Advanced Network Services

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Advanced Network Services:

Keeping You Connected

This Albany, NY company provides turnkey telecommunications solutions for clients across multiple sectors Written by Kevin Doyle Produced by Stephen Marino

www.anscorporate.com


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www.anscorporate.com


A

NS Advanced Network Services, LLC, headquartered in Albany NY is a turnkey EF&I (Engineering, Furnishing and Installation) provider of telecommunications solutions. The services ANS offers to its customers are DAS & Indoor Small Cell, Tower Services, Network Infrastructure, and DC Power Systems. ANS product lines are run by dedicated teams of subject matter experts, who ensure that each project is completed to customer specifications on-time and on-budget. With demonstrated success with small projects, all the way to multimillion dollar building expansions, raw land builds, and campus wireless deployments, ANS personnel have the specific experience needed for whatever mission critical communications project you may have. The company also provides communications system and DC power system test and turn up, and 24-7 maintenance and monitoring services. The privately held company is under the guidance of President and GM Paul Fettuccia. ANS has approximately 150 employees and provides turnkey solutions to its customers and partners in the telecommunications industry. Additionally, servicing the wireless carriers, cable companies, data centers, healthcare services as well as the state & federal government.

www.anscorporate.com

Advanced Network Services | 4 The ANS suite of services is provided from Chicago to the Northeast and down the East Coast with as-needed support nationwide. To provide the best customer service and project management, ANS has warehouse and office locations in Albany, NY (Headquarters), Queens, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Columbus, OH, and Springfield, IL.t also has facilities in New York City, Philadelphia and Columbus, OH and has a small presence in Illinois. “We’ve changed our model pretty significantly over the last several years with less direct employees while utilizing more subcontractors. The majority of ANS’s employees are project managers, construction managers and engineers as well as high impact field technicians. Our projects can range anywhere from $500 for maintenance visits up to $4 million for individual turnkey projects. We have quite a range of services to offer our customers. Annual revenue varies from year to year depending on the types of projects we perform. This year we have a higher volume of smaller projects and expect revenue of around $31 million,” Fettuccia says. The company grew at a rapid pace through the 1990’s, achieving $48 million in sales at the height of the “dot-com boom” in 2000. “When the crash came, we fell to $12 million in annual revenue within three months,” Fettuccia recalls.


Advanced Network Services | 5 The “dot-com” crash led to a needed transition and resulted in the leaner, smarter company ANS has become today. “We were forced to downsize during this transition and change our model from one where we had large scale telecommunications projects in the $10 million-dollar range to our present business model where we have many smaller size projects. We started working less with the equipment

manufacturer and more with the customer directly. We have grown from 12 million in 2001 to where we are today. We have been steady about growth. With smaller projects there is a lot less risk,” Fettuccia adds. As a result of this change, ANS has earned “Best in Class for Service Delivery” from Verizon for its cell tower and infrastructure service and from Fujitsu for EF&I services.

www.anscorporate.com


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We are fortunate to have

Service Offerings

someone that does executive training and leadership training and we send Project Managers and Engineers

leadership to strategy development. - President Paul Fettuccia www.anscorporate.com

to those types of programs, from

TOWER INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE: ANS ComTrain Certified Tower professionals execute structural modification of existing towers as needed. The company builds new towers, modifies existing structures, and upgrades technology via radio and antennas on these structures. The company specializes in selfsupporting monopoles, guyed towers and structural retrofit projects. Fettuccia says, “new towers, structures and systems, can be built on top of water tanks and rooftops – or disguised as stealth sites, such as a


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church bell tower”. “Existing structures typically need technology upgrades, fortification to the concrete structure, or new steel welded to fortify the strength of the tower due to changing weight loads from technology upgrades or weathering and deterioration of the structure”. Fettuccia says. Fettuccia explains that technology upgrade on an existing tower for 4G LTE services and future 5G services involves changing the radials to a new platform, increasing power or upgrading the antennas. IN-BUILDING WIRELESS SYSTEMS:

ANS designs and installs Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) that enhance and distribute wireless connections inside buildings or stadiums to enable wireless devices to operate where they otherwise would not. “ANS has an experimental FCC CBRS (Citizen Band Radio System) at 3.5 MHz located at their corporate headquarters in Albany NY. Today, the Navy owns and operates this frequency spectrum, but the FCC is looking to auction in the future to wireless service providers.” Fettuccia says. Wireless carriers using this new frequency band will be able to deploy private LTE and 5G mobile networks in the future. ANS is utilizing the

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Advanced Network Services | 8 CBRS spectrum to develop an inbuilding private LTE network and test interoperability of various IoT devices. NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE: ANS is your single-source EF&I Provider for new technology of Mission-Critical Network Infrastructure. Services are divided into several market segments – DC power systems, fiber optic transport systems, switching & routing systems and customer premise cabling. There are two distinct sides to the company’s product suite – the power side and the infrastructure work required to support the power; and large in-building wireless projects for commercial real estate, residential or

sports venues that are typically in the million-dollar range.

