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| Tylite in the News – Journal of Business Tylite plans journey into technology’s last mile Linn Parish February 21, 2002 |
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Company aims to build fiber networks, expand wireless Internet services |
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| Having consulted others along broadband’s “last mile”, Liberty Lake’s Tylite Inc. is ready to make the journey itself. The 2-year-old venture has provided consulting services for developers and public agencies that have installed last-mile networks, which link homes and other buildings to high-speed data lines. Now, it’s trying to break into the market to configure and install those last-mile fiber-optic networks, which are capable of carrying high-speed Internet, audio and video connections at gigabit-Ethernet speeds. Tylite President and CEO Jim Wilson says that, so far, the company hasn’t landed any such network installation work, which also is known as systems integration. It is, however, establishing alliances with general contractors that would bid on such projects, and he believes it will land some of those jobs soon. “I’m really excited about the future of services over fiber,” says Wilson, an electrical engineer who founded Tylite with partners Fred Dunham, the company’s senior vice president, and Fred Bielen, vice president of network engineering. While Tylite hones in on the fiber-networking market, a small division of the company called Ptera Wireless already has begun offering wireless Internet service in Liberty Lake. With wireless Internet, customers can bridge that “last mile” to broadband lines via microwave technologies, rather than on fiber or copper lines. Wilson says he and his partners plan to spin Ptera off into a separate corporation in the coming months, and expand its service area beyond Liberty Lake to other parts of Spokane County and parts of Kootenai County. Also, the three founding partners have formed another company called Priority Terabit Inc., a competitive local-exchange carrier, or CLEC, through which they expect to provide local telephone service over the fiber networks Tylite will install. That company has registered with the Washington state Utilities and Transportation Commission and obtained the license to offer local telephone service, the WUTC says. Wilson says, however, Priority Terabit isn’t doing business yet and has no employees. Tylite’s financial backing so far has come only from its three founders, who Wilson says together have put up several hundred thousand dollars to launch Tylite, Ptera Wireless and Priority Terabit. It now is seeking additional investors in a second round of fund raising. For now, Tylite remains small. In addition to its founders, it employs just two people. Wilson declines to disclose its annual sales. Wilson speaks of the young venture’s prospects from the unfinished basement of a Liberty Lake model home where the companies’ offices consist of a row of computers on tables and a stack of network equipment. Employees sit on a mix of old dining-room chairs and folding patio chairs. Wilson smiles when asked about the modestness of the company’s quarters and says that Tylite plans to move into more conventional office space later this year. The company hasn’t signed a lease for new space yet, but plans to relocate elsewhere in Liberty Lake, he says. High-speed background Wilson says Tylite has gained considerable experience through its consulting work with customers on last-mile technologies, including what are called metropolitan-area networks, such as those that a municipality would have installed to give it high-speed capabilities, and community-area networks, such as those that are installed in residential subdivisions wired with high-speed capabilities. He says, “There isn’t a lot of expertise in these areas, so that’s where we come in.” Before co-founding Tylite, Wilson worked for Spokane gigabit-Ethernet developer Packet Engines, and then for Alcatel, the French company that bought Packet. At Packet, he helped to develop Spokane School District No. 81’s metropolitan-area network, which provided broadband networking to the district’s schools, enabling high-speed communications. Tylite has done some consulting work for District 81 to work out some kinks in that system, Wilson says. Dennis Schweikhardt, manager of technology infrastructure at District 81, praises Wilson for his role in the district’s project. “The success of that project – and it was a very successful project – is a direct testimony of (Wilson’s) dedication to the project,’ Schweikhardt says. “If we had not had someone of his caliber on board, it would have been much more of a rocky road.” As Tylite moves into the systems-integration market, it will target school districts, municipalities and developers of residential developments. Wilson says that through its consulting work, the company already has built relationships with such clients, and is hopeful the switch to systems integration will be smooth. Tylite already has bid on several systems-integration jobs, mostly in Washington state, but also in Utah, California and western Canada. While the bulk of those jobs would involve networking projects for school districts and local governments, Wilson says he sees promise in the residential market as well – mostly in new developments. “I’m confident that this is the future of home connectivity,” he says. “In 10 years, people won’t have telephone lines to their homes.” Rather, they’ll receive all services via fiber lines, he contends. Meantime, the company is providing wireless high-speed connections through Ptera Wireless. The small Internet service provider currently serves about 40 customers – a mix of homes and businesses – in the Liberty Lake area. Currently, the division operates transmitters at Spokane Teachers Credit Union’s Liberty Lake branch and on a hill east of Liberty Lake. Together, the transmitters cover the Liberty Lake and Otis Orchards areas. Wilson says that he expects that Ptera this year will add transmitters in the Post Falls area and in the eastern portion of the Spokane Valley, to broaden that service’s reach. He says the speed of wireless Internet is comparable to that of a DSL Internet connection, which is many times faster than an Internet connection through a conventional computer modem and a standard telephone line, and, “When you get people used to this kind of bandwidth, it gets them wanting fiber into the home.” |
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