High-speed fiber optic cable installed in Selbyville Industrial Park
E Revolution Ventures recently announced the installation of fiber-optic internet cable throughout the Selbyville Industrial Park, in conjunction with the Town of Selbyville and Sussex County. The $14,750 project was funded jointly by the Town of Selbyville and Sussex County, with each paying 50 percent of the cost to build the network infrastructure.
This collaboration brings much-needed, reliable, high-speed internet service to the industrial park, which previously relied solely on cable internet as a main provider, with DSL as the only choice for a backup provider. For businesses that pay for DSL backup, this means if cable internet fails, internet download and upload speeds plummet to 2 Mbps and .5 Mbps respectively. Businesses without internet redundancy in the industrial park have lost their internet connection completely between 2-6 days per year. With many businesses in the area reliant on fast and steady internet service to transfer data, even a few days a year can mean tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
When E Revolution Ventures learned of an existing fiber-optic line that runs along Route 113 on the Maryland side and stops at the Delaware border, they approached the Maryland Broadband Cooperative about utilizing the connection. MDBC, a nonprofit organization, works with local communities to provide an advanced fiber-optic broadband network throughout rural areas in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Under MDBC’s recommendation, E Revolution obtained a proposal from Bay Country Communications, a last-mile service provider and broadband retailer, to stretch the fiber-optic cable from the Delaware line and install it in the industrial park. In an effort to make the project more economically feasible for the town and county, part of the negotiation included a clause that provides for easy access to the fiber-optic line for all businesses throughout the industrial park.
E Revolution Ventures coordinated with Selbyville Town Manager Bob Dickerson, and spoke with other businesses in the industrial park such as Chrome World, Spaceport Support Services, and Arrow Safety Device Co., among others, to get them involved in the project. When the proposal was presented to the Town of Selbyville, the town enthusiastically supported the idea, and offered to pay 50 percent of the installation cost. The Town of Selbyville also successfully reached out to Sussex County, which agreed to fund the remaining 50 percent.
“We are proud to be part of bringing the latest technology to the industrial park,” said Dickerson. “We appreciate the investment E Revolution Ventures has made in our community along with the other park businesses. This investment in fiber-optic will certainly be a value-added benefit to park businesses and help secure a lasting relationship with our community.”
The new fiber-optic line will be capable of providing broadband upload and download speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps, and will have 99.9 percent reliability. For a company like E Revolution Ventures, an e-commerce retailer that relies heavily on constant, reliable internet access, gaining such stability will be a great source of relief. Internet is required for almost every aspect of day-to-day business, including sending emails, placing orders, analyzing complex data, and even internet-based VOIP phone lines. An internet outage, or even a slow connection speed, involves not only a stoppage of business, it means having almost total loss of productivity for over 150 employees.
“We are very excited to bring fast, reliable internet service into the Selbyville Industrial Park.” said Ed Timmons, CTO of E Revolution Ventures. “We are an internet business, so when our internet goes down, we can’t do business. Bringing Maryland Broadband Cooperative's high-speed, fiber-optic broadband network to Selbyville is a huge win for the community, and I believe it will attract even more high-tech businesses to our area. We appreciate the Town of Selbyville and Sussex County for their support - they immediately saw the benefit and worked quickly to get this project started.”
E Revolution Ventures is a data-driven e-commerce company using smart algorithms to track and sell millions of products across more than a dozen product categories online. Originating from brick and mortar roots, E Revolution Ventures was recently ranked 13th among the fastest-growing e-commerce businesses in the United States in Internet Retailer magazine's list of the top 500 e-commerce businesses. It was the third-fastest-growing company in Delaware with sales growth from 2010 to 2013 of 1,050 percent. E Revolution Venture’s 2013 revenue was $43.3 million, and the company expects to keep its current high-speed growth rate through 2014.
