Spokane-based OneEighty Networks Inc. is creating a new subsidiary through which it plans to begin offering converged voice and data communications direct to business customers desktops in the Inland Northwest, says Greg Green, its chairman and CEO.


We are extending the business line from your (central wiring) closet out to your phone, and then offering plans for managing customers entire voice-data systems, Green says. The expanded capabilities will make use of telephone systems that accommodate direct connections to users individual computers, he says.


The new subsidiary, to be called OneEighty Systems, will provide the expanded networking and system-management services to business customers in all markets where OneEighty Networks operates as a competitive local exchange carrier, Green says. Those markets currently include Spokane, Post Falls, Coeur dAlene, Walla Walla, the Tri-Cities, and Pendleton, Ore.


A competitive local exchange carrier provides customers with an alternative to the local telephone company, not necessarily just for local calls but also for long distance, Internet access, and other services.


As part of its service-expansion strategy, aimed at beefing up broadband traffic on its extensive grid, OneEighty has installed new voice-switching equipment in its building at 118 N. Stevens downtown. It also is in the process of buying a longtime telecommunications company here, called Fisher Tele-Com Inc., for an undisclosed sum, Green says.


Fisher, which is located at 3939 E. Boone and employs five people, sells and installs voice and data cabling, telephone systems, and voice-mail systems in the Inland Northwest, and is a Toshiba telephone equipment dealer. Toshiba manufactures telephone systems with combined voice-data capability.


Green says the assets acquired by OneEighty include Fishers accounts, inventory, name, and intellectual property. For now, because Fisher has a nearly 50-year history here, that operation will continue to do business under the same name, though as a unit under OneEighty Systems, Green says. All of Fishers employees will be retained, he says.


For some time now, we have given great thought to the creation of OneEighty Systems due to the ongoing requests by our business customers to support and manage their data and voice networks, Green says. So, when the opportunity came along with Fisher Tele-Com, it was the natural time to launch our managed-services plans, and the new subsidiary.


OneEighty Networks service expansion requires approval in Washington and Idaho, but Green says he expects those approvals to be granted shortly. He declines to say how much OneEighty will charge for its managed-service plans since those plans still are being refined, but he says theyll be tailored to be economical for even the smallest businesses.


OneEighty Networks provides broadband Internet, dial-up, and other related services, such as Web hosting. With the Fisher acquisition, which is expected to be completed by May 1, it will employ about 30 people in all, more than half of them here and the rest in Walla Walla. It announced earlier this year that it had agreed to acquire longtime Spokane Internet service provider Icehouse Internet Services Inc.


Contact Kim Crompton at (509) 344-1263 or via e-mail at [email protected].