Paul Leavy/The Valdosta Daily Times

VALDOSTA — Small business owners who find it impossible to afford the hi-tech communications systems that their larger competitors enjoy now have a way to compete.

Vwave Communications, a subsidiary of Engineers’ Consulting Group (ECG), sells T-1 connections for Internet for as low as $300 to $500 a month.

The T-1 can be integrated with a hi-tech digital phone system that comes with a Windows-based software package that makes daily business life much easier to manage, said Joe Demmons, co-owner of Vwave and ECG.

With the T-1 deal, small business owners can avoid the $40,000 to $80,000 in start up costs associated with traditional hard line phone system installations, Demmons said.

“That is a lot of money to save on this very high quality, highly technical system,” Demmons said. “If a small business still can’t get into the T-1 yet, we can still do a DSL system for them that they can afford. Vwave has the engineering expertise on staff that some of the larger Fortune 500 companies get.”

Vwave has a customer base that stretches from Albany to the north, west to Thomasville, south from Tifton through Valdosta to Lake Park (see www.Vwave.net).

Demmons and James Pucket, co-principals and founders of the two companies, opened new offices across the street from the Valdosta Police Station in a spanking new, 7,500 square foot, two-story building at 505 N. Toombs St. in August.

Pucket is a military transplant from Moody who graduated college in Colorado. He was one of the primary owners of Surf South Internet service provider (ISP) company. Demmons hails from Atlanta and graduated from VSU. Each are married, have three kids, and settled in Valdosta for the quality of life.

They started ECG in 2001 after Demmons and Pucket met in Orlando while working for the company that purchased the now defunct Surf South (see www.e-c-group.com).

ECG designs next-generation networks for telephone and wireless communications companies like Sprint, Verizon, Bell South, and has relationships with global companies like Metaswitch in the UK, Broadsoft in Maryland, US, and Lucent in France.

Demmons and Pucket started Vwave in 2002 because they believed they could perform the same sort of technology upgrades for Valdosta small businesses to help them keep up with fast moving tech advances; most importantly, at an affordable rate.

The combined companies employ 20 full time workers and provide technical support to customers 24 hours a day during the five weekdays. All of the firms’ engineers are degreed in electrical engineering or computer science. Customers include the City of Valdosta, Lowndes County, SAFT Batteries, and more.

“We thought, why don’t we do this in our own backyard,” Demmons said. “We can provide phone service to small to medium sized businesses in Valdosta. And this is the state of the art phone service. You can send a phone message from your voice mail to your e-mail address or to your Blackberry device. We use PolyCon phones, speakers and headsets. PolyCon is considered ‘high definition’ in that it is the best quality sound you can find.”

The company’s phone customers include Bowen and Phillips in Tifton, Principal Financial Group in Valdosta and Wayne Fann Real Estate in Valdosta. “Gone are the days where a receptionist has to have a huge phone bank on her desk,” Demmons said, as he demonstrated a Windows XP compatible software on a large LED flat screen that makes managing a huge intake of calls with a breeze by just the clicks of a mouse.

“We’re applying big city concepts to businesses in Valdosta. It’s very exciting,” Demmons said.