About Us
Who We Are:
Telnet Consultants LLC is an engineering and consulting company specializing in Telecommunications and Broadband networks for Electric Utilities and Municipalities in Florida and the Southeastern US.
Our principals have a collective experience of nearly one hundred years.
Our services and expertise include; Utility Telecommunications, Broadband Carrier Networks. Local Exchange Carriers, Utility to Carrier Network Transitions, Fiber Optic Cable System Design and Construction, GIS Mapping and Asset Management, Utility Smart Grid, Smart Meter Networks, Ethernet Networks, Wireless Broadband Radios and Networks, Fiber To The Home, Utility Internet of Things (IoT) Networks, Leased Fiber Asset Management, NOC Implementations and Project Management.
Principal Partners
Managing Partner
John Verghese
John has over 30 years of experience in a variety of technology related areas but predominantly in the telecommunication space, building and operating broadband networks. He is well rounded in all the functional areas of the telecom industry from planning, engineering and operations to sales and customer support. John began his career in the US working for Florida Power Corporation (now Duke Energy) soon after receiving his MSEE from Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. He has managed several significant projects while at Florida Power Corporation and was a key contributor to building the fiber optic network from Tallahassee to Tampa, facilitating the launch of Progress Telecom. Over the eight years at Progress Telecom, John was the chief architect for building the broadband network that extended from Miami to New York, covering multiple cities along the route. Post Progress Telecom, John joined Tower Cloud, Inc. as VP of Planning & Engineering to launch backhaul communication systems for wireless providers in several states.
In 2010, he joined Infrax Systems Inc., a start-up company based in St. Petersburg to head product development efforts in the Smart Grid space. He took on the challenge of developing a two-way communication smart card for residential electric utility meters. With limited capital, he managed the project using in-house engineers and other local and overseas teams. He has a thorough understanding of smart utility grids and developing the architecture for Internet of Things. He has also worked in other non-technical areas of the business such as contracts, funding, M&A etc. On the personal side, he is partnered with his wife to manage other business ventures related to preschool and commercial real estate.
Senior Partner
Victor Alas
Victor Alas was born in Honduras, immigrated to the United States at a very young age, became a U. S. Citizen and attended the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering.
After graduation, Victor began his Telecommunications career with United Telephone and Sprint in Florida. He was instrumental in creating and developing the new technology requirements for Sprint’s Fiber Optical Network, Microwave Radio, and GPS Synchronization for Digital Switching and Optical deployments. During his tenure at a new startup, Epik Communications Victor was also instrumental in building the OC-192 Florida Fiber Network for with the Florida East Coast Railroad right-a-way from Jacksonville to Miami, and throughout Central Florida from Daytona, Tampa, and Fort Myers.
Victor also managed a successful Telecom Consulting business (Bravado Consultants) for over 10 years. He provided Technical and Sales Support for a large copper bonding firm and Contracting Network Engineering Services to Embarq/CenturyLink and has over 30 successful years of Management and Technical Telecommunications experience.
On a personal note, Victor is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys traveling, boating, fishing and scuba-diving.
Victor is also a Life Member with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) organization.
Senior Partner
Terry Gardner
Terry has over 30 years of experience in a variety of technologies mostly related to IT and broadband telecommunications. He is well rounded in all functional areas of the telecom industry from planning, engineering and operations to sales and customer support.
After receiving his BSEE from the University of South Florida, Terry started his career at Florida Power Corporation where he quickly moved through the engineering levels and became a subject matter expert in the areas of fiber optic construction, broadband networking, advanced optical relaying and substation control systems. Over the sixteen years at Florida Power Corporation, Terry was predominant in establishing construction standards for building fiber optic cables on utility transmission lines, the introduction of fiber optic based digital relaying and advanced control systems for electrical substations using broadband technologies with redundant ring data protection. Terry also became involved in creating a new concept for the Utility industry where Electric utilities could create a telecommunications subsidiary to provide telecommunications networks to carriers.
Terry later moved to Tampa Electric to manage the design and operations of their subsidiary, Metro-Link which provided fiber optic networks for carriers in the Tampa Bay area and its surrounding counties. Over the fifteen years at Tampa Electric, Mr. Gardner developed new networks including Ethernet to substations and advanced multi-tiered data networking solutions such as trunked gigabit Ethernet networks and broadband based Data Storage Area networks. Terry became the subject area expert on Smart-grid technologies and one of the principal members on the team that produced the initial plan for Tampa Electric to build its advanced meter reading and smart grid network.
Terry has been involved in several startup companies after retiring from Tampa electric. As the Vice President of engineering for Infrax, a smart-grid company, Terry led the design of a smart-grid network for electrical meter reading which provided highly secure communications and higher bandwidth than its competitors. As a contractor for Google Fiber, Terry worked with a geographically diverse team, utilizing advanced GIS mapping, to design the backbone fiber networks and the fiber distribution networks for Tampa, Jacksonville and several other cities in the southeast. Terry recently has been involved in control system design for the agriculture space and designed automated growing, monitoring and control systems for advanced Controlled Environment Agriculture platforms in indoor farming facilities.