A guy in his 40s has every right to feel the way Al Stretton did.

An ex-teacher with a solid background in private business, Stretton thought he’d learned all he needed to know to hold his own with the sharp-elbowed pros on The Street.

Then Stretton, chief operating officer for Calgary ISP Platinum Communications Corp., got tied up in the complexities of laying groundwork for Platinum’s $1.5-million initial public offering, which is imminent.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Al Stretton and Trevor Perraton are backed by a motherlode of experience behind the scenes.

“It’s been the most stressful, challenging, rewarding year of my life. But every single day, I couldn’t wait to come to work,” Stretton grinned.

He taught calculus to high school kids. But he’s currently completing post-graduate studies in How the Real World Works.

Fronted by Stretton and company president Trevor Perraton, two-year-old Platinum Communications is poised to go public on the Canadian Venture Exchange, offering three million shares for 50 cents apiece.

Prevailing wisdom says their timing’s lousy. Markets are in flux, money is tight, tech stocks are flat, planets are misaligned, etc., etc.

Platinum strategists beg to differ, for several reasons. Among them are the eminences grises behind the scenes – company directors Jack Perraton, Wayne Bobye and Ronald Cargo.

Perraton senior (Trevor’s dad) is a top city lawyer, ex-chancellor of the University of Calgary, and the guy who quarterbacked Calgary’s Expo 2005 bid team.

Bobye, an ex-Alliance Pipeline and Talisman Energy CFO now doubling as Platinum’s CFO, and Cargo, an ex-IPAC chairman, have each earned a fistful of tickets in the oilpatch.

These crafty vets have been coaching Stretton and Trevor Perraton, the team’s technical mastermind. Both have enjoyed success running profitable private companies, but are initiates to the arcane mysteries of going public.

“I’ve been to Chapters. There is no book that can tell you this stuff,” cracked Stretton. “Those three have been a huge asset.”

In turn, Perraton Jr. and Stretton brought their mentors up to speed on the world of wireless.

“During our first meeting, we described our product in terms of an oil and gas pipeline,” Trevor Perraton explained. “Because, in a way, we’re doing the same thing, piping high-speed wireless Internet access out to these communities.”

Which communities? Alberta towns, hamlets and villages – those located beyond the service areas of more traditional telecommunications providers.

Platinum pulls the Internet off a fibre line in downtown Calgary, then beams it from a dish atop the Petro-Canada building to a network of communications towers. They, in turn, relay the information to antennas installed in clients’ homes.

(For technical details, check out the “how Platinum’s wireless network operates” link at www.platinumcommunications.net) Faster than a speeding bullet and cost-efficient, Platinum’s high-speed hookup requires minimal gear: only a light, compact antenna and a receiver from WaveRider, the manufacturer whose offices sit practically adjacent to Platinum’s own.

It seems obvious there’s a significant market out there.

But the initial two-year target is limited to about 20,000 potential customers (residential, small business and multi-dwelling units) in the municipal districts of Foothills and Rocky View, places where it’s too costly for the big outfits to extend their broadband networks.

“What we want to achieve with this IPO is to get out there, do our first 10 communities, prove ourselves and get the stock price going in the right direction,” said Trevor Perraton, boiling down what he thinks is an airtight, conservative business plan.

“Then we can look at other communities, say in B.C. Ultimately, we can think about another public offering, maybe at $2 a share.”

Platinum has been able to raise about $800,000 in venture capital, but interested investors sent the clear message that they’d prefer to invest in liquid shares – hence the decision to go public, reached about a year ago.

Perraton and Stretton also hope to benefit from the province’s plans for the so-called SuperNet, the $295-million push to provide high-speed Internet access to hospitals, schools and government offices in more than 420 Alberta communities.

In fact, they’ve already been invited to meetings with the so-called Bell/Axia consortium (including Bell Intrigna and Axia IP Services Ltd.), drafted by the government to set up the new network.

Nothing’s been signed, but Platinum believes it would fit in well with Bell/Axia’s implementation plans.

Axia, at least, should know whether the Platinum team has the chops to do the job.

Axia CEO Art Price lives in the rolling hills of Springbank.

Naturally, he spends plenty of time accessing the Net. Price’s household provider? Platinum Communications Corp.