[citation needed] Another company, Rocky Mountain Bell provided a toll line to the exchange in 1898 as part of a line between Boise, Idaho and Weiser, Idaho, and opened its own local telephone exchanges along the line in Ontario, Oregon in 1900 and Nyssa, Oregon in 1903.

That system competed directly with Rocky Mountain Bell and its connected local phone companies in the same towns.

In 1911 it bought the Oregon portion of the toll lines of both Rocky Mountain Bell and Independent Long Distance Telephone Company of Idaho, also taking the Ontario Independent Telephone Company in 1911 and Nyssa Owyhee in 1912.

[1] Malheur continued to remain an independent operation of Mountain States Telephone.

Malheur Bell was located in a state otherwise served by Pacific Telephone & Telegraph.