Hispanic Emphasis Widens Newroads - By Jeffrey Wood
Northwest Arkansas Business Journal - 12/28/01
Vantage Telecom LLC, doing business as Newroads Telecom, has made serving the Hispanic community a priority. It is the first major local Internet service provider to offer both totally English and Spanish versions of its Web site.
Newroads is a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) providing wireless, long-distance, Web-hosting and broadband and dial-up ISP. The Fort Smith company has about 3,000 subscribers in the Arkansas River Valley and in Northwest Arkansas.
But Newroads is looking to increase that number dramatically in 2002 by marketing itself to Benton and Washington counties' growing Hispanic population.
Scott Winter, Newroads' Vice President of sales and marketing, said the firm will spend more than $200,000 next year on marketing. He declined to say what percentage of that effort will be used for marketing to Hispanics, but hinted that it will be a significant chunk.
The strategy makes especially good sense on the Internet. A quick survey of the 10 other leading local ISPs showed that none of them has put any particular emphasis on reaching the Hispanic community. In most cases, Spanish instructions or links are not even offered.
According to 2000 census figures, the two-county area's population grew 48 percent from 210,908 in 1990 to 311,259 in 2000. But the most dramatic area of growth came in the Hispanic community, which grew by 815 percent from 1990. (See chart). Hispanics now comprise about 12 percent of the two-county area, and as much as 20 percent each in the cities of Rogers and Springdale.
"We realize that there's a large percentage of the local Hispanic population that is underserved," Winter said. "We have added Spanish-speaking professionals to our staff, and we're reaching out to Hispanics locally through our Web site and company phone message system."
One simple click at www.mynewroads.com converts the entire English-based site to Spanish. The firm's phone message system allows callers to "press eight" for a Spanish version of the mailbox menu, and even the ability to reach a Spanish-speaking human being.
But Newroads is also tailoring the Spanish version of its Internet to appeal to more members of the Hispanic community. Winter said the firm is working on new links and content that Spanish-speaking surfers say they'd like to see.
"The goal is to develop a site that's community oriented, and this version just happens to be Hispanic community oriented," Winter said.
Eddie Vega, president of EZ Spanish Media.com, said Newroads is advertising on his media company's two Hispanic radio stations — KREB, 99.5 FM and KZAR, 1390 AM — and in his La Prensa de Northwest Arkansas (The Press of Northwest Arkansas) weekly newspaper.
Content Filtering Improves Productivity
By Jeffrey Wood - Northwest Arkansas Business Journal - 12/24/01
Newroads' July 1 acquisition of Netegra LLC of Fort Smith, an Internet content-filter firm, added server-side site sifting to its arsenal. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Winter said the service has become popular with the firm's more than 80 business clients.
He said any firm that supplies high-speed connectivity for its employees may need some help with productivity control.
"Instead of concentrating on their work, your employees may be ebaying all day or surfing on sites that they shouldn't be," Winter said. "Our server-side content filtering lets you clean that pipe before it even gets to the facility. Doesn't it cost you, the business owner, money from your bottom line when you have employees who are supposed to be concentrating on their work but instead they're surfing all over the Internet.
"What does that cost add up to each day, or month, or year? This is a huge issue for our commercial clients."
Former IPA executives growing new telecommunications company - By Ethan C. Nobles - The Morning News / NWAonline.net - Saturday, June 16, 2001
FAYETTEVILLE -- Former executives of Internet Partners of America, once Arkansas' largest Internet provider, have formed a new Web portal service and telecommunications firm they hope will dwarf the size of the old one.
Newroads Telecom Inc. was formed in Fort Smith in December by Wayne King, Chris King, Larry Bone, Scott Winter and Bill Stuckey. All of the principals, with the exception of Stuckey, were former IPA executives.
Currently, Newroads provides everything from local telephone service to high-speed Internet access to Fort Smith and is branching out to sections of Northwest Arkansas.
Last week, Newroads purchased Rogers-based Arkansas Network Services (ANS), which had residential and business customers in Rogers, Bentonville, Bella Vista and Little Flock. Confirmed plans are in the works to purchase two more Internet service providers in Northwest Arkansas next week.
"At this point and time, we're not focused on being a national or even regional service provider," said Winter, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "Our immediate objective is to provide service to Arkansans."
Winter said Newroads hopes to have 10,000 customers in Arkansas by the end of the year. To achieve that, the company has registered as a competitive local exchange carrier in Arkansas so it can provide phone service and has pursued a strategy of buying small Internet service providers in the region.
