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Everest Broad Band Helps Rebuild South Street SeaPort
It is no secret that businesses in Lower Manhattan have been struggling to get back on their feet since Hurricane Sandy wrecked havoc on the area more than eight months ago.
South Street Seaport is just one of the many locations that were affected as tenants were forced to rethink their business operations and close up shop while reconstruction took place.
Fast forward to today: and South Street Seaport is bustling with life and vitality with new pop-up boutiques housed in shipping containers, outdoor film screenings with lounge chair seating and SmorgasBar, an offshoot from Brooklyn Flea SmorgasBurg.
It wasn’t just the buildings that were hit hard by the storm, the electrical, telecommunications and Internet infrastructure was all significantly damaged.
Leading provider of integrated IT communications solutions Everest BBN, has been working with groundbreaking WiFi technology company Sky Packets to help rebuild the Internet infrastructure so that local businesses have dedicated Internet and telecommunications access.
Everest BBN CEO Michael Panayiotis says, “It gives us great satisfaction to be able to work with a company like Sky Packets to help rebuild the technology infrastructure in Lower Manhattan. During a time like this it is important to work together to help ease the economic hardship that many of these local businesses have suffered as a result of Hurricane Sandy. We are pleased to provide dedicated high-speed Internet access to those who need it most.”
CEO of Sky Packets Henry Quintin said, “our partnership with Everest BBN has allowed us to leverage our technical expertise and technical infrastructure needed to support those most impacted.”
“With Everest BBN, we where able to provide WiFi mesh Internet services to short-term pop-up shipping container stores at South Street Seaport for the Howard Hughes Corporation and the Water Taxi kiosk at Pier 17. The WiFi network is a crucial component for the stores to run their point of sales systems and for residents and visitors to share their experiences at the seaport. We had close to one thousand unique users use the system over a three day period,” Mr Quintin said.
Another business Everest BBN and Sky packets are helping to restore Internet infrastructure and provision to is Downtown Alliance. Their mission is to provide service, advocacy, research and information to advance Lower Manhattan businesses, residents and visitors. One of the many services they provide is free public WiFi. When Hurricane Sandy hit all 14 WiFi hotspots went down.
“Thankfully today we are almost back to full capacity. The good news is the bandwidth we are offering now is fiber, so it is a much faster and reliable connection,” said Assistant Vice President Technology and Online Communications, Jeremy Schneider.
Sky Packets has been Downtown Alliance’s number one WiFi vendor and has even recommended Everest BBN’s service to Mr. Schneider.
“I really enjoyed the personal service we received with Everest—particularly being able to work with the Vice President of Client Services. The team at Everest BBN took the time to discuss our needs and objectives and provided us with a cost efficient solution, this is important to a not-for-profit like us. Everest BBN were flexible and provided a solution that really met our needs,” says Mr. Schneider.
About Everest BBN Inc.
Everest BBN has been providing integrated IT communications solutions for small to medium businesses for over 12 years. Everest BBN is a full service Internet provider, which delivers superior personal service, tailored voice and data solutions and access to highly experienced systems engineers. Projects are managed by a team of dedicated network engineers, who partner with our customers at every stage, from the initial system assessment to complete product implementation and ongoing maintenance support.