TDS Telecom, TDS Telecommunications LLC, is an American telecommunications company with headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems Inc, and is the seventh-largest local exchange carrier in the U.S. TDS Telecom offers telephone, broadband Internet and television services to customers in thirty states and more than 900 rural and suburban communities, though it also serves some urban metropolitan communities. It also sells businesses communications services including VoIP (managed IP hosted) phone service, dedicated broadband Internet and hosted-managed services. With headquarters in Madison, TDS Telecom operates TDS Broadband LLC, and BendBroadband, and TDS Metrocom, LLC. Combined, the company employs nearly 3,300 people. TDS Telecom and parent company TDS Inc. are celebrating 50 years in business in 2019. In 1969, LeRoy T. Carlson created Telephone and Data Systems. Through prudent acquisitions, TDS Telecom was formed and is comprised of telephone companies formed by local families, farmers, and co-ops to connect their communities to the world.