Spotlight on: Telecom in Dallas

Editor’s Note: To provide readers with an insight into the world of wireless in regional locales, RCR Wireless News sends its editorial staff not only to trade shows but to metropolitan regions as well, giving insight into how mobile broadband is changing the way we all work, live and play in different areas of the United States and the world.
This week RCR Wireless News visited Dallas ahead of the Telecommunications Industry Association’s annual trade show, TIA2011: Inside the Network, to see what made Dallas unique.
DALLAS – J.R. Ewing, Texas longhorns and the telecom corridor no longer define the Dallas metropolitan area, but some things remain the same: “Everything is bigger in Texas,” said Doug Moore, senior VP of sales, marketing and services at Fujitsu Networks Inc. and chairman of the board of the Metroplex Technology Business Council.
No state income tax, an airport that allows 3-hour access to either coast (and return flights the same day) and a friendly business environment are some of the reasons that many of the world’s top technology companies call Dallas their North American headquarters. Cheap housing, a Central Time Zone location and a great labor pool also are attractive to businesses. The term “telecom corridor” fell out of favor during the early part of this century when the industry was hurting, but telecom – whether today’s flavor of the month or not – has a marked presence in the North Dallas region. L.M. Ericsson, the world’s largest telecom equipment manufacturer, and AT&T Inc., one of the nation’s largest telecom operator, both have headquarters in Dallas.
During interviews with a variety of Texas executives this week, many paid homage to Texas Instruments Inc., one of the first technology companies to locate in Dallas. Nortel Networks Ltd. and MCI Communications Inc. also were businesses that early on called Texas home. Today, the region is trying to recruit healthcare, automation and silicon, as well as alternative energy companies, Moore said. “Dallas is headquarters for a lot of big strong, stable companies,” Moore said. The region also has kept the spirit of the cowboy, he noted.
The Dallas area, which includes suburb cities of Plano, Richardson, Frisco and Irving, is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country, said Dallas Chamber of Commerce’s Sarah Carabias-Rush, managing director of economic development. The area has a strong workforce, she said. While AT&T has 14,000 employees in the area, so does Verizon Communications Inc. Surprisingly, the area has only two major industries that employ fewer than 500,000 people – the telecom sector and the oil-and-gas sector.
The AT&T Performing Arts Center has contributed to a new level of sophistication as a more diverse society comes to the area, and the region is noted for top-notch shopping.
Dallas gains about 300 new residents per day, a trend that has been continuing for 15 years. “We have room to grow,” Moore said of the landscape. The Dallas Fort Worth International Airport can connect people internationally as well, Moore added. Flights to Australia began earlier this week. Chicago, Denver and Atlanta are top competitors when recruiting new business, but the chamber also works to get companies from the West and East coasts to relocate to the region.
Ericsson works with area universities not only to cull engineering students, but business majors and others for project managers and sales people, said Arun Bhikshesevaran, Ericsson’s newly appointed CMO, adding that talent is needed in all areas.
An entrepreneurial spirit and can-do attitude, “We think we can do it better than anyone else” are part of Dallas region’s culture.
North Texas has an intensity, perhaps where its residents work more and play less, said commercial real-estate broker Michael Wyatt,executive director at Cushman and Wakefield of Texas Inc., a commercial real-estate broker in Dallas.“Our steaks are bigger, our cigars are bigger.”
AT&T Mobility’s Jim Parker puts it another way: “Texans have an attitude.” Every so often the state considers seceding from the nation, he joked.
The area’s entrepreneurial spirit can be backed up with facts, however. For the past 15 years, Texas has been the third-largest recipient of venture-capital funding, said Roman Kikta, managing partner and CEO of VC company Mobility Ventures.