In 1999, your Cooperative entered into an alliance with three other area electric cooperatives in order to provide additional services and value to the members of each participating cooperative.

This alliance, known as Southern Services, LLC., has since added two more cooperatives to its membership, and collectively the six cooperative members of Southern Services are providing electric energy to over 72,000 homes, farms and businesses throughout Southern Illinois.

In December of 2000, Southern Services began offering long distance telephone service at reduced rates which are often just a fraction of the cost of the major providers.

The acceptance of this service has been somewhat remarkable despite an initial glitch of "busy lines" caused by the rapid growth in the number of new customers being added.

New equipment was installed to address that problem and the Southern Services long distance telephone service has grown from zero accounts to 11,000 accounts in just a few months and continues to  grow daily.

A primary reason for the plan’s success is the number of "NO’s" included in the formula.  There are NO codes to dial, NO minimum fees, NO long term agreements,  and NO time of use restrictions.  The rate for all long distance calls within Illinois is 4.9 cents per minute.  State-to-state calls are all 6.9 cents per minute and all rates are the same 24 hours per day--7 days per week.

The plan also includes the option of a personal toll-free number for NO additional fee, and incoming calls to that number are billed at the same 4.9 and 6.9 cents per minute as noted above.  This is a great plan for those members who have kids in college or family members living away from home.

The Southern Services long distance plan is available to both members and non-members and elsewhere in this issue of the Illinois Country Living magazine, you will find a postage-paid reply card that will enable you to sign up for this service and begin enjoying a substantial savings on your long distance telephone bill; or call toll-free at 1-866-266-7531 for more information.