Towerstream
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| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as | NASDAQ: TWER |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder(s) | Philip Urso Jeffrey Thompson |
| Headquarters | 55 Hammarlund Way Middletown, Rhode Island, United States |
| Website | towerstream.com |
Towerstream Corporation NASDAQ: (TWER)[1] is a wireless Internet Service Provider (ISP) marketing high-speed Internet access to businesses including fixed wireless and WiMAX.[2] Towerstream is a member of the WiMAX Forum, which promotes WiMAX products.[3] Service areas include Boston,[4] Chicago,[5] Dallas/Fort Worth,[6] Los Angeles,[7] Miami,[8] New York,[9] San Francisco,[10] Seattle,[11] Philadelphia,[12] Nashville,[13] Las Vegas/Reno,[14] and Providence/Newport[15] where the company is headquartered. Founded in 1999 by Philip Urso (MCF Communications, eFortress)[16] and Jeffrey Thompson (eFortress),[17] Towerstream held its first public offering in January 2007[18] and trades on the NASDAQ Capital Markets under symbol TWER.[19]
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[edit] Business Broadband Service
Towerstream offers service plans from 1.5 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s. Bandwidth is available in various increments, is symmetric (bi-directional/duplex) and has a standard installation time of 3–5 days. The service supports voice-over-internet-protocol VoIP, bandwidth-on-demand, virtual private networks VPN, wireless redundancy, and bundled data and video services.[20]
[edit] Wi-Fi network
In the middle of 2010, Towerstream started deploying a test Wi-Fi network in Manhattan using 802.11n technology with plans to sell wholesale access to carriers for Mobile data offloading in areas of mobile congestion.[21] Towerstream reported that it supported 250,000 connections per day, and moved an average of one terabyte of data per day across the network.[22] In January 2011, Towerstream announced it planned to expand its pilot Wi-Fi network in Manhattan and add San Francisco and Chicago.[22] As of August 2011, Towerstream’s Wi-Fi network in Manhattan consisted of over 1000 access points offering 200 Mbit/s each.[23] In August 2011, Towerstream announced its Manhattan Distribution Network which uses its Wi-Fi network as a distribution platform for daily deal sites and mobile app providers.[22]
[edit] Acquisitions
On April 16, 2010 Towerstream announced that it had closed the acquisition of Sparkplug Communications' Chicago, Illinois and Nashville, Tennessee business assets. The acquisition allowed the company to expand its presence in Chicago, while introducing Nashville as its 11th market nationally.[24]
On December 16, 2010, Towerstream completed its acquisition of certain business assets from Pipeline Wireless. The acquired business assets include substantially all of Pipeline Wireless' customer contracts, network infrastructure, and related assets in the Boston and Providence markets.[25]
Towerstream closed its third acquisition on May 19, 2011 when it announced it had acquired certain business assets from One Velocity Inc. The acquired business assets include substantially all of the One Velocity's customer contracts, network infrastructure, and related assets in the Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada markets. The company announced at the time of the acquisition the new Las Vegas market immediately became the company's fifth largest revenue base.[14]
[edit] History
The company was founded in 1999 by Philip Urso and Jeffrey Thompson as a replacement to the legacy copper line T1, DS3, and OC-3 infrastructure.[26] Initially serving two markets, Providence Rhode Island and Boston, Massachusetts, Towerstream's service area was expanded in 2003 to include New York City, and then expanded a year later to include Chicago and Los Angeles. Towerstream expanded into San Francisco in 2005. FierceVoIP's annual Fierce 15 list named Towerstream as one of the top 15 emerging companies implementing a T1 VoIP solution for 2005.[27] In January 2007 Towerstream completed a reverse merger, raised $15 million in capital and commenced trading common stock on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol TWER. By May 2007, Towerstream stock was moved to NASDAQ Capital Markets and the company raised an additional $40 million in capital. Service coverage area was extended to include Seattle, Miami, and Dallas. In late 2008, Towerstream was honored by xchange magazine[28] with the Best of WiMAX World Award for its New York City network T1 and DS3 offerings[29] and also honored by Telephony Online[30] with two Telephony Innovation Awards "Most Innovative Broadband Wireless Service" and "Most Innovative Small Business Service".[31]
