Ozarks Profile: Pat Bly

Tell us about your company.

SBC is a local provider of telecommunications services and products in Springfield and hundreds of other telephone exchanges in the 13 states and many countries that we serve. We provide total solutions for our customers' voice, data and communications needs. Locally, we are members of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce as well as many other chambers in southwest Missouri. We are partners in education with Mark Twain Elementary, and our employees and retired telephone pioneers spend thousands of hours investing their time and talents serving our local communities.

E. A. Woelk built Springfield's first telephone exchange in 1878 just two years after the telephone's invention by Alexander Graham Bell. The company was known as Springfield Telephone Company and grew to service 28 subscribers (13 business and 15 homes) by 1879! By 1882, the exchange had grown to a whopping 93 subscribers and was sold to the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company. In 1905, M&K merged with the Home Telephone Company to become Ozark Bell and later erected the Bell Telephone Building at 301 S. Jefferson Ave. In 1930, Ozark Bell formally merged with telephone companies in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas to become a single corporation Southwestern Bell Telephone Company now known as SBC.

What do you do?

I manage the day-to-day activities of SBC related to legislative, municipal, governmental and external affairs, including coordinating business partnerships and community relations activities.

What are some of the biggest issues in the telecommunications industry?

Competition is thriving in Missouri and, as a result, prices have dropped and consumers have a plethora of choices for all services related to communications. From local dial tone to Internet companies or long distance service providers to cellular companies, consumers have the opportunity to choose from myriad companies to best meet their telecommunications needs. Consumers, more and more, are able to secure all of their services which they need from one company like SBC or receive them a la carte from a variety of providers. Needless to say, our country's slow economy, bankruptcies and scandals in the industry have taken a major toll on the telecommunications industry, also resulting in job losses and some belt tightening by all concerned.

Please tell us about your family.

My wife's name is Linda and we have been married for 25 years. My two daughters are Kathleen, 16, and Molly, 12. Kathleen is a sophomore at Glendale and Molly is in the seventh grade at Hickory Hills.