The mood was somber at the Telephone Connection on Friday.

A sign had been taped to the glass front door, announcing the store’s closure and thanking Telephone Connection’s many customers for nearly three decades of business. Occasionally, the door was unlocked for a customer, there to wrap up old business. The door was locked behind those customers on their way out again.

The store’s closure was sudden and unusual. Telephone Connection wasn’t a failing business: since 1992, when the company partnered with U.S. Cellular to become an authorized agent for the area, the business had produced. But U.S. Cellular announced a new business model last year, one in which any town with a U.S. Cellular superstore would have no local competition. It was only a matter of time before the three authorized U.S. Cellular agents in Beaufort County — Washington’s Ace Paging, O’Neal’s Cellular Service in Chocowinity and Telephone Connection — got out of the business.

Telephone Connection owner Billy O’Neal had no choice but to close the doors when U.S. Cellular declined to renew the company’s contract, as it had with the two other authorized agents.

“For 22 years, we’ve been doing the best we could to provide efficient, friendly, hometown service to the people of Beaufort County,” O’Neal said. “We thought that with our longevity and performance, surely we would be one of the last to go.”

O’Neal referred to the fact that, because of U.S. Cellular’s new business plan, contracts for established authorized agents are not being renewed across the country. Because the contract involves a noncompete clause, small businesses like Telephone Connection have no choice but to bow out of the cellular-provider business for a year.

“We thought once they started closing these places, they would realize they’d made a serious error,” O’Neal explained. “But no such judgment was forthcoming. They made their decision and we’re gone.”

O’Neal said U.S. Cellular’s decision is indicative of changes in the cellular industry, some of which include lower prices and less-personalized service.

“Sometimes change is for the better. Hopefully, this will be one for the customers,” O’Neal said. “But I’m afraid it’s not.”

Telephone Connection’s official date of disconnection with U.S. Cellular is March 1, but O’Neal opted not to put his employees through the stress of working up to the deadline. His relationship with his four full-time and four part-time employees is close, he said — many of them have been with the company for years.

“They are our family,” O’Neal said. “When we told them, it was our original intent to close a week from now, but after the snow and ice and other things we had to deal with this week, we felt it was in the best interest of our employees to just close up shop. … It’s really, really difficult for all of us, but most especially for them — for the employees.”

Since 1985, Telephone Connection has amassed a loyal customer following: first, at its downtown Washington location, with residential and business phone sales and service, then getting in on the cellular service ground floor with Cellular One in 1989, which coincided with the purchase, and remodel, of its Carolina Avenue location. The switch to U.S. Cellular came in 1992.

“I want the customers to understand we really appreciate their patronage over the years,” O’Neal said. “We’ve regarded them as our friends, our customers and our business associates and we thank them all. … I don’t know what else to say.”