U.S. Army/Sprint Military/IHG Army Hotels
The Start: BaseCom Helps A Prime Contractor Maximize a Greenfield Opportunity
Study Area: White-label telecom program development, WAN/LAN construction, “investing subcontractor,” and business development
The Opportunity
When Sprint’s Government Services Division won contracts to provide U.S. Army soldiers and Air Force airmen quarters with telephone, television and Internet worldwide with the U.S. Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES or The Exchange), they called on BaseCom. This opportunity, valued at $30 million at the time, afforded Sprint a virtual greenfield opportunity to build underground cable networks it could use in virtual perpetuity and begin selling wireline telephone, Internet and cable television.
The Solution
Sprint turned to Dennis Casey and Jeffrey Casey to create a network of telephone central offices, Internet access and cable TV headends telephone central offices, Internet Access, and cable television headends, as well as create an entire worldwide hospitality offering for Army Lodging’s 25,000 hotel rooms. BaseCom not only provided the program master plans, but also the financing and sales support that made this program one of Sprint’s most profitable businesses at the turn of the century. For subscriber services, BaseCom-built networks have supported Private CATV headends, CMTSs, DSLAMs, 1000+ port PBXs, and of course, Ethernet and WiFi.
All told, BaseCom and its subcontractors have laid miles of copper, coax and optical fiber that has served four carriers, two hotel groups, and of course, the U.S. Army.
Today: IHG Hotels U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood -the U.S.’s largest private local fiber/coax hotel network
Fort Leonard Wood is a U.S. Army post in central Missouri. Spanning almost 100 square miles, Fort Wood is also home to one of the Army’s largest group of training schools and host to several thousands of students each year.
When Lendlease and Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) took over the Army’s hotel facilities and operations almost ten years ago, BaseCom continued to provide networking via the fiber, coax and copper it had built as a Sprint subcontractor.
In 2016, BaseCom completed construction of a new single-mode fiber optic network linking all four hotel areas.
Study Area: WAN/LAN construction, Operations and Maintenance, Networks, Single-mode Fiber, Site Management