Northwest Nexus Buys Data Source

Northwest Nexus Inc., the region’s largest independent provider of Internet service to business, has acquired Data Source of Spokane.

The deal, said Data Source’s Chad Skidmore, will enable the company to add new services for local customers while it also builds alliances with like-sized providers in other regions of the country.

By piecing together their own “backbone,” he said, Northwest Nexus and its partners can improve customer access to a national network that is periodically bottlenecked.

“It’s almost like a joint-venture,” said Skidmore, who becomes Nexus’ director of engineering as a result of the acquisition.

He said the network could be in place within two weeks. A new data center that will expand services like Web page hosting should also be ready soon, but the shift of customers to the new system will be made gradually to avoid service disruptions, he said.

Skidmore said the new equipment would be placed in the Nextlink switching office at 115 S. Stevens, a site that improves access not just to that company’s telecommunications equipment, but to that of US West Communications Group as well.

“Our current and potential customers will be pleased with the enhanced features, quality and range of services that will be available,” he said.

Skidmore said Data Source has about 40 customers, including Itron Inc., KXLY and Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities.

The company also services many other Internet Service Providers, as does Northwest Nexus.

Vice President Mark Chestnut said neither Northwest Nexus nor Data Source target the residential market that is key for the smaller providers.

And the premium price Northwest Nexus charges for its high-end service is unlikely to attract typically individual users, he said.

Northwest Nexus, founded 10 years ago in Bellevue, has 11,000 customers, mostly in the Puget Sound and Portland areas. Most are businesses with fewer that 1,000 employees, but the list include Starbucks Corp. and AT&T Wireless.

Terms of the deal call for Data Source shareholders to become shareholders of privately held Northwest Nexus.

, DataTimes