Sights set on establishing Valley's own phone company

BY KIRK STARRATT

kstarratt@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

He has over a half-century of experience working in the telephone industry and now the New York native has his sights set on establishing a telephone co-operative in the Valley.

Actel Telephone Systems Architects president and CEO Frank Hermann, who made a presentation to Kings County council’s committee of the whole in June, said he’s passionate about his work and wants to establish a telephone company designed in the Valley, for the Valley - the Valley Telephone Co-operative.

Hermann said the plan is to use the Valley Community Fibre Network (VCFN) as the spine for the proposed voice and data service. Actel currently services over 100 small and medium businesses in the county and he describes the company as a CRTC-registered re-seller of telephone services. They are the largest re-seller of Aliant products in the Valley and their plan is to hire and train local people as the company grows.

“As it grows, I’d like it to become the telephone company of choice in the Valley,” he said, pointing out that the VCFN is one of the most proactive things he has ever seen.

Hermann said they would look at making the company a co-op once they bring on residential service, but this would depend on investors. The best way to use and promote the community fibre optic network is with businesses because businesses have more complex needs.

He said he has met with engineers and has been working on the project for a long time. It involves tried and true technology that’s working in other places. Hermann has tested a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) line on a traditional telephone at his desk and it has yet to fail him.

“It’s the way we’ll be doing things in the future,” he said. “Traditional telephone service will someday no longer exist.”

Economies of scale

Hermann said they could go wireless in areas where they have to or connect directly to the fibre and allow entire chains of stores or business offices to be connected as if they were all under one roof. There will be great economics of scale once the initial investment is paid for.

He said this isn’t a threat to the larger phone companies and Aliant is rooting for him to make it work. He said they would partner with Aliant because they need a way to connect to them. The proposed project would take Actel out of the realm of being regulated by the CRTC while still being able to utilize Aliant technology.

Actel has an office in Coldbrook and Hermann said they would be looking to rent space or put up their own building as the company grows. He said he has a three-year projection for the initiative, but they’ll do it as fast as they can. He said the engineers could have the necessary Asterisk Softswitch (to tie the VCFN infrastructure into existing infrastructure of existing service providers) built within three months.

Deputy Warden Diana Brothers said this is the first concrete information the municipality has received in terms of a commitment to utilize the VCFN. She thanked Hermann for choosing Kings County and for giving our residents a chance to have ownership in a new phone company.

For more information on Actel, visit www.actel.tc.