Another method is to diversify. For many years, Garden Valley has relied on fees paid by long-distance carriers to go through its network. Those fees were kept relatively high in order to subsidize local services, according to Fish. But now the carriers are lobbying to bring the fees down, and Fish knows he'll lose that fight. So Garden Valley has looked elsewhere for revenue.
Garden Valley is also big on partnerships.
Another alliance resulted in Minnesota Equal Access Network Services Inc., now known as Onvoy. By banding together, Onvoy members were able to provide their customers with access equal to that of city residents to a variety of long-distance carriers. Onvoy is also Minnesota's largest Internet service provider with a fiber optics network spanning 2,000 miles. Through this network, Garden Valley operates a video conferencing center with access to other conferencing facilities around the world. But it takes more than just efficient cash flows for cooperatives to keep up with technology trends.