LISCO plans to end its telephone and Internet service offerings in Washington and Columbus Junction.

The Fairfield-based telecommunications company plans to discontinue service on Jan. 22, 2013 in the two communities, according to a notice to state regulators. It had only eight customers in Columbus Junction and 14 in Washington.

LISCO cited the high cost of purchasing backhaul direct data transport from Windstream in he notice, saying Windstream charges LISCO more at wholesale for what’s known as unbundled network element loops than Windstream charges its own customers at retail. LISCO maintains its own fiber interconnection for direct data transport between all of its other Windstream exchanges.

As a result of the high costs, LISCO said it doesn’t have enough customers in Washington and Columbus Junction to avoid significant monthly losses in the towns.

LISCO provides both standard telephone service over network rented from Windstream and digital subscriber line. It said both services will still be available through Windstream, Mediacom and four cellular companies.