Robert Ener, one of the owners of Absolute Communications, at the Corpus Christi headquarters. The company also has a new Central Texas office in San Marcos. Photo by Suzanne Freeman
When it comes to information technology, everyone wants it bigger, better, faster, a mantra Absolute Communications uses for both its customers and business plan.
“This company is the largest privately owned telecommunications company in Corpus Christi,” said one of the owners, Robert Ener. “We are the only one in South Texas that does all we do. There’s no one else like us.”
What they do is just about everything when it comes to technology. The company that began installing phone systems for businesses in 1989 now has crews as far away as Utah building towers to provide networking services for vast areas of the country.
Absolute Communications also installs security cameras and systems, such as the ones at La Palmera Shopping District and the Corpus Christi Municipal Airport. It recently added yet another division, one that install lights on large communication towers, many of which Absolute also builds.
The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sherpa Broadband Inc., which Ener formed with friends also in the business. The papers creating Sherpa were signed just before midnight on Dec. 31, 2012. Since then, the company has grown even more, opening an office in San Marcos. The headquarters remains in Corpus Christi, however.
“Absolute has always been about South Texas,” Ener said. “It's our bread and butter. This is our place.”
Ener grew up in nearby Portland, forming his own computer troubleshooting company right out of high school. He became part of Absolute in 2001, starting the IT side just as DSL Internet service was hitting the streets. He built up that division and then sent it into the oil fields, where Absolute Communications has installed more than 65,000 square miles of wireless networks across the Eagle Ford, Permian Basin and Bakken oil plays.
Yet another expansion has been in the clouds.
“We are now cloud-enabled,” Ener said, adding that cloud-based computing is actually firmly planted on the ground on off-site servers. “What it means is that individual companies don’t have to worry about having towers of servers sitting in their closets. They don’t have to maintain them or replace them every three to four years. There’s no hardware, nothing, just a monthly fee and you can do everything you need faster and better.”
The ultimate goal is to build a $100 million company at the Sherpa Broadband level, Ener said, along with keeping up with ever-changing technology and serving their customers.
“What really interests me is keeping the technology going and using it to solve problems for our business customers,” he said. “I like to walk into a business site and learn everything about their business and provide them with a solution, then three months later they are paperless. They know how to use their phones, their customer response is better. That drives me, getting that positive response.”
Keeping all these divisions going while staying on top of changing technology and having a family with small children keeps Ener busy, which is why he is rarely stationed behind a computer.
“I do most of all my work right here on this,” he said, tapping his smartphone. “And I fall asleep at night with a book on my face.”
Ener said the IT business motivates him with its dynamics, scope and potential.
“We are truly a one-stop shop when it comes to IT,” Ener said.
He described a common scenario that Absolute Communications is called in to fix.
“You have a business with phone service, Internet service, cable service and security, photo copiers, and every one is handled by a different business or vendor,” he said. “So when something goes wrong, you have to call that particular business and maybe fight with them about getting that one thing fixed quickly. Meanwhile, something else is breaking down, and that’s a whole new set of people to talk to. We come in and handle all of that. You just call us. We get it done. One call. One stop.”
Absolute Communications is located at 2333 Pollex Ave. in Corpus Christi. You can call to find out what it can do to make your business bigger, better and faster at (361) 888-6776. Or check out the website at Absolute Communications.
