Keeping SWFL's connection clear

Dominic Skinner was on the road back from Fort Lauderdale last Friday, where he had helped a customer there with "technical difficulties."

PHOTO EVAN WILLIAMS FLORIDA WEEKLY Dominic Skinner As chief technical officer at Florida Telco, an electrical contractor that installs many local business' telephone systems, and also wiring for various voice, video and data systems, Skinner makes trips like this a lot.

"I will provide the higher level of engineering," he said. "And support the guys that are in the field."

The company is based out of Fort Myers but does business throughout the state. During the course of an average day, Skinner helps customers understand how to make the most of the communications tools Telco installs.

Some of his clients include Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Perkins Restaurants, and Bill Branch Chevrolet.

Telco systems allow professionals to work anywhere they choose - at home, for instance - yet still be "on the corporate network, as if you're sitting at the office," Skinner said.

For him, the greatest challenge of telecommunications locally is an electricity issue.

"Probably the biggest issue we face seasonally is lightning," he said. "Southwest Florida is just a huge lightning rod."

Telco combats the problem with a combination of grounding, surge protection and wiring.

"We've had very good success with our system," he said.

Similarly, Skinner has had a successful career in telecommunications. He started with Florida Telco in April 2004, and did similar work previously, as a director at Embarq, an engineer at Cisco Systems, Inc. and senior director for IDC Data. He's done it all when it comes to communications technology, he said. For example, remote networking, telecom data, firewall security and voice over Internet Protocol, the latest in communication technology which allows for voice transmission through the Internet.

"I've been involved in voiceover IP since late 2001," he said.

He got his start from his father, who was a subcontractor for United Telephone in the 1980s, and the first "interconnect" in Lee County.

That's because, as Skinner explained, "In the older days, you could not own your own phones, you had to lease them from the phone company," so his father acted as a connection between the phone company and the businesses he hooked up service for.

And communications for people at offices has gotten more advanced ever since.

"In 1982 and 1983, systems were mechanical, it involved relay switches," Skinner said. "Then it migrated to digital, and now we're seeing IP…

"So when you're seeing voiceover IP, everything goes through a network…Installation, implementation, service, it all changed dramatically."

One feature among many Telco offers, allows a business to record a conversation. When activated, a recorded voice warns whoever's on the phone they are being recorded.

"What we're seeing is an evolution of changes that have been rolling along," he said. "The phone systems are becoming more open technology."

Telco is an authorized reseller of Nortel, Cisco and NEC phone systems.

"There are a lot of people out there that say they can sell Nortel," Skinner said. "Not a lot of people are authorized to do so."

Skinner sees the future of telecommunications as interconnectivity on a higher level. For example, one business with offices all over the United States could share one network - workers could transfer phone calls from a desk in Fort Myers directly to a desk in New York City, all connected to one central source.

Even people at home will be part of the working network.

"I think we're going to see a continued migration between traditional technology and corporate data networks," he said. "The telephone that's sitting on your desk will literally be a PC, and you'll have a handset sitting off to the side of the PC …

"You'll be able to operate from home, work from home and have the total ability to collaborate with other employees seamlessly. (Communications technology) will become smoother, easier to install and implement. And it's going to become the efficiency tool that telephone companies were meant to be in the beginning."

At work, Skinner uses a Nortel BCM Manager 200, with voiceover IP extension at the office and home.

"When you call me, I might be at home, I might be at the office, or I might be on the road," he said. "There's no way you would know."

Or he might even be on vacation. When away from work, Skinner said he loves to fly his single-engine Cessna and spend time with family: a wife of 22 years, Rachelle; a daughter, Ellen, a senior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; and a son, Joshua, a junior at Cypress Lake High School Center for the Arts.

"I love taking the airplane up over the Gasparilla Islands, over Sanibel Island," he said.

It may be one of the few places he wouldn't take a call.