Winter said the company is looking into operating, to a very limited degree, in Eastern Oklahoma and Southern Missouri. However, Newroads is set up to provide telecommunications service to Arkansas and to pay particular attention to some of the more rural parts of the state overlooked by larger companies, Winter said.
The number of customers that have signed up with Newroads isn't being revealed by company officials at this time for "competitive reasons," We're kind of stealthy and we want to remain that way," Winter said. "We want to let people know though that we're on the move."
Generally, the company hopes to expand quicker than IPA, which was formed in 1995 and provided Internet access to 56,000 Arkansans by the time it was sold to OneMain.com in the first quarter of last year. At its peaks, IPA provided local dial-up access to more than 700 cities in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.
In September, OneMain was purchased by Earthlink Inc., a national based ISP in Atlanta. Through that purchase, Earthlink acquired IPA. When IPA was sold to OneMain, 113 employees lost their jobs. Newroads has hired 20 of those former IPA employees and hopes to add more as the company expands. We're giving people their jobs back," Winter said. "It's good for the economy."
While Newroads is building up a broadband, wireless network to provide high-speed Internet service to consumers and businesses, Winter said the company still plans to provide both telephone service and traditional Internet access over phone lines.
"We still see there's a strong need for local, dial-up access," Winter said, adding that Newroads also operates as a full-featured Internet service provider.
Press Release: 6/8/01
Newroads Telecom Merges with Arkansas Network Services (ANS)
Newroads Telecom, a.k.a. "Newroads", Fort Smith's newest, locally based full service communications applications provider, announces the completion of their most recent merger. On June 1st, 2001, ANS, locally owned and based in Rogers, AR, agreed to merge with Newroads, all customers utilizing dial-up Internet access services and other Internet related services currently provided by ANS. Plans are currently under way to begin the immediate migration of "Arkansas Network Services" customer base in Rogers, Bentonville, Bella Vista, Avoca and Little Flock, to the Newroads newly enhanced digital 56k network said Scott Winter, Newroads Vice President of Sales and Marketing and former V.P. of Internet Partners of America (IPA.NET). To facilitate this merger and insure that the former ANS customers receive the highest caliber of service, Newroads has launched immediate plans to dramatically increase network capacity in these cities as well as expand their local coverage area. Residents and businesses in these area's can expect excellent high-speed Internet connections with the newly enhanced fully digital service Newroads provides. Newroads will also offer high-speed services such as DSL, Frame Relay, ISDN as well as LAN / WAN applications to the areas businesses with multi locations and higher bandwidth needs. Services in these areas will soon include high speed fixed wireless services with ultra fast connection up to 3mbps. Newroads will also offer Telco related services such as local lines, and long distance services, all provided on one simple bill.
ANS has recently notified their customers, via e-mail as well as U.S. mail, of this very important event and transition. Over the coming days, all of the ANS customers will begin to receive their new Newroads welcome letter, which will also provide information about the company and their new enhanced service. The letters will be sent via U.S. mail as well as e-mail and copies can be viewed on the company website. ANS customers can expect a smooth transition and will not experience any interruptions in their present service in any way. ANS customers will not have to make any changes to their existing ANS arkmola e-mail accounts or domain. Information regarding the merger will also be available on Newroads homepage at the following address: http://www.Newroadstelecom.com. Customers may contact Newroads directly at (888) 377-8057 should they have further questions regarding their transition to the new high speed Internet service.
Fort Smith based "Newroads Telecom", the areas newest, fixed "wireless broadband Internet provider", is extending its current services to Greenwood. The new "high speed" provider will market their wireless services to the Greenwood business community, offering area businesses an excellent alternative to both costly ISDN services and the more distance prohibited DSL services. Customers can choose rock steady wireless connection speed options from 128k - 2.0 Mbps. Each standard business connection comes equipped with 5 e-mail boxes.
With Newroads' Greenwood tower near completion, the new wireless service, expected to be available around May 30th',basically provides the customer a two way street for high-speed connectivity solutions. This means that a consumer can expect file upload speeds to be quite equivalent to their file download speeds. Something DSL services cannot achieve presently! Free two-week service trial periods will be available for businesses that would like to test and compare the exciting new, cost effective technology against what they are currently using. Soon following the introduction of their wireless services in Greenwood, Newroads will roll out additional Internet services such as local 56k dial-up access services and web hosting services. For more information regarding Newroads, call toll free: (877) 643-0260
Newroads Telecom to bring wireless broadband access to Greenwood - 8/13/01
