THE VIEW FROM THE SENTRY GROUP
I think our record on safety, quality and reliability are our other strong points. The organisation is really big on safety... I’ve raised standards even further and on quality when I turn over our test results, they’re always better than spec.
think that’s why a lot of people go buy a splicer and a trailer and they think they’re a fibre company. A lot of companies come into a project and don’t really understand what they’re doing. They’re in and out, they get their pay cheque and then they leave behind a mess. I’ve definitely seen my share of those, but I think Sentry is going to have a ton of opportunities, and I think our contracts are mainly going to be big telecoms companies. I’m looking at three or four big telecom companies to do their work, which along with the wind and solar projects will balance everything out.
There are new and more advanced splicers coming out on an almost weekly basis. Would you say the design of these devices is making up for the shortage of skilled technicians? Things have definitely changed. When I started, I had to line the fibre up using a scope, which took quite a while. But now, it’s
You said you were going to go for the big trunk routes, but what about FTTx? Do you see Sentry entering that market? We’ve actually just finished a section in the state of Mississippi for a fibre to the home project, and in states such as Mississippi and Texas it’s
PD
PD
DT
DT
going crazy, it’s a huge market. Depending on what segment you’re doing it’s really competitive, but I think it’s more geared towards a single contractor. It’s not for a bigger company like ours, but we took it on anyway to see what that market was like and we’ll definitely entertain it more in the future, as long as it aligns with what we want to do. There isn’t one standard fibre to the home installation, there are so many different applications that you never know what you’re going to get into until you see what equipment is being used.
pretty, easy. So far as Sentry is concerned however, there’s a ton of employment opportunities over here in the States. People can go on job boards, and even Facebook where there are private groups in fibre optics. With the shortage of trained people, replacing technicians is through the roof out here, which tells me that there’s a lot that you can gain in this market, and that’s what our goal is.
Looking ahead, are you planning to operate solely in North America, or are you thinking of entering other markets at some point? I don’t think Sentry will go overseas. We have everything in place in the North American market. It would be interesting to go to other continents
PD
DT
So how does Sentry deal with the skills shortage?
PD
Do you negotiate things like wayleave permission if you have to go across private or government- owned land? We don’t really negotiate much on that aspect. Typically, how it works over here is the contractor or whoever is wanting the work to
PD
because I know the European and Indian markets are going crazy with fibre, but I don’t think we’ll go outside of North America. That said, we do have a presence in Canada, but we haven’t crossed the southern border.
We have four fibre crews who are actually cross trained and know how to blow fibre, which is how I wanted to build it, so if at any point,
DT
DT
we had to pull somebody from a project to build more fibre, they’d be able to do it. We’ve been pretty lucky to find the right people. If they have the character and the quality, people can be taught, which is how I approach building crews.
Apart from previous experience in renewables, what else would you say gives Sentry an advantage in the fibre optic telecoms market? I think our record on safety, quality and reliability are our other strong points. The organisation is really big on safety. As far as quality is
PD
be completed, will have that all negotiated before the contract starts. When we did this fibre to the home job, we ran into a lot of property owner issues and they had to go through the customer to get the okays. What we’ve done with fibre to the home as well as wind and solar, is we’ve signed on to a few companies that do schools. They build networks in-house for school districts, which is more in the telecom line of work. In my past, I’ve done CWDM and DWDM, so when we get those opportunities, I’ll be able to take those on. That said, we’re pretty much turnkey for any fibre installation, particularly as far as blown fibre is concerned. Also, I’m currently working on getting an aerial crew set up to do aerial work, but at present, our forte is splicing.
Where do you see most of the contracts coming from at the moment, transport networks or FTTx? FTTx is probably the biggest. I think fibre to the premises and fibre to the home have always been an evolving market and one that Sentry
DT
PD
concerned, that’s something Sentry has always had, but I feel I’ve raised standards even further and on quality, when I turn over our test results, they’re always better than spec.
DT
was missing out on all of that, but now I’m getting my teeth into it and getting those contracts. From a business perspective however, it’s not a market you’re going to get rich off, it’s a pretty low price range. I
Thank you.
PD
www.opticalconnectionsnews.com
9
ISSUE 24 | Q2 2021
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease