04/07/97 ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH TECH

Return to main story

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH TECH

To check out the action in telecom technology, go west. At Colorado's Vail Ski Resort, workaholics can schuss over to the nation's first mountaintop business-communications center, opened by Sprint Corp. in January. Sprint CEO William T. Esrey has a house nearby and proposed the center to Vail's owners because he found it difficult doing business over a pay phone. The center, located in a restaurant and free to all comers, is equipped with a videoconferencing room, a stock-quote terminal, and personal computers linked to the Internet via superfast T1 digital phone lines. Or visitors can plug in their own PCs. Don't laugh. Every week, at least one skier arrives with laptop in tow.
TOP TIER. Colorado may be one of the most wired states. In the past five years, the Denver-Boulder region has given birth to hundreds of startups specializing in communications technology. The number of tech companies jumped from 2,171 in 1992 to 3,087 in 1995, according to the Colorado Labor Dept. The state ranks third in high-tech jobs as a share of total employment: Only California and Texas are higher. Venture capitalists say the biggest concentration is in telecom. ''We are seeing some of the best and brightest minds in communications here,'' says Adam Goldman, a partner in Denver's Centennial Funds, a venture-capital firm.
It all started with cable TV. Colorado is home to cable giant Tele-Communications (TCI), as well as Jones Intercable, DirecTV, and EchoStar Communications. ''TCI drew a lot of other companies here,'' says William J. Maxwell, president of ICG Communications Inc., an Englewood-based alternative local-service provider. The state also boasts a top telecom engineering program at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and it's the only spot in the U.S. where satellite transmissions can be bumped directly to Asia and Europe.
The startups cover a wide swath. Mercury Mail in Denver delivers E-mail for corporations, Englewood's Logotronix Communications makes international callback switches, Wireless Telecom in Aurora designs wireless data services, and Freshwater Software in Boulder sells Web-management tools.
Not all the newbies are obscure. Qwest Communications Corp. in Denver got a lot of attention in December when it hired a new CEO--Joseph P. Nacchio, ex-head of AT&T's $26 billion consumer calling business. Qwest is building a high-speed long distance network primarily for data. Denver, says Nacchio, ''is at the crossroads of a lot of the action'' in the telecom industry. It doesn't hurt, adds the Brooklyn (N.Y.) native, ''that there's a great quality of life out there.'' Or that you can work from a ski resort.
By Catherine Arnst in Denver

Return to main story