Iowa Telecommunications Services Inc. completed its first year as a publicly traded company last month, one of several highlights of this past year.

The Newton-based company, now in its fifth year of operation, completed its aggressive delivery of DSL across its service areas in May, two months ahead of schedule. According to Alan Wells, Iowa Telecom’s president, CEO and director, the company installed the service in as many as eight exchanges per week this year to finish the job. Now, DSL is available in about 80 percent of the more than 440 rural communities served by Iowa Telecom, and the company is working on updates to its network that will allow it to offer the high-speed Internet service to an additional 5 percent of its customers.

The DSL expansion is already generating more revenue for the company, a trend expected to continue into the future. During the third quarter of 2005, DSL Internet access service revenues increased $1.5 million, or more than 107 percent, over the previous year.

Additional opportunities for growth for Iowa Telecom may come through acquisitions, and the company recently started testing these waters. On Dec. 12, it announced plans to acquire Montezuma Mutual Telephone Co. for a price of up to $10.475 million. Wells said this could be the first of many opportunities the company seizes to enter new markets.

“You never know when an opportunity for an acquisition might come along,” he said. “We think that acquisitions like this one, over the next few years, will be a big part of our growth.”

In addition to expanding Iowa Telecom’s “geographic footprint” in Iowa by purchasing telecommunications providers in the state, Wells isn’t ruling out the possibility of buying companies elsewhere.

The company dodged a bullet this fall when seven communities it serves voted down proposals to establish municipal telecommunications utilities. Wells said Iowa Telecom helped educate citizens on the issue, and he credits the communities’ resistance to change as a sign of Iowa Telecom’s responsiveness to their needs.

Looking ahead, Iowa Telecom also expects to benefit from a telecommunications deregulation bill approved during the 2005 legislative session. Deregulation, Wells said, allows the company to price its services competitively in communities where there are multiple service providers. Thanks to measures approved this year by the Iowa Utilities Board, Iowa Telecom is already seeing the benefits of deregulation in 28 communities it serves.

“Our ability to offer competitive pricing has already gotten a lot better, and it’s scheduled to get even better in 2008, when the legislature’s plan becomes final,” Wells said.