Norcross firm plans national role
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Brian Moran Staff Writer
As people and businesses rely more on wireless communications, a Norcross company wants to keep them connected.
Preferred Technical Services Inc. does not sell cellular phones or any type of wireless service, but the company supports the infrastructure that makes wireless communication possible.
Preferred Technical installs and maintains the antennas and cables on radio towers and rooftops that allow signals to be transmitted and received.
Backed by $20 million in funding from Saratoga Partners of New York, the company plans to develop a larger presence to better position it to serve the national market. There are more than 100,000 tower and rooftop sites in the United States.
"Our goal is to be national and to be able to reach 85 percent of all sites within two hours," said Randall L. Johnson, president and CEO.
With an extended national presence, the company seeks to offer a national carrier such as Vodafone AirTouch Plc the same installation and maintenance service from coast to coast. "As [wireless] carriers consolidate, they are left dealing with lots of service providers," said William A. Mayer, Preferred Technical's vice president of finance and chief financial officer.
"As the customer base has become national, the service industry has not grown with it," Johnson said. "I think we've identified that trend early on."
Preferred Technical will compete against companies such as Wireless Facilities Inc. of San Diego and RF Consulting Services Inc. of Marietta that offer a broader range of services but on more of a regional scale, said Craig Ellingsworth, a senior analyst in the wireless division of The Yankee Group, a consulting group in Boston.
"These guys sound like a niche player, but that's not a bad thing," Ellingsworth said.
"However, this has been an area where businesses have struggled to have a national presence."
Funds for the future
Johnson said that the $20 million committed by Saratoga Partners will fuel the company's growth through acquisitions and internal expansion.
Preferred Technical made its first acquisition in September when the company bought RF Solutions LLC in Phoenix. The company now serves 13 markets, including Atlanta; Baltimore; Charlotte, N.C.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Houston; New York; Orlando, Fla.; and Seattle.
The company has about 100 employees and does not release revenues. However, Johnson said that the firm is making a profit.
Johnson would not say where Preferred Technical will go next but said the company's expansion will be conducted over the next three years.
Formed in 1991 under the name Paging Services Inc., the company focused on servicing the paging market.
Preferred Networks Inc. bought the company in 1996 and changed its name to Preferred Technical Services Inc. As a subsidiary of Preferred Networks, Preferred Technical expanded to serve all forms of wireless communications.
To attract the equity from Saratoga Partners, Preferred Technical spun off from Preferred Networks this summer. The company operates under four divisions that service the equipment that enables wireless communication.
The setup
Preferred Technical does not build radio towers, but the tower services division installs and maintains transmitters and receivers on existing towers. A second division deals with rooftop sites, which make up 65 percent of the market.
The acquisition of RF Solutions created an area of business that now operates as a subsidiary to Preferred Technical under the name EME Services Inc. EME stands for electromagnetic energy, and the company measures the EME of rooftop sites. Too much EME will cause interference among the signals, and new regulations from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on EME go into effect next September.
"There's a lot more activity and focus on EME from carriers and clients" because of the new FCC regulations, Johnson said. "It's a service line that we wanted to get into."
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