By Cara Sievers

Inc. Magazine revealed its 26th annual list of Americas 500 fastest-growing private companies last week, and the list shows telecommunications as one of the top growth industries.

The telecommunications category of companies grew by 1,056.5 percent on average, making it one of the top five most notable median growth categories, preceded by environmental services, food and beverage, and media and health. The largest business category is IT Services, with 56 Inc. 500 companies listed.

Cedar Point Communications, a provider of integrated VoIP switching technologies for the service provider and enterprise industries, was the sole telecommunications company in the top 10. Cedar Point was recognized as the second-fastest growing private company and the fastest growing private telecommunications company in the United States, with a revenue growth rate of 14,853.3 percent from 2003-06. In addition to being named to the top spot in telecommunications, Cedar Point also was named as the No. 1 company in two other categories: Companies Intending to Go Public, and Companies in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass., and New Hampshire region.

Our growth over the past several years has been a testament to the vision of our founding team, the hard work of our employees and the loyalty of our customer base, said Andy Paff, president and CEO of Cedar Point Communications. Were pleased to have been recognized in a leadership position among private industry, and are grateful to the Inc. 500 team for their consideration.

Gracing the Top 10 Inc. 500 Companies Ranked by Revenue list was Granite Telecommunications. Granite reported revenue of $206.6 million and was ranked as No. 296 on the list.

Telecom was present throughout the various categorical designations as well. Companies like Credant Technologies (No. 15 on the list), a company that provides authentication software that protects mobile computing devices such as smartphones and laptops, appeared in the security category, which was chock full of telecom-related companies. And in the software section, companies like Five9 (No. 136), which makes Web-based software for small and midsized call centers; and BroadSource (no. 385) which provides hosted software and data processing services to help midsize companies track and manage their voice, data and wireless spending.

There were 24 companies categorized as telecommunications on the Inc. 500 list. They employed a total of 2,448 people and boasted a total revenue of $689.9 million. The named companies were:

Cedar Point Communications, No. 2

Santur, No. 12

Ethertronics, No. 52

Broadband National, No. 57

MDI Access, No. 64

GotVMail Communications, No. 66

Rizzo Consulting, No. 98

InnoPath Software, No. 102

Southern Light , No. 151

User Telecommunications & Technologies, No. 165

Genband, No. 194

Bandwidth.com, No. 201

Integrity Communications, No. 204

GetWireless, No. 248

Host.net, No. 251

Granite Telecommunications, No. 296

5Linx Enterprises, No. 336

VoIP Supply, No. 359

TeleSource, No. 405

Adex, No. 425

IneoQuest, No. 427

Masergy, No. 437

Vcom Solutions, No. 445

Vocera Communications, No. 462

This year Inc. expanded the Inc. 500 list tenfold, to create the first-ever Inc. 5,000, the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy Americas independent-minded entrepreneurs.

Of course, telecom companies were represented on the list, including CornerStone Telephone Co. at No. 736 with three-year sales growth of 458 percent. CornerStone was listed as the third-fastest telecommunications company in New York and the 34th fastest-growing in the United States.

“We are proud to have made it on the first Inc. 5,000 list,” said Dan Yamin, co-founder and CEO of CornerStone Telephone Company. “Our goal was to make it to the top 1,000, which we exceeded and we hope our growth in 2007 will place us further up on the list in 2008.”

The 2007 Inc. 500 lists measure revenue growth from 2003 through 2006. To qualify, companies had to be U.S.-based and privately held, independent not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies as of Dec. 31, 2006, and have had at least $200,000 in revenue in 2003, and $2 million in 2006.

BroadSource www.broadsource.com
Cedar Point Communications www.cedarpointcom.com
Credant Technologies www.credant.com
CornerStone Telephone Company www.cornerstonetelephone.com Five9 www.five9.com
Granite Telecommunications www.granitenet.com
Inc. Magazine www.inc.com