Brook Lenfest's Internet "powerhouse"
"We're going to build it up" into a "regional powerhouse," says Brook Lenfest.
NetCarrier Inc., a voice and data "competitive local-exchange carrier" (CLEC) owned by Brook Lenfest and based in Lansdale, says it's purchased Ira Riklis' SNiP, a rival ISP based in Pennsauken. Lenfest wouldn't tell me what he paid. Prior to merger, NetCarrier had 5,500 business and residential customers, who paid $17 million last year. SNiP had 2,300 customers and $7 million in sales.
"We're going to build it up like Suburban Cable," into "a regional powerhouse," Lenfest told me. Suburban was his father H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest's cable company until his partners forced its sale, ultimately to Comcast, the elder Lenfest's archrival, enabling him to retire as one of the Philadelphia area's leading philanthropists.
Lenfest also told me he's talking to Fairmount Partners, the Philadelphia investment bank, about buying additional systems, including Hosted Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) companies, which have been attracting big corporate buyers like Comcast.. "We want to stay in the region - New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware," where NetCarrier already has customers and 200 miles of fiber-optic cable, plus neighboring Northeast markets, Lenfest told me.
NetCarrier had about 50 workers before the merger, led by Chris Peltier, who founded the company in 1996. SNiP has 15 workers, led by company president Pete Cava. About half the SNiP staff will "transition out" once the merger's done, Lenfest said.
What does NetCarrier offer that giants like Verizon and Comcast don't? "Customer service" for small and midsized business clients, Lenfest told me.