Midcontinent Communications

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Midcontinent Communications

Type	Jointly owned by Midcontinent Media and Comcast
Founded	ca. 1930s in Minneapolis, Minnesota (as Midcontinent Media)
Headquarters	Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Key people	Mark Niblick, CEO
Industry	Telecommunications, Cable TV, Internet
Products	Cable television, Internet, Telephony
Website	www.midcocomm.com

Midcontinent Communications is a provider of cable TV, internet, and general telephony services for home and business, serving the states of Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota (where the company is headquartered, in the city of Sioux Falls). Midcontinent does business in more than 200 communities and serves a total of more than 200,000 customers. It is a partnership between Midcontinent Media and Comcast.

Midcontinent Media (aka "Midco") was originally founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the 1930s, as an operator of movie theaters. The company remained in that business until the 1990s, when it sold its theaters to various chains, including Carmike Cinemas.

Midco diversified and extended its reach into other areas of the Upper Midwest, providing telephone and cable TV in rural parts of its service area, starting in the 1960s. That is where the foundation for Midcontinent Communications began. Midcontinent also provides high-speed internet via cable modem to most of its communities.

Midco previously provided paging service, starting in 1985, but sold its paging services to another South Dakota company, Vantek Communications, in 2004.

Midcontinent Communications now serves both urban and rural communities and is the most-prominent cable TV provider in many of its service areas. It also provides telephone service, internet access (through its MidcoNet service), and leased data circuits via fiber-optic cable for business.