QUINCY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Granite Telecommunications, LLC, a provider of voice, data, networking, and other communications services, today announced the availability of Granite Grid, a fiber-based networking solution that provides dedicated, scalable MPLS-based voice and data services for building owners, property management companies, hospitals, university campuses, retailers and other customer segments. Mall operator Simon and beauty retailer Sephora are among the first customers of the new service, which is currently being rolled out to more than 300 shopping centers and malls across the United States.
Granite Grid utilizes Cisco equipment and Granite-supplied fiber connections to deliver the flexibility customers need to scale their bandwidth at will as the need arises. It also adds fiber services to the company’s traditional copper-based voice and data services, which recently topped $1 billion in annualized revenue and continues to grow.
Today, the majority of shopping malls and their retail tenants rely heavily on best-effort DSL and cable modem services for broadband access to power critical applications. But those systems—including point of sale, inventory management, and security systems, as well as data backup, video and audio streaming, digital signage and more—often overload the connections, slowing down the shopping experience for everyone.
For mall Retailers, Granite Grid:
- Enables faster store openings and smoother transitions
- Provides high-capacity bandwidth at a fraction of the cost of bonded T1s
- Offers uncapped fiber circuits so businesses can scale quickly to support demand at peak times
- Centrally coordinates installations, moves, and repairs
- Offers flexible billing options through Granite’s unique billing platform
“Sephora has been a loyal customer of Granite for years because of its unmatched customer service and flexible billing platform that allows us better cost management across our hundreds of locations in the United States,” said Jason Truong, senior director, enterprise services, at Sephora. “With its Granite Grid product, the company has upped the ante, providing the same customer service and billing benefits with a reliable, dedicated fiber-based solution that allows us to scale as our needs dictate.”
“Granite Grid provides a total data and voice solution for single- and multi-tenant locations,” said Rob Hale, Founder and CEO of Granite. “Combined with our unmatched customer service and highly flexible billing solution, Granite Grid is emerging as the dedicated bandwidth solution of choice for malls, technology parks, MDUs, hospital campuses and more.”
For Mall Operators, Granite Grid:
- Enables faster store openings
- Offers its retail tenants scalable bandwidth when they need it
- Provides wireless backhaul capacity to mobile operators looking to provide access to their customers
- Supports continued property expansion with scalable designs
- Provides a single point of contact for all communications service needs
“At Simon, we are listening to the needs of our retail tenants as they venture into omni-channel retail which increases their use of in-store technologies such as tablets, mobile point of sale, digital signage, in-store Wi-Fi, etc.,” said David Schacht, CIO of Simon Property Group. “By providing our valued tenants with dedicated, flexible and scaleable bandwidth, Granite Grid plays a key role in helping us to elevate the customer experience in our malls.”
For information on Granite Grid, visit www.granitenet.com/Grid.
About Granite
Granite provides voice, data and other related communications products and services to multi-location businesses and governmental agencies throughout the United States and Canada. Granite furnishes services to more than two-thirds of the Fortune 100 companies in the United States, and 1.3 million phone lines under management. Granite employs over 1,200 people at the company’s headquarters in Quincy, MA and offices in Atlanta, GA, Miami, FL, New York, NY and Providence, RI. For more information, visit www.granitenet.com.
