News

Butte getting new on-ramp to information superhighway

Executive Village offering advanced Internet access service

The Internet highway in Montana has been described as a road with lots of fiber-optic miles — but no off-ramps.

By Leslie McCartney of The Montana Standard

Raymond Rask, chief executive of Enhanced Broadband Networks, likens it more to a Third World country, at least in most of Montana, with important services and access simply not available.

"The Intermountain West is in the same state as most of the Third World," Rask said from his offices at the Executive Village office building on Front Street in Butte.

Rask and Executive Village owners Drs. Robert St. John and Robert Nehls are trying to change that. They plan to make the site a National Network Access Point through a combination of investment and infrastructure commitments.

Although difficult to describe for non-techies, the site will allow a "pitstop" in Butte for national and regional carriers to exchange Internet traffic.

The combination of national network connect-ivity and the Butte exchange point would allow for faster network response times. It would also enable local and regional service providers to offer new advanced services to their clients.

Instead of traffic bouncing all over the country — even if a message is sent across Butte it typically goes through network points nationwide — the network connectivity in the region will be more efficient. It also is much-needed in the world of economic development and progress, Rask said.

Rask found that the area lacked such a staple of Internet basics when he came to Butte in 2002 to work with Touch America. As Touch America disintegrated, Rask worked on redesigning networks with Sprint, and it got Rask thinking about an access network. Using his knowledge of Internet networking — Rask has helped set up networks in South America, among other places — he has helped by signing big names in telecom, such as MCI, Sprint and Qwest to be part of formulating the national access network.

Rask is a graduate of Butte High and holds a doctorate in micro-electronics technology from the National Science Academy of Boston.

St. John has helped pursue Rask’s vision by re-making Executive Village to house a data center, a new conference room and updated offices. Although the office space has had its challenges — there are several vacant areas — he is hoping the new push will attract businesses involved in the high-tech arena. One perk of renting space at the Executive Village is the availability of up-to-date networks.

"We had to bring in something new to compete," St. John said. "This is a more exciting time than any time we have owned the building."

The partners have owned Executive Village since 1981. So far, they have poured about $60,000 into the building to accommodate the access center, such as putting on a rubber roof and special doors, all requirements of carriers who are worried about fires or other disruptions.

The ability to obtain advanced services is "frankly something we need," Rask added.

Both Rask and St. John are Butte natives who say they are committed to helping Butte and its economic development efforts. With a new access point, for example, Rask said that specialized areas, like aerospace, health care and educational institutions, will be able to access research networks and computing facilities that are unavailable now or are financially impractical to access.

Access to those networks is directly linked to the ability to win research dollars, he added. And having such a network can also translate into more job opportunities for people as well.

Although Rask’s company won’t necessarily make money on hosting a network access point, it will make its money by offering advanced services as a wholesaler of Internet-related services. However, in the Butte area, the company will offer services directly.

The Network Access Point should be up and running by Dec. 1, Rask said.

The Butte Local Development Corp., which has stressed new economy companies with its Cyber Village concept, is supportive of Rask and Executive Village’s efforts.

"We are pleased that Butte’s Cyber Village efforts have been strengthened by the addition of the powerful connectivity partners being made available to the Cyber Village through our newly formed relationship with Executive Village," said Evan Barrett of the Butte Local Development Corp.

Rask pointed out that the new access point will help Cyber Village reach its potential. Such connectivity makes Cyber Village viable without the Butte Local Development Corp. finding the money needed to bring the infrastructure to Butte, he said.

http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2003/10/07/newsbutte/hjjgijjcjcgeig.txt

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EXECUTIVE VILLAGE OFFICE COMPLEX JOINS BUTTE CYBER VILLAGE
PROJECT AS SITE FOR NEW NATIONAL NETWORK ACCESS POINT

Butte, Montana – The Butte Local Development Corporation (BLDC) and Dr. Robert St. John of the Executive Village announced today that the Executive Village Office Complex located at 500 East Front Street in Butte has become a new telecommunications based anchor for the Butte Cyber Village Project. The 18,000 square foot Executive Village Complex is quickly becoming a high-tech telecommunications center with the recent signing of telecom anchor tenant Enhanced Broadband Networks, Inc. Enhanced Broadband has signed agreements with numerous national Internet backbone networks to locate their Points-of-Presence (POP) in Butte, as part of Enhanced Broadband’s plan to develop a National Network Access Point, to provide carrier-neutral peering and access throughout the Northern Intermountain Region of the U.S. The project has been officially titled and designed “BTM-NAP” by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Evan Barrett, Executive Director of BLDC commented, “We are pleased that Butte’s Cyber Village efforts have been strengthened by the addition of the powerful connectivity partners being made available to the Cyber Village through our newly formed relationship with the Executive Village. It is important to note that existing Cyber Village efforts, such as MITEC in the Thornton Building and other telecommunications-intensive companies in uptown Butte, can benefit from the enhanced telecommunications capabilities soon to be available via the Executive Village and the BTM-NAP.”

Jim Smitham, BLDC Marketing Director said, “This critically important improvement in connectivity, including the Tier-1 carrier-neutral peering point is located within Butte’s National Historic Landmark District and represents a southern anchor to uptown Butte’s Cyber Village. Because Cyber Village companies can take advantage of the important Tier-1 access, the Executive Village project strengthens our efforts to locate new economy companies in the uptown.”

“Once again, Butte natives, in this case Dr. Raymond Rask, CEO of Enhanced Broadband Networks and Dr. Robert St. John of the Executive Village have found a way to help develop the economy of their home town. Growth through the efforts of returning ex-patriots like Dr. Rask, is one good method of achieving economic development for our community,” Barrett said.

The Executive Village Complex is actually three separate buildings, which were ultimately combined into one structure over the course of its history. In the early years, the complex was home to the 7up Bottling Plant and Highland Motors. In 1971, the building was completely gutted-out and renovated into some of Butte’s most modern office space. Dr. Robert St. John and Dr. Robert Nehls purchased the building in 1981 and have operated the facility since.

We are thrilled to now be part of Butte’s Cyber Village community”, said Dr. Robert St. John, Executive Village Managing Partner, “the Executive Village has had a long continuing history in Butte. We have worked for nearly a year to bring Enhanced Broadband Networks to Executive Village. We are particularly gratified that they have chosen Executive Village as the location of their telecommunications facility, including the anchor point for the BTM-NAP and associated data center.

“Now, once again, the Executive Village is being reinvented and modernized, which includes a major renovation to bring the building, office space and tenant services up to modern standards.” We are just completing the construction of a state-of-the-art Conference Center, which includes a full complement of up-to-date amenities, such as digital conferencing systems, high speed WiFi Internet access, LCD digital projection equipment, overhead projection, and digital and analog Video playback facilities. This conference center has been developed for use primarily by building tenants in support of their businesses, but may also be rented by outside organizations. Our goal is to create modern cost-efficient office space for both small and medium sized tenants, and to provide them with access to the most advanced telecommunications services and infrastructure available anywhere in the State of Montana,” said Dr. St. John.

– – – –

For Further Information Contact:

Evan Barrett, Executive Director
Butte Local Development Corporation
(406) 723-4349
[email protected]

Dr. Robert St. John, Managing Partner
Executive Village Office Complex
(406) 723-2123
[email protected]

Dr. Raymond C. Rask, CEO
Enhanced Broadband Networks, Inc.
(406) 310-1123
[email protected]

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