Your local utility is now also your telephone company. Muscatine Power and Water has announced it is now offering telephone service to customers who have been and are being converted to the new all-fiber system MP&W is building in the community.

“We know that customers appreciate that their power, water, TV and Internet services are provided by a local, community-owned, not-for-profit entity,” said Sal LoBianco, General Manager, “and telephone is a natural extension of those existing services. With the fiber build-out and technological advances in telephony, the timing was perfect for us to give our customers a truly local choice for local, long distance, and international phone service.”

MP&W has been conducting live testing of the telephone system in homes over the past several weeks and with April 23rd as the official launch date, the Utility has already begun offering MachLink Phone as an option to customers being scheduled for their fiber installations. Phone service is currently only available for residential customers but will be rolled out to small business customers shortly.

“Landline phones are still a valuable service to many people. Our beta-testers were excited to try our service. In addition to a surprisingly low price, they’re loving the features available,” said Erika Cox, Employee and Community Relations Director. “We’re able to offer the most desirable features like caller ID, voicemail, call waiting, call forwarding, 3-way calling, and even anonymous call rejection to automatically block pesky ‘unknown’ numbers!”

Cox stressed that people will be most surprised how affordable the new phone service is, saying customers can add the service for under ten dollars a month to start, and with bundle discounts for TV and Internet users, MachLink Phone is an affordable option for anyone who wants the added security and reliability of a landline, especially in emergencies.

Cox said, “One of the top questions we get is, can I keep my number? Absolutely! And we will make switching easy for everyone.”