Everstream to Bring High-Speed Broadband to Businesses in Northeast Ohio

CLEVELAND, OH - OneCommunity, a nonprofit that works to expand high‐speed broadband access and adoption in Northeast Ohio, announced the launch of Everstream, a new organization that will serve the high‐speed networking needs of enterprise businesses throughout Northeast Ohio. For the past decade, OneCommunity has provided advanced broadband services and mission-based programming in digital inclusion, health and wellness, connected education and economic development. The success of that program of activities is the basis of dozens of similar undertakings across the country and around the world.

“We will continue those core services,” said Lev Gonick, OneCommunity CEO. “But the time has come to contribute to the broader deployment of advanced broadband services to other sectors demanding the speed, reliability and connectivity that has defined our brand these past ten years.” For that reason, the OneCommunity board recently approved the creation of a new entity to be called Everstream.

Accelerate the Availability of Fiber‐based Services for Business
Everstream is a for‐profit group dedicated to serving the fiber, data center, and network needs of private enterprise across Northeast Ohio. During 2014, Everstream will accelerate the availability of fiber‐based services for business from 10 gigabit to 100 gigabit in 24 counties and connect fiber‐based networks to hundreds of office buildings, bringing Cleveland to the forefront of next generation broadband offerings.

“Our senior leadership team has decades of experience designing, building and operating fiber-based networks,” said Brett Lindsey, president of Everstream and COO of OneCommunity. “This will ensure that Everstream is positioned to provide the service level agreements, flexible solutions and installation timeframes needed for business.” Everstream will share resources with OneCommunity and will leverage the $100‐million investment made in the region over the last three years building the largest and most scalable network available.

“I have been impressed by the initial positive feedback that we received from enterprise IT in downtown Cleveland,” said Ray Voelker, CIO progressive and chair of the OneCommunity board. “There is clear evidence of pent‐up demand for fiber and gigabit or larger bandwidth needs in the market. Everstream is working to meet that market demand.”

Everstream’s activities will contribute to the core mission of OneCommunity, as all profits generated will support OneCommunity’s commitment to community engagement and related programs. Everstream clients will enjoy the same regionally located customer support, operations, construction and engineering team that has added hundreds of on‐net locations for more than 90 percent of the region’s health care providers and the majority of its colleges and universities.