Operations and Challenges The company faces similar problems as to large scale general contractors to those across the construction industry. “Finding competent motivated people is No. 1 on the list and the rising labor costs is an issue as well,” Fettuccia notes. “With the carriers being such a big part of who we do business with, we do not have leverage. We are feeling pricing pressure based on the carriers trying to squeeze more margins out of the services they’re buying. The companies we’re doing work for are not willing to pay for the

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Advanced Network Services | 9 increased technical resources needed to The company invests heavily into staff deliver the networks of the future.” development and has remarkably high retention – more than 40 employees Projects the company has recently been have been with the company for 10 involved with are an upgrade of the or more years and another 20 have DAS system at OSU’s football stadium; surpassed 15 years. installation of a small cell system in the parking lot of New Era Stadium where “We are fortunate to have a board the Buffalo Bills play; installation of member that provides executive a large scale DC power system for a and leadership training for all future major wireless carrier in Wilmington, Managers, Project Managers and DE; a DAS maintenance and monitoring Engineers at ANS. We are funneling program for the S&P 500 building our talented employees through in New York City; and a design and training programs in order to assure implementation of a public safety that we are all speaking the same system in a newly constructed hotel in business language,” Fettuccia says. Albany NY. The company also provides technical, sales and customer service training for

We’ve changed our model pretty

significantly over the last several years with more self-contracted employees. The majority are engineers and project managers with the rest

being field staff.

- President Paul Fettuccia www.anscorporate.com


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We have grown from that $12

million in 2001 to where we are today. We have been steady about

growth. With smaller projects there is a lot less risk.

- President Paul Fettuccia employees in the field to enhance their job functions. Additionally, an annual three-day year-end strategy planning session is held to gather employee input on the state of the industry. “The executive team always attends, but we bring different members of the staff and field personnel to expose them to our processes and to get their input and feedback from our customers,” Fettuccia points out. The Vital Link in the Supply Chain Graybar is a leading distributor of high-quality electrical, communications and data networking products, and specializes in supply chain management and logistics services. Through a distribution network of nearly 290 locations, Graybar helps its customers power, network and secure their facilities with speed, intelligence and efficiency. Learn how Graybar can work to your advantage.

1-800-GRAYBAR (472-9227)

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www.anscorporate.com

In developing a vetting system for its sub-contractors, ANS has “gone to school”, so to speak, on companies it has worked for such as Verizon, AT&T, Turner Construction, Bechtel and Skanska as well as the Federal Government. ANS has been subject to many master service agreements over the years. “As we have developed our master services agreement and subcontractor mgt. program, we have taken the best in class practices associated


with those contracts and utilized them in our subcontractor mgt. program. This includes an evaluation of the companies we are considering to subcontract initially and a post evaluation of their performance via a score card on the back end of the project,” Fettuccia says.

About Safety ANS engages in physically challenging business, with the most challenging being the cell tower construction. The company is a member of the NATE (National Association of Tower Erectors) organization. “NATE is a consortium of best practice organizations and probably 100% of their mantra is on best safety practices and training. ANS trains and certifies annually all tower technicians via the ComTrain – competent climber and rescuer program and tower safety program. We do annual training for competent tower climber and safety rescues on towers as well as first aid and CPR training,” Fettuccia says. ANS also works closely with its insurance provider for best practices from their perspective on the industry. Fettuccia notes, “we use a lot of the training from the insurance carriers associated with distracted driver and ladder safety etc. The criteria the insurance companies use have resulted in a low EMR rating for ANS.

Advanced Network Services | 11 Looking Ahead After surviving an industry meltdown 19 years ago, ANS has consistently shown itself to be nimble and willing to make the changes necessary to survive and thrive into the future. “My job is to make sure my team has what they need to get the job done,” says Fettuccia, the selfdescribed “chief cook and bottle washer” for ANS. “Whether that is the proper safety training, the best tools to perform the job efficiently, or finding the best employees and subcontractors in the industry. My time is best served knocking down these barriers for ANS so that we can deliver the best in class services to our customers.”

COMPANY INFORMATION Company Name: Advanced Network Services Country: US Industry: Construction Est: 1991 Premier Service: Provider of telecommunications solutions. President: Paul Fettuccia Website: www.anscorporate.com

www.anscorporate.com


12 Elmwood Rd, Albany, NY 12204-2410 P: (800) 268-0937 P: (518) 292-6555


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