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10 l exchangemagazine.com l JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2006

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Atria’s Steve McCartney, leftand Stu Wilson

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2006 l exchangemagazine.com l 11

“The first room you’ll enter before you go out to the rest of the planet.”

Atria

COVER STORY

AAttrriiaahas a vision

for growth

BY JON ROHR & PAUL KNOWLES

exchange janfeb05 1-24 11/28/05 3:17 PM Page 11


More than the name haschanged. Atria is a companywith vision, and a plan to

expand.On September 1, 2005, Atria Net-

works Inc. came into being with themerger of Fibretech of WaterlooRegion and Guelph FibreWired. Thenew company is now the largest,community-owned telecommunica-tions companyproviding fibreoptic services.

Some thingshave not changed.The personnel arethe same – SteveMcCartney, whohas headedFibretech foralmost threeyears, is Presidentand CEO, whileStu Wilson, whowas Acting Gener-al Manager andVice President ofGuelph Fibrewired,is Vice-Presidentof Atria. As well,there were nostaff reductions –Wilson says they have retained allstaff members, and McCartney sug-gests there may even be some addi-tions. “I suspect we’ll hire one or twopeople quite quickly.”

The two offices have also beenretained, in Waterloo and in Guelph.

Wilson also suggests that “the cus-tomers should see very little change.”But he quickly modifies that state-ment, pointing out that “they will seethe change in new products and serv-ices.”

And therein lies the key. McCartneytold Exchange, “Atria Networks Inc isa merger of Guelph Fibrewired andFibretech. The two companies areamalgamating; the area we serve nowstretches from Orangeville and MountForest to Puslinch and of course we’reall of Waterloo Region from end toend. That’s a lot of territory.”

Wilson says, “It’s a natural exten-sion. Our territories are shoulder toshoulder, our customer base is homo-geneous, and the systems in place arevery compatible infrastructures. It’s avery good fit for both of us.”

McCartney adds that “we’re veryopen about” the new company’s

objectives: “We don’t want to becomehuge, but we think we need tobecome a little big bigger so the com-pany is large enough to afford theintroduction of new products and newservices. It needs a market of a certainsize.”

So has Atria reached its “certainsize”? Not according to McCartney. Heinsists that Atria is a community-

based company,aware of itscommitment togood corporatecitizenship inthe communitiesit now serves.“We really arecommitted tothese communi-ties. We don’twant to growany bigger thanwe can be andstill be commit-ted and knownin these commu-nities... But yes,we’d like togrow a little bitmore.”

M c C a r t n e ysuggests that an ideal market wouldhave a population of about 1.3 mil-lion; Atria now serves 600,000. SoAtria is already looking at its contigu-ous neighbours, including Hamilton,Halton Hills, Milton, and even Strat-ford, which offers “a very small onebeside us.”

Working AgreementIn addition to official mergers, such

as the one that has produced AtriaNetworks, Atria is also involved incooperative efforts with other utility-owned telecommunications compa-nies. “We do some things for Hamil-ton, they do some things for us,” saysMcCartney. “All of the utility-ownedtelecommunications companies likeHamilton, Waterloo/Guelph, Kingston,Toronto, Ottawa, Hydro One, Missis-sauga, Windsor, Sudbury, we all worktogether, we have an agreementbetween eleven of us.” It helps themachieve economies of scale – “If I cansell to a million population for exactlythe same investment as half a mil-lion...” says McCartney.

However, working with separateentities with their own boards can betediously slow, and the Atria CEO

COVER STORY

“Our territories are

shoulder to shoulder,

our customer base is

homogeneous, and the

systems in place are

very compatible

infrastructures.”

– STU WILSON

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firmly favours the kind of amalgama-tion that took place between theWaterloo and Guelph companies.

Publicly ownedLike its forefathers in Guelph and

Waterloo, Atria is entirely owned bythe local hydro-electrical utilities –Waterloo North Hydro, Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro, Cambridge-North Dum-fries Hydro and Guelph Hydro-ElectricSystems.

