The next generation of shared tenant service (STS) providers is evolving in the basements of multitenant office buildings around the country. No longer are these companies just providing voice telephony services and leasing customer premises equipment, they have morphed into integrated service providers that are bringing small and medium-sized businesses quick access to high-speed data services.
The race is on for this new breed of STS provider. They're trying to ink contracts with large national and regional real estate owners and managers. They're seeking capital that will allow them to deploy services. And then there's the customer's learning curve.
"Our biggest competitor is the adoption of technology by tenants. In a couple of years, if every tenant has figured out their own data solution, they won't need us," says Andrew Goldberg, co-founder and chief operating officer of SiteLine Inc., Philadelphia.
This new generation of STS providers, which refer to themselves as building-centric data providers, are still completely focused on provisioning service within the four walls of an office building. But rather than just putting some telephony equipment in the basement to aggregate voice traffic, these providers are rewiring offices with copper and fiber, and using new technology for high-speed Internet access to create another amenity for tenants.
Many small and medium-sized businesses don't have the know-how or clout to get almost immediate access to high-speed data services. Instead, they have to go through the incumbent telco, which can take six to eight weeks to provision digital subscriber line (DSL) or a T1 line.
The building-centric data providers pre-provision these lines in their office complexes, so tenants typically can have their Internet access, as well as other data and telephony services, provisioned within three to five days.
Several providers have entered the building-centric data race. Two of these are large STS providers that have been acquired by competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs). They have integrated building-centric offerings, and in some cases are upgrading their equipment in the basement of office buildings to offer data services.
Intermedia Communications Inc., Tampa, Fla., acquired long-time STS company Shared Technologies Fairchild a few years back. Now, operating under the name Intermedia Comactiv, the company has deployed high-speed Internet services to 350 customers in 240 properties, says Gibran Saleh, Comactiv's senior manager of market management. Comactiv is in the process of upgrading its equipment in 360 more buildings. Comactiv provisions services through Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent Technologies Inc. digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs) in the building basements that connect with the Internet backbone operated by its sister company, Digex.
The granddaddy of building-centric data services is Kivex.com, an Internet service provider (ISP) based in Bethesda, Md. For the last four years, Kivex.com has been offering Internet access on a shared tenant services basis. Recently though, Kivex.com was acquired by Allegiance Telecom Inc., Dallas. Now rather than just Internet services, Kivex.com can offer a bundle of voice and data services, says Christy Cooper, Kivex.com's marketing manager.
Kivex.com's premiere offering is Internet Building Service, which provides customers with access at speeds from 64 kilobits per second (kbps) to 3 megabits per second (mbps), as well as e-mail accounts, web hosting, firewall protection and network monitoring.
Turning It Up | |
| Adelphia Business Solutions | Boston |
| Allegiance Telecom Inc. | San Diego |
| Covad Communications Co. | Portland, Ore., Raleigh-Durham, N.C. |
| e-spire Communications Inc. | New York City |
| InterAcess | Chicago suburbs |
| Level 3 Communications Inc. | Northern New Jersey |
| Logix Communications | Tulsa, Okla. |
| MediaOne | Cambridge, Mass. |
| NaviNet Inc. | Rhode Island |
| NEXTLINK Communications Inc. | Northern and Central New Jersey |
| NorthEast Optic Network Inc. | New York City |
| NorthPoint Communications Group Inc. | Denver, Phoenix, Portland and Seattle |
| PaeTec Communications Inc. | Miami |
| Rhythms NetConnections Inc. | Raleigh-Durham, N.C. |
| Teligent Inc. | Phoenix |
| Time Warner Telecom | Greensboro, N.C. |
| US LEC Corp. | Richmond, Va. |
| US Unwired | Louisiana, east Texas |
