By: Deborah Johnson Wood
PAETEC, a national data and
communications company, announced the expansion of its wireless data
backup services in West Michigan. The company will create about 100
technical and sales jobs nationwide by the end of 2009; some of those
will be in West Michigan, provided the push to expand services
generates the growth company leaders expect.
Last year, PAETEC merged with McLeod USA
to create the seventh largest local telephone company in the country
with revenue of $1.6 billion and 47,000 mid- to large-sizes business
customers in 82 cities. The company has 3,700 employees including 10 in
its Grand Rapids office.
"PAETEC has about a 3.4 percent market
share in the eastern U.S., and McLeod has about 1.6 percent in West
Michigan," says CEO Arunas Chesonis. "If you look at our opportunity to
grow our West Michigan business to match what we've done on the East
Coast, we're looking at significant growth."
The company recently added another sales account manager to help generate that growth.
Chesonis says the push to attract large
health care systems and other industries with PAETEC's wireless data
backup services is underway.
"In the last couple of years we bought
a wireless company, and now we're building the antennas, mounting them
on clients' rooftops and bypassing the fiber and copper network on the
ground," Chesonis says.
Source: Arunas Chesonis, PAETEC; Nick Wasmiller, Seyferth & Associates
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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