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Core Communications was founded in January of 1999. From its inception, the company's charter and the CEO's vision has been to provide best-in-class Internet and data communications solutions for the meetings and hospitality industries. In the early part of 1999, the company analyzed the abundance of emerging hospitality service offerings and associated business models that flooded the marketplace. Refraining from entering the "buy the business" land grab of the times, Core entered into multi-year service contracts with a targeted group of corporate destination properties to test and refine its performance-driven, economically viable service model. Core is composed of networking veterans of the X.25, Frame Relay (FR) and Internet cycles of the 80s and 90s. As such, the company recognized that a business cannot make up in volume what is not inherently profitable at the unit level. Core focused its efforts instead on devising a solid cash flow business strategy in which Internet access for group/meeting space could be operated profitably for both the facility and for Core, with a level of service not currently available via existing hospitality-oriented ISPs or the local Bell Company ("RBOC"). The resulting economic analysis led to the development of Core's uniquely profitable business model that provides a mission critical grade of service at pricing which is attractive to both meeting planners and exhibitors. It incorporates a service model that stands up to the scrutiny of the hospitality industry. Its foundation is based on solid yield management practices, and a management team dedicated to excellence with regard to technology delivery, customer service and localized support. Concurrently, Core began evaluation of the specialized equipment being used in the hospitality marketplace. Core technical staff tested the universe of: DSLAM equipment, cable modems, subscriber management systems, and other custom built platforms. This extensive analysis included: AtCom (was CAIS, now Cisco), TUT Systems, Nomadix, IP3, NetGame (NG Cable), Paradyne(Elastic Networks), Solutions Inc., Lucent, and many others. Extensive research trials led Core to choose traditional Ethernet switching and routing technologies as its standard delivery platform in hospitality function space. As often happens in emerging sector businesses, early technology adopters latch on to technologies that often lead down dead-end paths. Early adopters pay too much for equipment that is less than efficient and simply not stable as compared with existing, more mature technologies. Core recognized this phenomenon in technology hospitality markets. Core selected standard CAT-5E and industry standard S-class fiber wiring and Cisco and HP as the equipment to be provided on-property. No proprietary platforms, no PCs or no single source hardware or software vendors are part of the Core solution. Core optimized the monitoring and setup process by moving all the required billing and setup technology off-site to Core headquarters, meaning: no servers, no quirky serial PMS interfaces, and no proprietary hardware at the conference center, hotel or convention property. The system is software controllable from Core headquarters and by multi-level password from anywhere in the world. This system is essentially the ASP ("Application Service Provider") model in reverse. The "application" part of our ASP is the management and billing of Internet access at other (worldwide) facilities. This "intelligent" use of the Internet leverages highly reliable equipment and back-end database management software at Core HQ.