Glenwood Telephone Company (GTC), a third generation, family owned, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) & Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) regulated, registered Georgia Corporation is the smallest, privately owned telephone company in Georgia. It is with pride and commitment that we boast of being “the best little telephone company and ISP in Georgia.”

W. R. Stanford originally founded Glenwood Telephone Company in 1898. It was then passed on to his son C. R. Stanford.  The company was then purchased in 1940 by W. H. Harvey and Odessa Jones.  Three years later on January 2, 1943, they sold the company to Leon B. Adams and Eloise Cox Adams. The Adams’ purchase included a struggling exchange with thirty-three subscribers with one-party residential rates of $1.50 per month and one-party business rate of $2.50, which was comparable to what most of Georgia’s rural telephone exchanges were authorized to collect.  They collected the whole sum of $56.00 in their first month of ownership. The house previously occupied by Mr. And Mrs. Jones was also part of the purchase because the  switchboard was located there.  The Adams moved into their new home where Mrs. Adams assumed the duty of keeping the switchboard open twenty-four hours a day with the help of several local ladies including Mrs. Dot McDaniel, Miss Jean Maddox along with a Miss Anderson. The front room of their home became the business office and the social center of town.  While this popular operation was of great benefit to the community, it failed to provide the necessary funds to operate the company and support the family, forcing Mr. Adams to take other jobs.  He did quite a few other jobs and maintained the facilities in his old Dodge truck with only occasional part-time help. The Adams had two daughters, Janice Eloise and Beverly.  Beverly was killed in a tragic automobile accident at the age of nineteen.  Upon Mr. Adams’ death in 1982, Janice (Adams) O’Brien took over the management of the company and provided sound fiscal and management until her unexpected passing in October 2021.

Janice’s son, Jim O’Brien, moved to Glenwood in 2000 and previously was responsible for starting ISP services in Glenwood and has been in the IT and Telecommunications industry for well over 25 years. Today GTC offers 25/3 Mbps Internet to over 80% of it’s subscribers and is already well underway with upgrading our networks to 100% state-of-the-art 1 Gbps synchronous GPON buried fiber networks. Jim continues to work to bridge the Digital Divide in Wheeler County and South Georgia and looks forward to a bright future for GTC and its subscribers.

Glenwood Telephone Company is looking forward to the challenges of developing the area which it serves and especially anticipates the challenges of the changing telecommunications industry. We are proud of our company, our experienced and versatile employees, modern digital switching equipment, 99.8% percent buried plant, fiber optic toll service, all one-party service, reasonable rates and excellent service and public relations.  Customer service is very important to our company and we pride ourselves in our responsiveness to the needs of our customers and our community. The new technologies and opportunities of the Information age place exciting demands on “the best little telephone company in Georgia.”