Company Overview

BEK provides communications services to south-central North Dakota:  

• Within the cooperative area, the customers are the owners. BEK’s member-owners elect representation to the nine-person board of directors which guides the progress of the company. By doing business with the company, members earn capital credits. The capital credits are used by the company to fund investments and upgrades to the facilities and equipment, in order to provide advanced telecommunications services to the members. After a period of time, if the board of directors determines that the financial condition of the cooperative will not be impaired, these capital credits may be paid out to the members through a general distribution.
• BEK also serves the rural area located directly around Bismarck.  Within the rural Bismarck area, customers are treated fairly.  Although they are not members of the cooperative, they recieve the same great services at affordable prices. 
   

Click here to view a map of the BEK territory.

Services & Network
Over the years, we have invested heavily in the electronics and infrastructure necessary to deliver state-of-the-art services to our customers. The complex design of the network gives BEK the capability of providing many basic and advanced services including: local and long distance telephone service, high speed Internet access, digital TV, advanced intelligent network features, ISDN, dedicated data circuits and more.

BEK’s network consists of a 1,400 mile fiber optic backbone that supports a digital host switch in Steele with 15 digital remote switches for TDM services as well as DWDM multi-media transport to deliver the broadband and IPTV services offered today. We provide 24/7 network monitoring and 24 hour trouble reporting.

For our transmission facilities, we are in the middle of a multi-year plan of upgrading to fiber to the home in the remote areas, to bring the functionality of the digital services out to the last mile of line, thus allowing all subscribers access to the most advanced technologies even in the most rural areas.

Affiliated Companies
BEK is a member-owner of Dakota Carrier Network (DCN). DCN provides OC12, OC3, DS3 and DS1 broadband services to any location in the state of North Dakota. The DCN network connects to surrounding states and has an international connection to Canada.

BEK is also a member-owner of North Dakota Long Distance (NDLD). NDLD provides business and residential long distance and calling card services.