Madison Communications, INC. is a privately owned communications and entertainment company headquartered in Staunton, Illinois. Their new customer communications center was built in 2006 where approximately 50 full-time employees are staffed. Madison offers Digital Cable, HDTV, High Speed Internet, Telephone Services, and Advertising Services to residents and businesses in Madison and Macoupin counties in Illinois.
Madison began as a local exchange carrier over 75 years ago, expanding into a full-service communications provider offering Digital Cable, HDTV, High Speed Internet, Telephone, Advertising and Local and Long Distance Services. They are committed to bringing advanced technology to rural America by utilizing their extensive fiber-optic network. Madison delivers a wide array of product and service offerings to both residential and business customers with the added value of 24-hour local customer service and support.
Today, Madison provides Phone, High Speed Internet, and Cable TV services to central Illinois communities located in portions of Madison and Macoupin Counties, namely, Staunton, Livingston, Williamson, Alhambra, New Douglas, Hamel, Worden, Prairietown, Dorsey, Holiday Shores, Bunker Hill, Benld, Sawyerville, Mt. Clare, Mt. Olive, Wilsonville, Woodburn and Shipman.
Madison is a leader in broadband communication services and has deployed a robust fiber-optic data/voice network to service this mid-state region. Madison currently services the following communities located in mid-state Illinois: Alhambra, Benld, Bunker Hill, Hamel, Holiday Shores, Livingston, Mt. Clare, Mt. Olive, New Douglas, Prairietown, Sawyerville, Staunton, Williamson, Wilsonville and Worden.
Madison originally began in 1940 as a family owned and operated local exchange carrier called Worden Telephone Company. In the early 1980’s, Madison obtained the cable television franchise in Holiday Shores. During the 1980’s, Madison made significant upgrades to its network by installing digital telephone switching equipment, developing the cable television distribution network and cable television headend.
During the 1990’s, Madison Communications launched their first dial-up Internet service and also purchased Macoupin County Cablevision and five cable television franchise areas from Charter Communications. These cable properties were rebuilt and improved, preparing for the launch of digital cable and other advanced services.
In November of 2000, Madison launched digital cable television service, including an all-digital service option, pay per view capabilities and 50 premium movie channels like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Starz and Encore. Madison also implemented a local access channel, providing area news, IHSA playoff coverage, a community bulletin board and advertising opportunities for residential and business customers. Network ad insertion was introduced as a business advertising medium for such popular networks such as ESPN, HGTV, Fox Sports Midwest, Discovery, TNT and Lifetime.
The eighty strand miles of fiber that Madison started with has now expanded to over 11,000 strand miles within the network. In 2010, Madison became a partner in Illinois Network Alliance, a statewide fiber network which provides the company with presence in several major internet exchanges and central offices. Madison’s fiber infrastructure and redundant equipment architecture is designed for the services of the future. Just as importantly, it is designed to ensure reliability today.
Looking ahead, Madison acquired 700 MHz spectrum in 2008 that can potentially serve various locations in Illinois and Indiana. They continue to evaluate the wireless communications business in the Midwest marketplace. Many of these markets are under-served or un-served areas and a natural fit for fixed and mobile broadband services combining voice, entertainment and data applications.
Madison’s network of 2011 provides high speed internet service with some of the fastest download speeds in the industry. Their extensive channel lineup includes over 200 channels, a high definition tier with today’s most popular programming, DVR Services and special interest and all-family programming. Madison is always looking to expand their channel lineup and they encourage their customers to suggest additional services and programming.
Madison is looking to the future of entertainment and they are excited to bring new and advanced services to market. Their goal is to meet the needs of anchor institutions, consumers and commercial customers located throughout their existing and newly acquired licensed territories.
