Quantum Communications Wires National Networks
by September 12, 2005 12:00 am 150 views
Jason Johnson has done everything from retrofit security systems at the Stephens Inc. building in Little Rock to installing the mythical red hotline phones often seen in Hollywood war rooms and spy dramas.
The phones are real, Johnson said, because he was a subcontractor for General Dynamics Corp. on an emergency homeland security project after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He put them in U.S. Air Force bases in the Western Air Defense Sector and the South East Air Defense Sector. The phones he worked on now link many Air Force bases with the Federal Aviation Administration to allow instant communication between the two.
Johnson was also one of a three-man team subbed by General Dynamics on a project called Noble Eagle, which conducted emergency modifications to the U.S. Air Force radar systems.
But Johnson has since settled his own business, Quantum Communications, in Eureka Springs. Work takes him to Little Rock and Fayetteville often, and as far away as Oklahoma City and Indiana on occasion.
Johnson cut his teeth for many years on the security business in Little Rock, but once going solo, he has focused his business on telecommunications networks and audio/visual systems for private and corporate clients.
The communications niche is more lucrative than security, Johnson said. With security systems, there are always call-backs, false alarms or something to fine-tune. But if a cable or fiber optic telecommunications network is installed properly, he said, there’s no reason for clients to call him back unless they want upgrades.
Johnson estimates his company will gross “well over $100,000” this year, just his third year in business for himself.
The work he did for Stephens Inc. impressed the late Jack Stephens so much, Johnson said, that he has continued to do many projects at the private residences of various Stephenses since the mid-1990s.
Quantum employs four people including Johnson and his wife Heather Chee, but he said he may have to look at hiring more soon because he’s agreed to do up to seven projects for Lindsey Management Co. Technically, he subcontracts with LCI Network Solutions LLC, a division of Lindsey Management.
Heath England, vice president of LCI and Lindsey Communications Inc., said Quantum Communications did the pre-wiring of more than a combined 2,000 cable television and telephone drops, or wall outlets, for Lindsey’s Stearn Street Apartment project in Fayetteville. That added up to about 200,000 lineal feet each of coaxial cable and telephone line, he said.
Johnson can be trusted to go to a remote location and get the job done, England said, and that’s why he’s an attractive subcontractor.
The upcoming Lindsey projects are new construction or additional phases in Conway, Nebraska, Alabama, Mississippi and Kansas.
With all his experience with super-secret military installations and in the private homes of Arkansas’ elite, Johnson said he likes installing clean telecommunications networks.
He said the wiring that goes above the ceiling in many offices is thrown about haphazardly and can become an impossible jungle of jumble. But he prides Quantum Communications in laying cable in an orderly fashion without kinks. Even the smallest kink in an Ethernet cable can eventually degrade a network, he said.
He considers the cabled infrastructure as a work of art, he said. He wants service people who see his work years after it’s done to say, “that’s nice work.”