilton and Madison County to join the cooperative and receive service.

Charles Peal, and installed the first telephone in the community. It became a cooperative in 1950 once merged with Maxwell, Mohawk, New Eden and Willow Branch Telephone companies.

Conversely, Hancock County REMC had reach 2,000 members by 1954.

In 1971, the REMC invested in a 5,000 KVA portable substation on a flatbed trailer to insure continuous service should a substation need to be repaired.

Also in 1978, the REMC joined with 23 other rural electric systems to establish the Wabash Valley Power Association in order to guarantee a reliable source of wholesale power.

On July 1, 1979, HRTC purchased the Sulphur Springs Telephone Company in Henry County and consolidated it into the Markleville exchange.

In January, 1981, the REMC moved to a factory building previously occupied by Industrial Products located at 2243 East Main Street in Greenfield.

In 1983, the REMC and HRTC formed Central Indiana Communications, Inc. (“CICI”) to provide cable television service in unserved areas of Hancock County.

The cable television service was later sold to what is now Comcast and HRTC acquired the REMC’s 50% interest in CICI. In 1985, the REMC celebrated its 50 year anniversary with nearly 6,000 members.

Also, in 1992, the REMC began operating under the assumed business name of Central Indiana Power (“CIP”).

In 1995, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission issued the first competitive local exchange carrier license to HRTC’s wholly-owned subsidiary Diversified Communications.

In 1999, HRTC begins operating under the assumed business name of Hancock Telecom (“HT”) to better reflect the full line of telecommunications services it now offers, including competitive local exchange service.

Beginning in 2001, HT began to aggressively deploy fiber optic networks both inside and outside its incumbent territory.

In 2002 HT, along with 19 other independent telecom companies in the State, created Indiana Fiber Network (“IFN”) which is a state-wide fiber optic network.

In 2004 HT partnered with seven other telecom companies to establish Indiana Video Network (“IVN”), a video headend located in Maxwell that sends 200+ channels of internet protocol video via the IFN network from nearly Michigan to the Ohio River.

During the late summer of 2009, a conversation between CIP board chairman Jim Cherry and HT board chairman Phil Hayes led to discussing how the electric cooperative and telecom cooperative could partner and work closely together as both had in the past.

On October 30, 2010, a joint membership meeting of CIP and HT was held at the Mt.

On January 1, 2011, the merger become effective and the new cooperative, NineStar Connect, became only the second cooperative in the nation to be created from the consolidation of an electric and telecom cooperative.

In 2013, the Board of Directors began to recognize that electrical and fiber connectivity alone would not ensure quality growth in the community along with quality of place.

On August 24, 2016, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission issued an order authorizing NineStar Connect to provide water and wastewater services and NineStar Connect became the first cooperative in the United States to provide four utility services under a single cooperative entity.