Gateway Access Solutions scurries to establish itself

With a common stock that just began trading, a major deal just wrapped up and a move to new offices just around the corner,Andrew Nester has a full plate.

But it's only a start for Nester, the president and chief executive officer of Gateway Access Solutions Inc., soon to be headquartered at Carson City.

The company, privately funded so far by 167 investors who infused about $2 million into early operations, is working furiously to raise more capital, hire a technical and management staff that is likely to total 20 to 25 in 18 months and nail down acquisitions in its rapidly consolidating industry providing wireless broadband services to businesses.

Much of the urgency is dictated by the Federal Communications Commission, which told owners of licensed frequencies for broadband that they need to begin using the frequencies or stand to lose them.And the FCC nudges owners of the frequencies to begin consolidation of services.

Gateway, which owns frequencies in 33 markets across the nation,made a major move just before Christmas when it purchased Purelink.net, a wireless Internet provider in Albuquerque.

Nester said last week the company continues to scout for more second- and third-tier markets where it can acquire licensed frequencies.

Big-city markets, he said, are dominated by Nextel, Sprint and other big telecommunications carriers, companies that little Gateway doesn't want as competitors.

Gateway has a strong presence already in northeast Pennsylvania, where its customers include a large medical regional center.

There, and elsewhere, the company looks to keep ahead of typical Internet service which Nester believes has turned into a commodity by adding services such as virtual private networks and voice-over-Internet telephone calls to business customers.

Using FCC-licensed frequencies, he said, allows Gateway to provide a clear and secure broadband channel to business users.

As it looks to acquire frequencies, build infrastructure, begin marketing and hire technical and management staff, Gateway needs a healthy dollop of capital.

The company's common stock has begun trading on the over-the-counter pink sheets, and Nester figures he can raise somewhere around $1 million in capital through sales into the public market.

Investment bankers, meanwhile, are perking up and might come in with another $5 million or so.

The combination, the company believes, should be enough to get its growth plans kick-started and carry it until 2006.

The company expects to build six to eight new markets this year.

"We believe that 2005 is going to be our blow-out year,"Nester said."We see a big play here."

If so, this year will mark a renaissance for the company founded in mid-2001 by Nester, a pioneer in the wireless broadband business.

Caught in the recession that began in 2001, Gateway suspended operations in early 2002.

About a year later, it was resuscitated by an infusion of capital,much of it from physicians and other health-care professions who used and loved Gateway's system in northeast Pennsylvania.