About

# Our Story

The company was shaped around the failure modes that most often stall outside plant projects, and each structural decision is aimed at removing one of them.

Strilla Communications Company was formed in January 2020 as a Florida outside plant contractor. The company was built around three decisions: own the drilling and aerial equipment, employ the crews who run it, and treat closeout documentation as part of the deliverable rather than an afterthought handed over weeks later.

## January 2020

Strilla Communications Company was formed in January 2020 in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Fiber expansion across Volusia County and Central Florida was accelerating, and the constraint was not demand for construction. The constraint was contractors who could hold a schedule, keep a route legible to the engineer, and close out without a second visit.

Starting a construction company in early 2020 removed any illusion that conditions would be stable. Material lead times moved, crew availability moved, and permitting timelines moved. Building for that environment rather than an ideal one is the reason the company is structured the way it is.

## What Problems Was the Company Built to Solve?

The company was built to remove the failure modes that most often stall an outside plant route. None of them are about whether a crew can drill or splice. They are about what happens between trades, between companies, and between the field and the office.

Each item below is a pattern a project manager will recognize. Each later section of this page describes the decision we made to take one of them off the table.

- A rented rig or brokered crew released to another job when an upstream delay moved the start date
- A route that switched from underground to aerial and stopped while a second contractor was found
- Closeout records reconstructed from memory weeks after the crew left the site
- Status assembled from several people who each knew part of the picture
- Restoration left for a later visit that the property owner had to chase

## Why We Own the Equipment

Rented drills and hired operators make a bid look cheaper and make a schedule far less reliable. When a machine belongs to a rental yard and the operator belongs to a labor broker, a two day delay upstream turns into a two week delay on your route, because the equipment and the crew have already been released to someone else.

We committed early to owning our drilling and aerial equipment and employing our own operators. It is more capital and more maintenance discipline. What it buys is the ability to say yes to a date and then actually be there, including on the days when a project moves left or right at short notice.

Ownership also changes maintenance behavior. A machine you keep is a machine you service on a schedule, and downtime that would be somebody else's problem on a rental becomes our problem to prevent. On your project that shows up as fewer days lost to a rig that will not start.

## Why Documentation Became Part of the Product

Outside plant fails twice: once when it is installed wrong, and again years later when nobody can find it. The second failure is the expensive one. A bore with no recorded depth, no bore log, and no accurate as-built is a future locate ticket, a future strike, and a future emergency restoration bill.

So we made record keeping a field task rather than an office task. Depth and alignment tracking, photos, splice records, and daily production notes are captured while the crew is on site, by the people who did the work. The closeout package is assembled from real field data, not reconstructed from memory after demobilization.

This is also the part of the job that decides whether a municipality or an ISP invites a contractor back. Inspectors and network engineers remember who made their file complete and who made it their problem.

## Why We Built Both Aerial and Underground Capability

Most routes do not stay in one plane. A design goes underground until a conflict, a wetland, a rail crossing, or a make-ready delay forces a change, and then it needs strand, lash, and pole attachment work instead. Contractors who only bore stop at that point and wait for someone else.

We built the company to carry both scopes so a route change is a plan revision rather than a remobilization. Fiber splicing, blowing, and pulling sit across both, which means the same team follows the cable from the reel to the terminated end regardless of whether it is in conduit or on strand.

## Learning the Ground and the Paperwork

Florida ground is not one condition. Coastal sand, high water tables, limestone, muck pockets, and old undocumented utility congestion in established corridors all change how a bore is planned, how fluid is managed, and how much risk a shallow shot carries. Local familiarity is not a slogan here, it is what keeps a rig out of a frac out situation on a busy road.

The permitting side is its own trade. County right of way permits, city engineering review, FDOT coordination, maintenance of traffic requirements, and utility notification each have their own timelines and their own reviewers. We learned those cycles by working through them, and we plan mobilizations around them instead of pretending they will move for us.

## Why Is the Company Based in New Smyrna Beach?

New Smyrna Beach sits in southeast Volusia County, which puts the coastal cities, the inland cities around DeLand and Deltona, and the Central Florida counties all within reach of one yard. Interstate 95 runs north and south along the east side of the county. Interstate 4 starts near Daytona Beach and runs southwest through the Orlando area and on through Polk County.

That geography matters for scheduling. Equipment and crews leave from a known base each morning, which makes mobilization dates easier to commit to across the primary and secondary service areas. It also means the coastal conditions that complicate drilling, such as sandy soil and a high water table near the coast, are the conditions our crews work in most often.

