Pinnacle Makes Point with Alltel

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One of the area’s most upscale office parks is now offering off-the-scale wireless, dial-up and dial tone service.

Pinnacle Point LLC and Alltel Corp. of Little Rock — with help from local Internet service provider Telxcom and The Midland Group’s engineers — have teamed to create a unique halo of high-speed wireless Internet connectivity that covers a three-mile radius around Rogers’ Pinnacle Point office and retail park. Alltel major accounts specialist Michelle Tull said the result is Alltel’s first on-Net fiber project in Northwest Arkansas.

Pinnacle Point, located on the west side of the I-540/Champion’s Boulevard interchange, already catered to retail vendors and professionals seeking posh office space. But thanks to this partnership, the 350,000-SF development can now easily attract other firms with ultra-high-speed communications needs.

The Midland Group’s engineers installed an Alltel fiber optic line to Pinnacle. That allowed Alltel to offer on-site tenants 5 MB DSL connectivity using Pinnacle-tenant Telxcom as an ISP. The product is thought to be the second fastest commercial Internet pipeline in Arkansas behind Cox Communications Inc.’s 10 MB fiber line.

Telxcom installed a Sysco antenna on top of Pinnacle’s Tower “A” building to add the wireless Internet broadcast capabilities.

Alltel’s fiber line also offers regular dial tone phone service to compete with Southwestern Bell’s. Previously, Alltel’s only local dial tone service depended on co-location with Bell on competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs).

Hunter Haynes, Pinnacle’s property manager, said talks for the project began a year ago, and the seven-figure deal was consummated in December. Telxcom went live with its wireless Internet service the week of March 5.

Alltel is using the project to launch a variety of business phone solutions in the area. Its products include long-distance service, Centrex dial tone service, C-Phone video conferencing, Nortel’s Meridian PBX and Norstar key systems and Spectralink — an in-house wireless phone system for offices.