Telephone and Data Systems

Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. is a Chicago-based telecommunications service company providing wireless products and services; cable and wireline broadband, TV and voice services; and hosted and managed services to approximately 6 million customers nationwide through its business units TDS Telecom and U.S. Cellular (nyse: USM) and OneNeck IT Solutions.

The company began as a rural phone company in Wisconsin in 1969. In 1983 it founded U.S. Cellular as a subsidiary. In 2001, it acquired Straus Printing Company and combined it with a previously acquired printing company, Suttle Press, to form Suttle-Straus as another subsidiary.

LeRoy T. Carlson, the founder of TDS, died in May 2016 at the age of 100.