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Chicago Business
By Lorene Yue
July 14, 2006
Wireless broadband provider Sparkplug Inc. of Chicago is merging with
two other firms to create a WiMax network encompassing eight states.
Sparkplug Inc., which provides wireless broadband service to businesses
in Chicago and Nashville, Tenn., is joining with Telespectra of Scottsdale,
Ariz. and Prairie iNet of Des Moines. Together, the new Sparkplug Inc.
will be among the largest in the wireless business broadband sector,
officials claim.
In addition, the company will work with the burgeoning WiMax technology
which operates without the need for a line-of-sight to a base station.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"We've known the principals [of Telespectra and Prairie iNet] for the
past couple of years and we wanted to create additional scale and growth
in more markets," said Bill Malloy, chief executive officer of Sparkplug.
Mr. Malloy will remain in that position for the combined entity,
which will have roughly 70 employees.
Mr. Malloy and Sparkplug's chairman Steve Hooper are industry veterans,
both having served as executives at AT&T Wireless.
Mr. Hopper is former CEO of AT&T Wireless, which merged with
Cingular Wireless in 2004. Mr. Malloy was an executive vice president at
McCaw Cellular, which was purchased by AT&T Wireless in 1992. He left
AT&T Wireless in 1999 and became CEO of Peapod.
Sparkplug's wireless network operates through transmission sites placed
on top of various buildings. Customers, which are typically small- to
mid-sized businesses, are given an antenna that picks up the broadband signal.
Jeff Hardesty, CEO of Telespectra, will become the Southwest managing
director for Sparkplug. Neil Mullholland, CEO of Prairie iNet, will become
Midwest managing director of Sparkplug.
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