Squan Adds Personnel to Bolster Diversification Initiative

By J. Sharpe Smith, Senior Editor

October 10, 2019

The hiring of Carolyn Hardwick to lead business development efforts and Anand Gandhi as chief technology officer rounds out Squan’s personnel as it diversifies across the wireline, fiber and wireless carrier markets.

Last summer, Squan formed a new division, Squan Technology, constructing complex network infrastructure. And, in the Spring of this year, telecom infrastructure services provider transitioned from only providing construction services to also offering end-to-end or specialized services as a network life-cycle business.

“We brought Carolyn, whom I have known for 15 years, in to assist in our development of OSP/ISP engineering and to go after site acquisition-oriented projects along with A&E services,” Keith Pennachio, Squan executive VP and chief strategy officer, told AGL eDigest. “She comes from the operations side of the house, being in project management, and having a lot of experience in site acquisition and engineering on the wireless and cable side.”

Heading up Squan Technology, Anand will bridge some of the technical gaps in the marketplace, for example, explaining dB loss in a building to a real estate management group, according to Pennachio.

In deploying small cells in the right of way, carriers have been forced to deal with the outside plant world, sometimes for the first time, according Pennachio, and Squan aims take advantage of opportunities it perceives in providing both outside plant engineering and small cell deployment services in the right of way.

“The carriers are hiring traditional site acquisition shops to do the site identification for poles in the right of way and then design the attachments for those poles. The fundamental problem in doing that is a small cell in the right of way is more of a outside plant exercise than a wireless site acquisition task.”

In 2017, Squan purchased Communications Specialists Inc. (CSI), which provides aerial and underground fiber optic services. In 2016, it purchased Osmose Communications Services, which provides outside plant and inside plant design engineering services. And also in 2016, Squan, acquired the assets of Strong Tower Communication, which provides wireless macro services including new site builds, fiber delivery and testing, maintenance, and program management to wireless telecommunications companies.

Squan’s CEO, Duane Albo, said that the explosive growth of fiber-to-the-X and small cell and 5G densification is well aligned with the total turnkey engineering and construction solutions Squan offers, providing the company with a significant growth path. “This convergence of events, coupled with professional management, has enabled the company to experience significant annual revenue growth for the past three years,” he said.

Acquisitions Squan made in 2016 and 2017 contribute to the company’s business change. “Adding inside plant, outside plant design and outside plant construction, along with professional resources, enabled us to create a converged services group focused on the merging of wireless and wireline initiatives,” Pennachio said.