McCartney has nothing but praisefor the vision of these municipal bod-ies, and for the independence theygranted their offspring when it wasformed. He says the municipal hydrocorporations – once known as PublicUtilities Commissions – understandthat “We need it [Atria] to grow. It hasto grow. We have to leave it alone todo its thing.”

But while it runs as an independentcompany, it is the people of WaterlooRegion, Guelph and Wellington whoown Atria. “I hope,” says McCartney,“that people will understand that theyown it. It’s not our money, it’s every-body’s money.”

In the beginning – which in thiscase is only about six years ago – thethree Waterloo Region municipalhydro commissions discovered they

were all, in a small way, involved inthe new technology of fibre optics,which they had strung along theirexisting right of ways. They bandedtogether to bid on a region-wide con-tract in 1999, to supply fibre-opticcable infrastructure for WaterlooRegion Education and Public Network(WREPNET).

In 2001, WREPNET was in opera-tion, providing high speed internetaccess and other services to over 200sites in elementary, secondary andpost-secondary schools, municipaloffices, libraries and other publicorganizations across the region. Aftersuccessfully completing the contract –and in fact “overbuilding” the infra-structure with an eye to the future –the utility companies realized thatOntario Energy Board restrictionsmight limit their ability to compete inthe private sector, so they formed anew, wholly-owned subsidiary,Fibretech. A similar corporate pathwas followed in Guelph.

The new independent companieswere successful, operating with a lotof vision in the right market at theright time. And they have continued inthat adventurous path – underMcCartney, for example, Fibretech has

Atria Management team from left: Steve Johnston, Network Operations, Brenda Tithecott, Accounting,Kris Eby, Engineering & Construction and Ron Kurtz, Sales.

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continued on page 15




If it were not for Atria Networks, Waterloo Data Fortress wouldnot exist. That’s the contention of Miro Forest, and he shouldknow – he’s the founder of Waterloo Data Fortress, which he

describes as “a tier one, colocation data centre.”Which means? “We provide a

high security, high reliability placewhere people can put their webinfrastructure or computer net-working infrastructure... we pro-vide secure, reliable hosting,bandwidth and backup services atvery affordable prices.”

Which means? “Think of us asa very secure condominium forcomputers.”

That’s a pretty good descrip-tion, even if the previous phrasesare more technically accurate. Todate, 35 area companies havechosen to locate computers at theWDF secure facility. Forest’s com-pany offers a secure “envelope”for those computers – with guar-anteed air conditioning, fire safetysystems, high-tech back-up gener-ators, and networking.

The networking is one of thetwo important contributions Atria– in its earlier incarnation asFibretech – made to WDF. Theother, according to Forest, wasthat Atria opted not to go into the

colocation business, which some other telecommunicationscompanies have done. Atria stayed focused on its main busi-ness, providing fibre optic services, and that left a niche forWDF, which was founded less than three years ago.

Forest says that Atria recommendshis company to its clients.

And it is definitely a company thatcould not exist without Atria, becauseAtria provides “very reliable network-ing.” That includes internet access at“whatever speed you would like,” aswell as “private virtual channels.”

Waterloo Data Fortress providescomplete backup in its systems; thereare two entirely separate fibre routesinto the WDF building, one aerial andone buried, which connect “to two sep-arate points of presence in Atria’s net-work.”

All of this is to do everything possi-ble to keep the computers of WDF’sclients operating and on line in theface of power outages and other similarproblems. It works. “This past sum-mer,. there were more power outages inWaterloo than in the past five yearscombined... we just sailed through allof them” with no down time for thecomputers in the Atria-connected com-puter condo called Waterloo DataFortress.

Secure Computer CondominiumWaterloo Data Fortress relies on Atria

COVER STORY

Miro Forestof WaterlooData Fortess


continued from page 13


you enter, a bright, airy, large room, agathering place.”

So Atria is now “the first roomyou’ll enter before you go out to therest of the planet.”

introduced WiFi hubs and other servic-es. In 2002, they achieved a Canadianfirst with the launch of WiFi along Uni-versity Avenue, Waterloo, offeringuntethered digital services to studentsat Wilfrid Laurier and University ofWaterloo.

