Focusing on creating telecommunications networks for rural health care and education,
Sting Communications has found a fast-growth niche. The Lebanon-based firm has grown its revenue 35 percent and has added a dozen jobs in the past 18 months as it focuses on bringing broadband to underserved regions of the state.
Sting, with over 40 employees, was the only central Pennsylvania-based firm to get a green light from the state on a recent application to apply federal stimulus money to rural broadband. Its proposal would link the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 13 rural hospitals; public safety systems in Venango, Jefferson and Forest counties; school districts; local Internet service providers; and three locations for the state's emergency management system. The state forwarded the $5 million grant application to Washington D.C., where a final decision will be made "around Thanksgiving," says Randy Eccles of Sting.
Sting is already working with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to connect urban-based specialists with other rural community hospitals and with the Northwest Technology Council to drive broadband growth in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Sting created a statewide network for Pennsylvania’s regional intermediate units, which oversee technology and curriculum services, and is also the network provider for 35 school districts in the state. Those relationships positioned the firm to capitalize on Act 183, which addresses bringing broadband to rural areas. In 2006-2007, Sting lit over 1,000 miles of fiber backbone, constructed middle-mile solutions in 33 counties, and built 200 miles of fiber in central and Northwest Pennsylvania.
The nine-year-old firm is backed by angel investors in Harrisburg and professional support from a New York equity firm and institutional bank.
Source: Randy Eccles, Sting CommunicationsWriter: Chris O’Toole