NW Commnet has announced it will open a new, high technology telecommunications equipment co-location facility in downtown Bremerton. Designed as a “carrier class” facility to house computer and telecommunications equipment for phone companies and other high-tech firms requiring secure access and a conditioned environment, it is scheduled to open March 1.

Located at 245 4th Street, right next to Bremerton City Hall, it will consist of conditioned, secure space with emergency backup power and substantial HVAC capacity for cooling sensitive equipment.

According to John Stockwell, the company’s network engineer and Vice President., NW Commnet initially planned to utilize the facilities of Convergence Technologies which is located at the intersection of Wheaton Way and Sheridan Rd, in East Bremerton. Convergence Technologies is owned by Stockwell, while his partner in NW Commnet — and president of the firm — is Jim Kendall, owner of Silverdale internet service provider Telebyte NW.

L-R NW Commnet partners John Stockwell and Jim Kendall at their new Bremerton facility

“We have not merged our two companies,” Kendall stressed. “We get asked that a lot. We continue to operate our companies in our specific areas of expertise. Our joint venture company allows us a streamlined means of providing services in a way that combines the individual strength of our separate companies while providing efficiencies of a single point of contact and a single source for those services. We found that we often were combining our services as a package, and this business model just made sense.”

NW Commnet will also offer “meet-me” facilities for telecommunications companies to cross-connect services between carriers as well as their customers. This will provide users with the redundancy factor critical to high-tech firms — especially those selling on the internet — as well as facilities to host equipment such as servers, routers, and other electronic gear. In addition, customers will be able to locate their equipment in the secure facility, and receive network and data services without the need for routers and telecommunications support equipment.

Also referred to as a “Telco Hotel,” the facility will provide the same types of services as the Westin Building in Seattle and a similar operation that opened in downtown Tacoma earlier this year. The Bremerton facility will be the only one of its kind on this side of the water.

The central location is excellent for both customers and telecommunications providers noted Kendall, with several already having high-speed services nearby. And because electronic traffic won’t have to be back-hauled from Seattle or Tacoma, combined with reasonable rents, it suddenly makes Bremerton a very attractive venue for high-tech firms looking to cut costs.

“We currently have customers ready to move in as soon as the facility is ready,” said Stockwell. “We offer secure space, well provisioned, in a location that is a natural for high-tech companies who need to share services in a location close to the end user. Security will include secure access and live video monitoring.”

“In addition,” Stockwell said, “we are consulting with an out-of-state company to host a remote server farm and Network Operating Center for a world-wide service now in development. This network of servers will be one of three mirrored locations.”
The projected growth of NW Commnet requires more space than the Convergence location offered, so NW Commnet selected the downtown Bremerton location because of its central location in the downtown business core and its proximity to the underground location of much of the county’s telecommunications infrastructure as well as other existing carriers. Both NW Commnet and Convergence will operate from new location, while Telebyte will remain in Silverdale.

Redevelopment in downtown Bremerton will continue to provide business growth and service diversification opportunities for the company which currently provides fiber networking in downtown Bremerton as well as high speed fixed wireless Internet access and other networking services throughout the county.

“This expansion is the next logical step in the growth and evolution of our joint venture company,” said Kendall. “Convergence Technologies and Telebyte NW recognized a need to formalize the joint business ventures we already shared. NW Commnet combines the strengths of our two companies to provide total telecommunication and data network services to our clients.”

For more information, call (360) 613-5220 or (360) 405-1231 or e-mail info@nw–commnet.net.