That actually was simply the firststep in what is now the latest Atriaproject. On October 31, UpTownWaterloo “went wireless” with thelaunch of the UpTown Waterloo WiFizone, which provides wireless internetaccess for businesses and individualswho subscribe to the service inUpTown Waterloo.

Waterloo Mayor Herb Epp called it“an exciting move for the city. We’reproud to be one of the leaders in mak-ing wireless internet access availableto businesses and citizens.”

McCartney points out that this was ajoint project of Atria, the city of Water-loo and Uptown Waterloo.

Atria now has 700 route kilometersof fibre optics, and serves “probably200 mid and large-sized corporationsas clients... We are a first class, world-class telecom company.”

Atria?It almost seems that the process of

amalgamating the two forward-think-ing fibre telecommunications compa-

nies was easier than choosing thename for the marriage. McCartneysays, “I hate to think how many nameswe went through.” The merging com-panies worked with Copp Communica-tion to find the right moniker. “At firstwe talked of Atrium. This is simply theplural of Atrium. That’s the first room

At the time of the mergerannouncement, McCartney toldExchange, “This positive associationaligns perfectly with the company'svision to bring communities together,

“We think we need to

become a little

bit bigger ... large

enough to afford the

introduction of new

products and

new services.”

– STEVE McCARTNEY

Shown at the launch of Uptown Waterloo;s “Wi-Fi Zone” from left, Steve McCartney, Waterloo MayorHerb Epp, Waterloo CAO, Simon Farbrother and Waterloo Councillor Mark Whaley.

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to nurture improved business andcommunity relationships using broad-band technology.” And he added,“Waterloo Region and the Guelph areaare becoming powerhouse economiesin this province. This merger antici-pates an expanding need for ourbroadband services.Atria is a geographicconsolidation and anatural move toensure we can contin-ue to add the productsand services thesedynamic marketsdemand.”

No Going SlowDynamic markets,

indeed. If McCartneyis involved, there willbe dynamism. Hecame to what is nowAtria Networks from Futureway inYork Region, where he was foundingCEO. However, when the companydecided to “go into a slow grow,” heparted company with the company.

Looking to be where the action is,he was at first dubious about a utility-owned fibre company in Waterloo. But“I met with the directors, and they saidthey wanted to be really competitive.And it’s been outstanding... Fibretechwas allowed to be totally independent.I have never had a single call from oneof the hydros saying, ‘What’s going onhere?’ They totally understand that it’s

got its own board, which has reallybeen good for this company.”

And now, almost three years later,and a couple of months into the newincarnation as Atria? “It’s more funthan ever,” he says. “I never expectedto be here, but it’s been good. I don’t

think you understoodwhat you had. Whenthey did that connec-tivity for the schools, Ithink it was the first inCanada. Waterloo hadall the schools on andI don’t think anyoneelse in Canada did. It’sjust outstanding.”

McCartney’s mar-keting savvy kicks in:“This was a big deal,but it was so quiet.Why were you soquiet about this?”

It seems unlikely that will ever be aproblem on McCartney’s watch. Atriais on the move, and the world is goingto know about it. He talks with greatenthusiasm about WiFi in UpTownWaterloo; about the decision to con-nect with Bell, to give customers “thesort of bullet-proof level that peopleexpect from someone like Bell;” aboutthe continued demand for fibre serv-ices; about Atria’s intention to getinvolved in VOIP (Voice Over InternetProtocol).

Stay on l ine: there’s lots more coming.

COVER STORY

“We are

a first class,

world-class

telecom

company.”

From left: Steven McCartney, President & CEO, Atria Networks Inc. Ron Charie, President & CEO,Kitchener Wilmot Hydro, Rene Gatien, President & CEO, Waterloo North Hydro, John Grotheer,President & CEO, Cambridge & North Dumfires Hydro, Jim MacKenzie, CEO, Guelph Hydro, Stu Wilson, Vice-President, Atria Networks Inc.

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