In November 2009, Towerstream expanded service in Philadelphia and in April 2010 purchased Sparkplug's business assets in Chicago and Nashville, increasing Chicago's customer base to be Towerstream's third largest coverage area.[32] In December 2010, the company expanded its presence in the Boston and Providence markets when it acquired business assets of Sparkplug Communications.[25] In 2011, Towerstream entered the Las Vegas/Reno market with its acquisition of all of the One Velocity's customer contracts, network infrastructure, and related assets in those cities.[14]
On July 13, 2011 Towerstream representatives visited the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York City's Times Square, where Chief Executive Officer Jeff Thompson rang the closing bell.[33]
[edit] Technology
Towerstream markets a combination of Fixed Wireless and WiMAX (802.16e) technology as "4G".[34] Fixed wireless networks use Ethernet[dubious ] technology, not TDI that the legacy infrastructure relies on and have been in production since the 1970s, primarily used for backhaul in voice networks for phone companies. The network uses Radio Frequency (RF) base stations to provide Internet access.[35] Towerstream base stations connect to multiple Tier 1 network IP backbone service providers, to ensure continuous service should any of the fiber providers go down.[36]
Towerstream's markets operating with WiMAX technology use the 3.65 GHz spectrum band and are true Non-Line-of-Site (NLOS). Its markets using Fixed WiMAX service run over the 5.8 GHz spectrum band and are Line-of-Site (LOS).[34]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ TWER: Summary for Towerstream Corporation- Yahoo! Finance
- ^ TowerStream: Seven years of fixed WiMAX customers - RCR Wireless News Archived 11 February 2011 at WebCite
- ^ http://www.wimaxforum.org/about/member-roster[dead link]
- ^ TowerStream Lights Up New England With Cisco Broadband Fixed Wireless Technology. - Free Online Library Archived 11 February 2011 at WebCite
- ^ "Featured Articles from the Chicago Tribune". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2011-02-11. http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2006/dec/29/business/chi-0612290139dec29.
- ^ http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/040508dnbustowerstream.3691722.html[dead link]
- ^ TowerStream Expands Service - www.wi-fiplanet.com Archived 11 February 2011 at WebCite
- ^ TowerStream expands to Miami Archived 11 February 2011 at WebCite
- ^ Belson, Ken (November 29, 2004). "Internet Access, Delivered From Above". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/29/technology/29max.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=%22towerstream%22&st=cse.
- ^ Towerstream Expands Service to Oakland Archived 11 February 2011 at WebCite
- ^ Duryee, Tricia (2007-01-30). "Speakeasy selling wireless assets to rival". The Seattle Times. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003547124_towerstream30.html.
- ^ Towerstream Launches Wireless Broadband Network in Philadelphia, PA - Yahoo! Finance
- ^ TowerStream Closes Acquisition of Sparkplug | Wireless Week
- ^ a b c Towerstream Closes Acquisition of One Velocity, Inc.'s Las Vegas and Reno Business Assets - Yahoo! Finance
- ^ Wireless company hits mark | Business | projo.com | The Providence Journal
- ^ Philip Urso: Executive Profile & Biography - BusinessWeek
- ^ Jeffrey Thompson: Executive Profile & Biography - BusinessWeek
- ^ Light Reading Mobile - 4G/LTE - TowerStream Gets Symbol - Telecom News Wire
- ^ Towerstream Ready to Wow the Nasdaq
- ^ Belson, Ken. The New York Times. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/towerstream-corporation/index.html.
- ^ Ryan Kim (October 16, 2010). "Wi-Fi Looks to Keep the Mobile Internet Dream Alive". Gigaom blog. http://gigaom.com/2010/10/16/wi-fi-looks-to-keep-the-mobile-internet-dream-alive/. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
- ^ a b c Towerstream Is high on Wi-Fi
- ^ Towerstream Launch Distribution Network for Daily Deals
- ^ Towerstream Aquires [sic] Sparkplug’s Assets in Nashville and Chicago
- ^ a b Towerstream closes Acquisition of Boston and Providence Assets of Pipeline Wireless
- ^ Belson, Ken (2004-11-29). "Internet Access, Delivered From Above". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E6DF103EF93AA15752C1A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1.
- ^ Towerstream Corporation - FierceVoIP Honors Towerstream as One of the "Fierce 15" VoIP Companies of 2005
- ^ vision2mobile
- ^ Best of WiMAX World Awards Honor Leaders in Innovation
- ^ Connected Planet Online | formerly TelephonyOnline.com
- ^ Telephony's 2008 Innovation Award Winners
- ^ Towerstream Blog » Blog Archive » Towerstream Acquires Sparkplug Communications’ Chicago and Nashville Assets
- ^ Towerstream Corporation CEO Jeff Thompson to Ting the NASDAQ Stock Market Closing Bell
- ^ a b Towerstream moves to WiMAX
- ^ Wireless Broadband and Other Fixed-Wireless Systems page 1 - Network Computing
- ^ WiMAX: Broadband Wireless Access And Beyond - Technology News - redOrbit
