Home-grown Union Telephone Co., which also does business as Union Wireless, plans to continue building out its Wyoming network this year.

Vice President John Woody said the 2007 work will focus on the eastern part of the state.

Several sites will be completed in the Laramie, Cheyenne and Casper areas. Cellular sites between Casper and Rawlins, and between Casper and Shoshoni also are planned.

With any luck, Woody said Union Wireless will have reasonably good coverage throughout the state by the end of the year.

"We do like to do better than that, so I expect we'll be building sites five years from now," he said.

Woody added that most years the company expects to invest between $12 million and $15 million in new sites.

In addition to serving Union Wireless customers, cellular tower capacity also is available for lease to other carriers.

"As long as we have space available and the tower can take the additional load of the other carrier, we'll let them on the site," Woody said.

The company leases space to county entities and industrial users of radio as well.

In addition to Wyoming, Union Wireless provides service in northwestern Colorado and portions of Utah, but no expansion is planned this year in those states.

"I think at this point we're probably going to try and take care of the expansion we have on our plate before we bite off another big chunk," Woody said.

Union Telephone Co. was incorporated in 1914. In 1956, John D. Woody, the founder of Union Telephone, was well past retirement age and found the company was not producing enough income to support himself and his family, according to the company's Web site. The board of directors agreed to offer the whole company to AT&T for $1. AT&T refused the offer.

Today, Union Telephone Co. has about 43,000 wireless customers in Wyoming, and about 8,500 land line customers. Its headquarters are in Mountain View.

Business Editor Tom Mast can be reached at tom.mast@casperstartribune.net, or call 307-266-0574.