First Step Grand Opening

["bill london" <bill_london@hotmail.com>]

Please Come to First Step's Grand Opening Celebration.

First Step, the inland northwest's largest Internet Service Provider and the 
company that maintains Moscow Vision 2020 at no charge, is expanding to a 
new location in the Eastside Marketplace and will host a grand opening 
celebration this Saturday, August 5.

At the grand opening celebration, First Step will offer tours of the new 
facility, games for children, prizes, drawings and giveaways from 9am until 
6pm. The grand opening will occur during the Eastside Marketplace's 5th 
annual Car Show and Flea Market.

With more than 12,000 customers, First Step is the region's largest Internet 
Service Provider, President Kevin Owen said.  The company's web-hosting 
division builds and maintains web sites for customers nationwide, including 
three of the largest law firms in the US, as well as the award-winning band, 
Santana.

"We invite everyone to come down and visit our new office," Owen said.  "We 
have arrived.  We're no longer a couple of guys in a garage."

First Step was founded in 1989 in a Moscow garage.  In 1994, with 6 
employees, the company moved to the University of Idaho Business Technology 
Incubator. In 1996, First Step expanded to the GTE building in downtown 
Moscow.

Kevin Owen joined First Step in 1994 as marketing manager and assumed the 
role of president and CEO in 1998.  In June of 1999, Owen purchased a 
controlling interest in the firm from its founder.

With the expansion to the Eastside Marketplace, First Step increased its 
staff by five engineers and one sales management person, for a total of 
twenty-five systems, information, and data communications specialists.

The new office showcases the latest technology, including a glass-enclosed, 
climate-controlled computer room with fiberglass cable having a capacity of 
8,000 digital phone lines.

First Step currently provides local Internet access to Lewiston, Clarkston, 
Pomeroy, Ellensburg, Orofino, Moscow, Potlatch, Genesee, Pullman, Palouse, 
Colfax, Moses Lake, and Yakima.

With the move to the new location, the First Step's data pipe capability has 
increased ten-fold, to become what Verizon (formerly GTE) engineers report 
is the largest in the region.

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