Telebyte N.W. owner Jim Kendall doing what he likes best.

   Six years ago, Jim Kendall considered a bulletin board when it came to sharing information about his retail computer store with others in Kitsap County.
   Instead, the Silverdale resident turned to a larger information posting medium — the Internet — to get his message across.
   “In reality, that’s what the Internet really is... one huge world-wide bulletin board,” Kendall says, and in 1994 he turned his love of instant communication into Telebyte Northwest, Kitsap County’s first independent Internet Service Provider.
   With a beginning customer base of just 200-300 dial-up users, Kendall has built Telebyte Northwest into a supplier of everything from basic electronic mailboxes to a source for web site design, virtual web servers, high-speed Internet connections and frame relay and wireless LAN (local area network) services to thousands of customers in and around Kitsap County.
   With six full-time and two part-time employees in their Silverdale facility, Telebyte Northwest services a mix of customers ranging from residential customers to larger businesses and government facilities. Even with such a broad mix of customer base, Kendall insists that their single fastest customer growth area is easy to spot and is actually a compilation of their residential and commercial accounts.
   “Biggest trend? Telecommuting,” said Kendall. “As telecommuting becomes more accepted and popular with larger city-based organizations, we’re seeing more and more folks here in Kitsap County wanting to outfit their home with business-quality connections and equipment. Add to that equation the number of people opening businesses directly out of their homes and there’s no question that that’s a huge, huge growth trend in the (Internet Service Provider) ISP market.”
   And Kendall’s in a position to know. Besides founding Telebyte Northwest and serving as its president, Kendall is also serving his second term as president of the forty-member, non-profit trade organization Washington Association of Internet Service Providers.
   Kendall also prides himself on keeping himself and his company clued in to what the community of Silverdale wants and needs in the way of business opportunities and community action.
   “I’m a joiner,” laughs Kendall,” you name it and I probably belong to it or participate in their community or fund-raising programs.”
   Besides his ISP-related activities, Kendall and his wife and business partner, Alta, help sponsor the Bremerton Symphony and Kendall belongs to the Masons, the Shriners, the Rotary Club and a retired (Naval) officers organization.
   In addition, Kendall’s served as an arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau of Kitsap County for the last six years, a task that he says isn’t always pleasant but is necessary for a community to stay intact.
   “I’m a strong believer that you get out of a community what you put in,” insists Kendall. “You have to participate in a community’s well-being and it’s growth to really understand what makes it tick.”
   What’s keeping Telebyte Northwest ticking — or mouse clicking — is their continued customer growth by word of mouth and their progressive offering of new Internet technologies to their client base.
   “In a real sense, we’ve been a pioneer in the Internet here in Kitsap County,” said Kendall. “We’ve walked a fine line of staying on top of the latest in ‘cutting edge’ technology without being ‘bleeding edge’ technology... the kind that falls as quickly as it rises.”
   “We really pride ourselves on not being a flash-in-the pan service provider,” adds Kendall. “I know that everyone talks about customer service these days but we really believe in it. We’re the oldest Internet provider in Kitsap, we’re stable and we’re here for the long haul.”
   Reach Telebyte N.W. at (360) 613-5220.