Nitel among fastest-growing businesses for 2nd straight year

Aug. 26, 2010

CHICAGO – Nitel Inc., a provider of telecommunications network services, was named to the Inc. 500/5000 listing of America’s leaders in entrepreneurial growth for the second consecutive year.

The noteworthy achievement solidifies Nitel’s position as one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States. Nitel is ranked No. 980 overall in the 2010 Inc. 500/5000. The ranking is based on the company’s revenue growth of 305 percent from 2006-2009. The full listing will appear in the magazine’s special September 2010 Inc. 500/5000 issue.

Earlier this summer, Nitel was ranked No. 5 on the Crain’s Fast 50 list of the fastest-growing companies in the greater Chicago area by Crain’s Chicago Business, also for the second consecutive year. In addition, Chief Executive Officer Rick Stern was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award for the Midwest, the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs.

Recently Nitel was named one of the 75 “coolest” telecom service providers by CRN Magazine. The publication called Nitel one of the “mavericks” meeting the trends in cloud computing and managed service models head-on. Nitel works with nearly two-thirds of the other companies on the list to provide network services nationwide.

“Nitel’s repeat appearance among the Inc. 500/5000 confirms the strength of our consistent performance and our niche focus on connecting rural markets with network services,” Stern said. “We have continued to gain ground during these past two years, despite the uncertain economy, because we are committed to serving our customers with creative, cost-effective solutions.”

The full Inc. 500/5000 list can be viewed via Inc.’s Web site at www.inc.com/inc5000/2010 .