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The main ingredient in CTS Telecom's recipe for success is fiber and lots of it. "We have 400 miles of fiber that was either constructed or purchased," says James Burnham, president and chief executive officer

PRESIDENT AND CEO OF CTS TELECOM JIM BURNHAM PHOTOS BY ERIK HOLLADAY

of the Climax-based telecommunications company. "Charter and AT&T have fiber but it's not constructed the way we have it where we can build it to customers' specifications." The fiber produced by some of the company's 38 employees provides faster speeds and that's what businesses and individuals want. "It definitely increases speeds," Burnham says. "Some of our customers require more bandwidth than others." Martin Feilen, vice president of marketing and sales, says speed can be increased at any time. "A lot of our customers like that because there are more things to use with it," Feilen says. With the industry anticipating a 50 percent increase in Internet traffic within the next 18 months, Burnham says his company is prepared to meet the demand. The company currently has more than 3,000 customers with 10,000 plus voice lines. They include Fortune 500 companies and others within a geographic area that reaches to Mattawan to the west and Coldwater to the south.

The company's roots go back to 1911 when it was founded as the Climax Farmers Telephone Co-op. In 1949, it was purchased by the Collver family who remained true to the company's mission of providing local telephone service solely to businesses and residents in Climax. The passage of the federal Telecommunications Act in 1996 permitted competition in both local and long distance telephone services, and CTS was able to expand its business footprint. One year later, the company was licensed by the Michigan Public Service Commission to provide local telephone service in Battle Creek, Galesburg, Kalamazoo and Scotts. "Outside of Detroit, we were the first local provider in Michigan," Feilen says. "We had the first joint fiber ring with AT&T."

FIBER OPTIC CABLES IN CENTRAL OFFICE

Today about 80 percent of CTS Telecom's revenue is generated in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, with the remainder coming out of Climax. The company has annual sales in excess of $10 million. That's only expected to go up. Representatives with various organizations in the Kalamazoo and Portage metropolitan area are in discussions with CTS about using their services. The growth for the company, Feilen says, won't necessarily be in employees, although he says "we could probably add one or two more bodies as we need them." The real growth will be in the number of customers brought on board. The economic benefits CTS already provides and those it is positioning itself to offer are not lost on organizations such as Battle Creek Unlimited, the lead economic development organization for Battle Creek. Representatives of Battle Creek Unlimited say the inclusion of a technology infrastructure is critical to attracting companies and creating jobs. A partnership between CTS Telecom and the City of Battle Creek produced a fiber optic ring that is available to any area business. Karl Dehn, head of Battle Creek Unlimited, says the collaboration means that Battle Creek is as "well-wired as just about any community in the country now." The servers running Battle Creek-based Great Lakes Microsystems Inc.'s home health care software depend on that fiber optic ring. Great Lakes Microsystems Inc. moved into the former Sullivan Dairy Barn building seven years ago.

Art Homer, with Great Lakes Microsystems Inc., says the high-speed internet available from the fiber optic ring has attracted customers from throughout the United States. Burnham says Battle Creek Unlimited has done "a terrific job of recognizing the impact infrastructure has in economic development. If you have world-class data and infrastructure it goes a long way to bringing customers in." To better accommodate its need for efficiency and more space, CTS in February relocated its headquarters

CTS TELECOM CORPORATE OFFICES IN GALESBURG

from the Village of Climax, where it had been for close to 100 years, to 13800 Michigan Ave. in Charleston Township, site of the former CSM building. CSM, a construction management company, relocated its headquarters to the Radisson Plaza Hotel and Suites in downtown Kalamazoo. The CTS Telecom complex encompasses about 16 acres. The only clue it's there is a sign visible from I-94. Burnham says the decision to relocate was made so that the company's employees would all be in the same 8,400-square-foot building. A nearby warehouse, which houses the fiber production and technical area, is 10,000 square feet gives the company the option of additional office space for about 20 people. Keeping employees nearby is important to Burnham, who places a major emphasis on customer service. Each morning at 8 a.m. all the company's employees gather in a conference room to discuss the day ahead and any issues that need to be addressed. "The point of the meeting is to talk about what customers we are going to touch today, any trouble we need to be aware of, and how can we improve the customers experience today," Burnham says. "By sharing ideas we save our customers time and money. We're a small company with high profile customers. We react very quickly. It's all-hands-on deck here." Among the challenges are the time it takes to physically build the fiber to get to the next customer. As the company's efficiencies increase, so will its ability to meet the demands of a growing customer base which wants its communications to move at lightning speed. CTS Telecom has certain advantages that the major telecommunications providers such as AT&T lack, the main one being local service. "The person answering the telephone for CTS is actually here. All of the selling is done face-to-face," Feilen says. "We prefer to come out and see what you do."

Jane C. Parikh is a freelance reporter and writer with more than 20 years of experience and also is the owner of In So Many Words based in Battle Creek.