Whoever owns the last mile wins, they say in the telecommunications sector.
The last mile — or the first mile for an outgoing call — is anchored at the phone or computer on your desk. Whichever company provides that part of your service is the one you’re going to think of as your telecom provider.
Shift Networks Inc. of Calgary is driving a set of telecommunications services up the last mile to the premises of small- and- medium-sized companies. It’s taking broadband service over digital subscriber lines as an onsite service provider, says business development director Gordon Aldcorn.
Shift plans to serve office buildings outside the core. Its customers will be building owners and managers, plus their tenants. The focus is on the customer’s desktop.
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| Larry MacDougal, Business Edge |
| Gordon Aldcorn, left, and Barry Penosky at the Centre 70 building in Calgary. |
The firm hires bandwidth from telephone companies – whether incumbent (ILEC) or competing local exchange carriers (CLEC) – as far as the buildings’ phone rooms. It puts its own routing equipment in the phone rooms and uses existing wiring or cabling to deliver services to those tenants who have chosen Shift.
It’s a niche market, targeting the customers building by building, says Keith Young, president and chief operating officer of Shift.
Aldcorn says the company is starting with broadband and traditional telecom staples — local and long-distance services.
“We’re positioning ourselves to provide a suite of services going forward,” he says.
The suite will include software that lets customers use a single number for voice and fax, directing incoming calls the right way. Voice calls will be cascaded to a series of devices at the customer’s discretion, following people who are away from their desks.
Later additions to the service bundle could see Shift becoming an application service provider. Shift is also planning to test voice-over broadband later this year.
It would also develop building portals for owners and tenants, to allow service orders to be placed online.
Shift says a small, customer-focused company can be more nimble than an ILEC or a CLEC.
Talking to customers to define their needs will allow new services to be added going forward, he says.
My mistake: An earlier column referred to Gabby Franco as working for O&Y Enterprise. He’s actually vice-president of operations for Bentall Real Estate Services.
Calgary building permits issued last month were worth two per cent more than a year earlier.
Permits worth $179 million were issued by the city last month, compared with $174.9 million in April 2000. The city received 1,307 applications in April, up from 1,144 a year earlier. Residential permits were up 12 per cent and non-residential permits were down nine per cent.
Web Watch:
www.shiftnetworks.com
