Fernwell To Be Wired For Internet Downtown Building Upgraded To Permit High-Speed Access

A three-company partnership is wiring the Fernwell Office Building for high-speed Internet access, creating what they say is the “first truly Internet-ready office building in the greater Spokane area.”

Skillnet Corp., an emerging Spokane software company that hopes to sell job recruitment and resume services via the Internet, has joined with GST Telcom Washington Inc. and the Fernwell Partners in the project.

“We have had several inquiries from local companies that want to relocate to the building to take advantage of this capability,” Roy P. Massena, Skillnet’s vice president of sales and marketing, said Wednesday. He added that negotiations are in the advanced stages for a number of tenants.

GST Telcom Washington Inc. is the Vancouver-based company that has recently laid high-capacity fiber optic cable under streets in Spokane’s downtown core in hopes of attracting customers like Skillnet.

GST connects that system to the Internet to provide a highly reliable direct connection to the Internet.

The advantage for companies, Massena said, is that they don’t have to rely on crowded Internet providers like America On-Line, or put up with telephone connections, busy signals and interruptions. The system operates 100 times faster than that provided by America On-Line, he said, making access almost instantaneous.

“We are building a major human resources business using the Internet as our storefront,” Massena said. “We need an Internet connection with reliability beyond that currently available in the Spokane marketplace.”

Skillnet recently relocated to the Fernwell building, 505 W. Riverside, and in planning to wire its offices for connection to the GST system, discovered it made sense to wire the entire building at the same time.

GST and the Fernwell partners joined into the project in which the three companies are investing more than $100,000 on equipment inside the building, which was built in 1890.

, DataTimes