“The company started with myself, a laptop and $1,000,” Chris Elliott laughs. Many companies that start with an entrepreneurial nature close faster than it takes for the sign to go up on its office, but Chris Elliott’s company, ARETE Development, has just reached its 10-year anniversary and last year grossed $18 million in sales.

Ten years ago, in 1999, the Internet was booming with opportunity and the country was just beginning to expand into the wireless area of telecommunications, and Elliott knew that this was where he belonged. As a general contractor, he previously owned a company that provided environmental cleanup and underground utility construction services to the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). ARETE Development, Inc., located in Fairfield, New Jersey, is also a general contracting company; however, it mainly specializes in the construction, modification, optimization and maintenance of telecommunications facilities for major cellular service providers, from rural tower locations to urban area towers & rooftops.

From its inception, ARETE traditionally conducted operations in New Jersey and New York, New York. And thanks to a recent expansion ARETE has begun providing its full range of services in Connecticut, growing the company to include more than 75 full-time installers, technicians, warehouse and administrative employees. There are many competitors in the field, but Elliott says his firm stays ahead of the competition “…by providing a quality product and doing exactly what we say we are going to do within the prescribed schedule.” It is no more complicated, and just as simple as that.

Notable Projects on the Resume

That company philosophy has allowed ARETE the opportunity to work with the industry’s biggest names: Sprint/Nextel, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, AT&T Wireless and MetroPCS. The company routinely constructs as many as 20 new cell sites and completes 50 or more modifications to already existing sites for its customers each month. Additionally, Elliott has continued on with building and electrical renovation projects for the USACE. This added capability and diverse customer base has proven essential in weathering the current economic storm.

A notable project for ARETE was the construction of a five-room building designed to house four cellular carriers, a generator, and the communication equipment for the Police Department in Franklin, New Jersey. At a contract price of $750,000, it was the largest single project the company has completed. ARETE was also heavily involved in the deployment of MetroPCS’ network in the NYC metropolitan area, and completed construction of 114 sites in the nine months prior to launch in February 2009.

The Effects of Tragic Circumstances

Since the advent of ARETE in 1999 there have been events that have inextricably changed the landscape of the telecommunications and construction industries. The first of these was 9/11. Apart from being a horrific tragedy, it also was the most significant crisis the telecommunications industry had ever experienced in NYC due to a massive network collapse caused by destruction of facilities. Companies are still rebuilding the network to this day.

The other event, which has made the business environment more challenging for Elliott and his contemporaries, was the tragic crane collapse on the east side of Manhattan in March 2008. Since that day all construction companies have been under a much sharper microscope. Each company must comply with very specific codes applied by agencies with overlapping interests, causing an enormous amount of otherwise unnecessary administrative work simply to maintain day-to-day operations. “We are encumbered with the responsibility of compliance with codes and laws put into place as a reaction to the oversights of others,” Elliott laments.

Telecommunications in the U.S.

The state of telecommunications in the United States is an interesting one to track. A telecommunications system is a network, and a network requires infrastructure. Much like the railroad in its developing stages, the infrastructure of telecommunications’ network(s) is under construction. With the increasing demand for a variety of wireless services, infrastructure expansion assures there will be work for companies like ARETE for years to come, with modification and maintenance of that infrastructure expanding as the networks age. It is incumbent upon the cellular service providers to continue their expansion and upgrade programs in order to fill coverage gaps and increase capacity of existing cell sites if they are to remain competitive.

Many if not all cellular service providers are in process of or planning to upgrade their networks within the next few years to offer 4G (the fourth generation of wireless technology). This system is expected to provide an IP-based solution for the seamless integration of streaming multimedia, like voice and data, to end users. Elliott surmises there will be a minimum of five more years of infrastructure expansion, followed by decades of modifications and upgrades to the networks as new technologies are developed to accommodate the seemingly limitless demand for new wireless applications. Upgrade of the networks to include 4G technology will no doubt keep Elliott and ARETE very busy for the foreseeable future.

The Future of ARETE Development

As for the state of ARETE, the company continues to expand its geographic footprint, offering new services as the demand arises, and discontinuing others if the need no longer exists or if no longer profitable. Explains Elliott: “We don’t ever experience a remarkable up or down swing in sales because we have a diverse customer base. When one customer’s network expansion or modification program comes to an end, another customer’s program begins.”

ARETE has added consulting and specialty item manufacturing to its range of services in the past year in preparation for the time when construction of new cell sites will no longer be its primary revenue generating source. Specifically, it is manufacturing the concealment panels and products that many municipalities now require to be installed in front of antennas and other equipment. These products were traditionally purchased through retail suppliers, so it is expected that in-house manufacture of these products will help to increase the company’s gross margin.

Another service being offered by ARETE is the testing of cell sites’ antennas and coaxial cables with advanced diagnostic testing equipment designed to detect “noise” between connections. Test results are then evaluated by customers, and if results indicate that cell site output is being affected by poor performance of the system, ARETE is contracted to trouble-shoot and affect repairs until the performance-affecting problem has been repaired. This investment in equipment is another way the company has managed to stay a step ahead of its competition.

While sales are expected to remain static for the next year or so, Elliott can barely express enough gratitude for what his company has become since its’ humble beginnings. This sense of enthusiasm and appreciation for a job well done is the number one attribute he looks for when evaluating a potential employee for hire. Elliott believes that as long as a person has the requisite intelligence, and a “no compromise” attitude towards providing a quality product, it will make up for any lack of experience, and he will be able to mold them to become the right person for the job. In addition to an unwavering work ethic, this mentality is the reason why ARETE is poised to be answering calls for many years to come.