Gabriel joins area

by Karen E. Culp

SBJ Staff

Gabriel Com-munications hopes to herald a host of changes in the telecommunications industry.

The St. Louis-based telecommunications company, named for the messenger angel of the Bible, turned up service for its first customer in Springfield Sept. 17, after months of preparing to open an office here. The company now has packet-switched networks in both St. Louis and Kansas City, and hopes to open more markets before year's end, said Jerry Howe, president and co-founder of Gabriel Com-munications. Howe was once with Brooks Fiber Properties, a company founded by Robert A. Brooks, who is now the chairman and chief executive officer of Gabriel. Brooks Fiber was purchased by Worldcom, which subsequently merged with MCI. Dale Kammerich will serve as general manager of the Springfield office, located at 1523 E. Lark.

"We're taking advantage of an opportunity we saw at Gabriel to provide customers with a truly integrated service. We are not simply reselling another service and we are not building an outdated network. Ours is what is called an IntegrallSM Network, and it allows customers to get all their telecommunications services over one line," Howe said.

The network uses a new technology called packet switched technology, as opposed to the circuit switched technology used by many carriers, said Jim Sliger, vice president of operations for Gabriel.

A high bandwidth and the use of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) makes it possible for customers to receive all of their voice and data transmissions through one line, Sliger said.

The company will interconnect with Southwestern Bell in order to reach a customer's place of business, he added. Gabriel has its own ATM switch in Springfield.

Gabriel's opportunity to enter the local telecommunications market came about as a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Howe said. The company became operational with its network in St. Louis in June of this year, although it had been an idea of Howe's and Brooks' for much longer than that, and they began forming the company a little more than a year ago.

Their first step was to identify investors for the company's start-up capital. A group of investors, including Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.H. Whitney & Co., Chase Capital Partners and four others, helped the company raise about $83 million in its first six months.

Gabriel has already struck agreements for service in the Springfield market, said Kammerich, with companies including Doctors Hospital, Springfield Brake Co., M.J. Kelly and Peterbilt. Gabriel plans to offer voice, data, Internet and other telecommunications services to small- to medium-sized business.

"Our focus will remain on small- and medium-sized businesses at first, and a good part of that focus will be on more personal service. In the future, we may take ourselves into the residential market