Spiderhost Moves from Dialup to DSL to T-1, and now to Fiber

Forward thinking companies are always a step ahead, and that's where Spiderhost sees itself.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [January 12, 2009]

If you name your company Spiderhost, you're probably fine with having a tarantula in the reception area. She's Ruby, listed top of the company's leadership team.

Founded in 2002, the company offers hosting, connectivity, and additional services. Big name hosting customers include the Florida Gators, many local non-profits, CatholicWeb, and the local Siemens office.

The company has a growing Wi-Fi service with university and hotel customers.

But it's the fiber that we called to learn about.

Fiber
The company's metro fiber Ethernet project is ambitious. Company CEO and founder Dale Frohman estimates that there are 50,000 small businesses in the service area.

"It was tuned up a few months ago," Frohman says, "and we've had very good results so far."

Rather than build their own, the company is using dark fiber. "We're dealing with LECs and CLECs to make this happen," Frohman says. "I wish we could lay our own fiber but we don't have that capital. We have a lot of experience working with telcos, and we know it's important to set expectations with our vendors and customers. We do not over-promise."

The sales process during the provisioning process is detailed. "We provide weekly status updates," says Frohman. "Once it's up, our customers love it. They love the scalability. They can up bandwidth in a day."

Some customers have seasonal demand. "One of our customers does virtual shows and webinars. Their busy time starts in September and lasts three months. During that time they need the full pipe [100 Mbps]."

In many cases, the service replaces one or more T-1s. "Pricing is comparable," Frohman says. "Remote workers can chew through a single T-1 quickly, and two T-1s cost more than our service. For a company that's looking to add a second T-1, it's an easy buy intellectually."

Services
Of course, the company adds services to its fiber pipe, such as web design and marketing.

Do you manage that business differently. "Almost all rules on the hosting side are different on the design side," Frohman says. "It's a different product and different people. It's a product we started offering on day 1, but we started with some small projects and our own website. It stays busy even in a bad economy. People understand the saying that 'the website should be your top salesperson' and are putting time and money into their website. People are willing to put $10,000 into the website when it's their top salesman and never calls in sick."

The company is looking at offering additional services such as efax, managed DNS, and managed firewall—whatever would sell well with fiber. "We're tiny," says Frohman. "Services are how we compete with the LEC."

The company sold its dialup and DSL business in December of 200. "We saw dialup declining and in DSL, it was tough to compete with the LECs. We converted many of our DSL customers to T-1s and now are converting them to fiber."

T-1s are becoming a commodity, Frohman says, so he's glad to be offering services (and fiber) . But he's always looking for good people. "It's hard to find staff who are well-rounded, tech staff who work well with people," he says.

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