Business Fortune
The revolutionary capabilities of optical fiber have completely transformed wired communication and computer networking techniques. Optical fiber has brought about a new era of connectivity with its high capacity, low power usage, and extended range.
The fiber building process includes labor-intensive tasks including trench digging, conduit placement, and pole attachment. New fiber networks can have up to 1728 fiber strands in each cable. To handle the large amount of fibers, new fiber networks need to focus on certification, planning, and cost control.
Managing complexity, capacity, and cost constraints presents a significant challenge for fiber construction services amidst the surging demand for fiber networks and their expansion into new territories. Deploying fiber cabling underground, over aerial links, or across oceans using submarine cables requires specialized instruments and labor-intensive procedures. These tasks are usually handled by experts.
DeployCom is a premier provider of fiber optic cable network installation, engineering, construction, and design services tailored for broadband needs. In addition, DeployCom offers project management, maintenance, and disaster recovery services for broadband network projects. The expert technical team at DeployCom delivers solutions that ensure each project is consistently completed to the highest industry standards.
Recently, the Business Fortune spoke to Doug Hudson, the President of DeployCom, about the company’s industry leading fiber optic construction services. Below are excerpts from the interview.
Q. What is DeployCom’s story? Why did you decide to start a company providing construction services for telecom and content providers?
The business of constructing fiber optic networks has evolved into a hyper-competitive market. In the current highly competitive network construction industry, the profit margins on typical projects have significantly decreased. We have noticed that the number of companies bidding on environmentally challenging projects is only a fraction of those bidding for standard network builds.
We founded DeployCom with the vision of establishing a company with deep environmental expertise, enabling us to effectively navigate the complex regulatory and permitting landscape for highly challenging environmental projects. These types of projects usually have significantly higher profit margins, since there are far fewer companies with the expertise to compete in this environmentally challenging sector.
Q. How has DeployCom grown since its founding?
DeployCom has grown significantly since its early days of operation. Initially, the size of the projects that DeployCom was engaged with was in the $5–$7 million range. The size of the typical projects that DeployCom currently works on is in the $50 million+ range.
Q. How is DeployCom impacting the telecom construction services industry with its solutions?
DeployCom is uniquely positioned in the market due to its environmental expertise, which mainstream construction companies lack. As a showcase of DeployCom’s environmental expertise, we recently completed a network construction project that involved building through the Grand Canyon National Park. That project was extremely challenging from a regulatory approval and permitting perspective.
Q. What role does innovation play in the services provided by DeployCom?
DeployCom has initiated a groundbreaking project to construct a fiber optic cable network in Alaska's iconic Yukon River. This project is historic because it will be the first time a cable is installed horizontally in a river in North America and only the second time worldwide. DeployCom's innovative approach has captured the attention of the global communications industry. Proving the viability of this method could redefine future installations in major rivers, such as the Mississippi, Missouri, and Hudson. What distinguishes this endeavor is its sheer magnitude and a myriad of obstacles. Negotiating intricate regulatory frameworks and preserving the delicate Arctic ecosystem, which is critical for local salmon populations, pose formidable challenges. Furthermore, due to a short four-month construction window and the constant risk of ice breakup, precision and efficiency have become essential for the success of the project.
Q. What are the various services provided by DeployCom?
DeployCom provides a wide range of services for terrestrial and marine network construction. The marine construction services include the installation of cables for near-shore saltwater applications, and both river and lake installation projects.
Q. What were some of the most memorable challenges you and the team at DeployCom have overcome? How did the company learn from these challenges?
DeployCom has expanded its work to include not only environmentally challenging projects, but also the most logistically challenging ones. The Alaska project requires DeployCom to install fiber optic cables in remote communities along the Yukon River. These communities are located just a few miles south of the Arctic Circle. None of the communities are accessible by road. So, we need to transport all the necessary equipment, materials, workers, and provisions to the work sites using airplanes, helicopters, or barges. The obstacles, along with a condensed construction season of only four months, make the Yukon River project one of the most logistically challenging projects currently underway in the USA.
Q. What are DeployCom’s plans for the future?
DeployCom is excited to announce the expansion of its services to now include the efficient installation of electrical cables in lakes, rivers, and even to near-shore wind farms.
Meet the President
Doug Hudson serves as the President of DeployCom. Doug Hudson has accumulated 35 years of robust experience in the design, engineering, and construction of fiber optic networks across Europe, South America, the USA, and the Pacific Rim. Those network projects included the build out of both metropolitan and long-haul middle-mile communication networks.
