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W ave Business, together with its sister companies RCN Business and Grande Communications, offers a diverse portfolio of products to promote high capacity, secure connectivity and agility. These products and services are de- signed to address customer need, regardless of whether the employ- ee is located in a physical office. This entity boasts a combined commercial services division with fiber services in eight out of the 10 largest metro networks. Each day, its operations bring connectivity to more than 70,000 business cus- tomers in New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and portions of Massachusetts, Texas, California and the Pacific Northwest. Core services include multiple options for internet communications, con- nectivity, a unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platform with private branch exchange (PBX), videoconferencing and traditional voice and other services, including SD-WAN (software defined wide area networking) and cloud networking. Despite the massive swell of its assets, however, Wave’s most distinguishing feature is its unique approach. “Our network is essentially cross- country,” said mar- keting director, busi- ness solutions, Kelly Evans, “but we’re not so big that you’re just a number. We’re local in all of these different places. We’ve got dedicated industry ex- perts on-hand in each market, and our customer-centric approach makes it easy to work with us.” And, since the onset of CO- VID-19, the concept of local ser- vices has never seemed more apt. “We rolled out the Virtual Of- fice offer in response to the pandemic,” said vice president of commercial products, Glenn Calafati. “It’s a spotlight on our SD- WAN and UC services. An evolution of these services that are geared toward the brick-and-mortar of- fice building and have them work for remote employees” What resulted was what the exec calls a “seamless environ- ment” for “back and forth to the office.”Wave’s Virtual Office pro- vides a secure, managed service, with access to virtual-private connections, for linking a remote network to the corporate wide area network (WAN). The release includes features to monitor net- work access, control and visibility, via automated, proactive monitor- ing. Then, the service is delivered with network-edge, transport and core-layer protection. “We never know when we’ll be quarantined again,” continued Calafati. “Maybe some jobs go fully remote. The solution is geared toward adapting to the new work reality, ‘How do I take things like SD-WAN and UCaaS and make an easy self-install package for a re- mote worker that will work seam- lessly with all of those complex LAN (local area network) solutions’?” And in a landscape in which remote work is more popular than ever, there will likely always be a need for these elements. “[Virtual Office] is not some- thing that goes away,” added Calafati. “The technology is avail- able today to let us work effec- tively, remotely. This will always be a part of our new normal.” Such forward thinking is part of what allows Wave/ RCN/Grande – and their recent ac- quisitions – to re- main ahead of the trend despite a congested service provider marketplace. Whether deploy- ing solutions for large corporate headquarters or tiny in-bedroom offices, offerings such as Virtual Office and others have the orga- nization covered. “We operate our networks,” he continued. “The opportunity is fantastic for us, because there’s a lot of demand for choice on the commercial services side. We can be the customer’s primary service provider, or provide network di- versity for mission critical applica- tions since customers can’t afford to have all of their eggs in one basket, with just one provider. We serve many needs in the market from the office to the home.” And in today’s competitive landscape, this unique, wide-net approach to fulfilling the custom- er’s need – regardless of where he or she sits – could make all the difference. J By Brady Hicks Wave Business Extends Connectivity totheWorkplace and Beyond Kelly Evans, Wave Business Glenn Calafati, Wave Business NETWORKS 30 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com