Start-Up Launches Buying Spree One Eighty Communications Strikes Deal To Acquire Net-Tel

One Eighty Communications, a new venture by Spokane entrepreneur Gregory Green, has already made its first acquisition.

He said the deal for Net-Tel Inc. is the first of several he expects to make as he builds One Eighty into a provider of telecommunications services in small and midsized markets now bypassed by companies focused on major cities.

The company also will build its own networks, Green added, using technology that has brought the economics within reach of markets like the Tri-Cities, Yakima and Billings.

He said One Eighty could launch its first system within a month, and expects three more will be operational by the end of 1999.

The company will look at markets from the Dakotas to Northern California, Green said. In some cases, he said, One Eighty will try to form strategic alliances with other providers, rather than compete directly with their service.

In Spokane, for example, the company will offer only data service.

Net-Tel designs wide-area networks for clients, then assembles necessary components, Green said, adding that the expertise of the company’s four employees will complement that of the six now working for One Eighty.

He said Net-Tel will do about $1.5 million in business this year.

Temporarily headquartered in the US Bank Building, One Eighty will soon move north on Stevens to the Green-owned Levy Block Building.

That facility will include offices, a network operating center, where client voice and data traffic will be monitored, and a co-location room for equipment from other telecommunications firms, he said.

The creation of One Eighty ends a half-year sabbatical for Green that began with his resignation last December as president of Nextlink Washington.

He had joined that alternative provider of dial tone service in 1995, when the company purchased TelWest Central Services, an outgrowth of another communications company Green started in 1984.

Two other former Nextlink executives also have moved to One Eighty. Terry Jett, vice president of network operations, was a sales engineer at Nextlink Washington. Chief Financial Officer Sharon Shiers was the company’s controller.

Green plans to put up to $1 million into start-up funding for the company while seeking other investors.

All company employees, he said, will be shareholders.