## Where We Are Going

Volusia County remains the base. Central Florida is the natural extension, covering Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, and Polk counties, with statewide capability for projects that justify staging. We are also extending toward North Carolina as regional broadband work develops.

Growth changes the size of the schedule, not the standards. Owned equipment, employed crews, documentation captured in the field, and a single point of contact are the things that made the company work in the first place, and they are what we protect as it gets larger.

What we will not do is grow by subcontracting the core work and putting our name on it. If a scope falls outside outside plant construction, we say so instead of quietly handing it to a third party you never evaluated.

## Key takeaways

- Strilla Communications Company was formed in January 2020 in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, as an outside plant contractor.
- The company was built around three decisions: own the equipment, employ the crews, and capture closeout records in the field.
- Carrying both aerial and underground scopes means a route change becomes a plan revision instead of a second mobilization.
- Outside plant fails twice, once when it is installed wrong and again when nobody can find it, and the second failure costs more.

## Key terms

**Strilla Communications Company**: Strilla Communications Company is a directional drilling and fiber construction contractor formed in January 2020 and based at 2174 Jungle Rd, New Smyrna Beach, Florida. It serves Volusia County and Central Florida with owned equipment and employed crews.

**As-built documentation**: As-built documentation records where outside plant was actually installed, including route, depth, structure locations, and changes from the design. It is captured during construction and used later by locators, engineers, and repair crews to find and work on the plant safely.

**Frac out (inadvertent return)**: A frac out, also called an inadvertent return, happens when drilling fluid escapes from the bore and surfaces through the ground, a pavement crack, or into water. It is a risk in loose sand and shallow cover and must be contained and reported.

**Remobilization**: Remobilization is the cost and delay of bringing equipment and crews back to a site after they have left, or bringing a different contractor in to finish a scope. On outside plant routes it often follows a design change from underground to aerial work.

*Founding decisions and the risk each one removes*

| Decision | Failure mode it removes | What the customer sees |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Own the drilling and aerial equipment | Rented rig released to another job | Mobilization dates that hold |
| Employ the operators and crews | Brokered labor that changes mid route | The same crew from start to closeout |
| Carry aerial and underground scopes | Work stopping at a route change | Design changes handled as field adjustments |
| Capture records in the field | Closeouts rebuilt from memory | As-builts that match the ground |
| Assign one point of contact | Status pieced together from several people | One daily report and one escalation path |

## What this means for your project

The story matters to a project manager because each founding decision maps to a schedule or cost risk you would otherwise carry yourself. Owned equipment protects your mobilization date. Dual capability protects you from dead time when a segment moves from underground to aerial.

Field documentation protects the end of the project, where payment and acceptance usually sit. When records are captured as the work happens, the closeout package arrives with the crew's demobilization instead of weeks later, and the owner's file is complete when the project closes rather than months after.

## Related reading

- [What the company does todayServices, service area, and how a project runs from locate to closeout.](https://strillacommunications.com/about/our-company)
- [The mission behind these decisionsOutside plant built right the first time and documented for decades.](https://strillacommunications.com/about/mission-and-vision)
- [Why owned rigs protect your scheduleHow equipment ownership affects mobilization and delay risk.](https://strillacommunications.com/blog/why-owned-equipment-matters-in-directional-drilling)
- [Florida ground and permit cyclesSoil, water table, and permitting factors that shape bore planning.](https://strillacommunications.com/resources/florida-soil-and-permitting)
- [Choosing aerial or undergroundWhen a route moves to poles and when it stays in conduit.](https://strillacommunications.com/resources/aerial-vs-underground-fiber)
- [Work in New Smyrna BeachLocal conditions and corridors around our home base.](https://strillacommunications.com/cities-we-service/volusia/new-smyrna-beach)

## Frequently Asked Questions

**When was Strilla Communications Company formed?**: Strilla Communications Company was formed in January 2020. The company is based at 2174 Jungle Rd, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168, in southeast Volusia County. From that base it serves Volusia County as its primary area and Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, and Polk counties as active coverage, with statewide Florida capability for larger programs.

**What is the company's lead service?**: Directional drilling is the lead service, and the rest of the outside plant work is organized around it: aerial cable construction, fiber placement and splicing, and maintenance and restoration. The reason is practical: routes rarely stay underground or aerial from end to end, so a contractor who can carry both keeps the project moving when the design changes.

**Why does owning equipment matter to a customer?**: Owning equipment decides whether a schedule commitment is real. Owned rigs and employed crews mean we control the resources we promised you, instead of competing for them with a rental yard's other customers. When an upstream delay moves your start date, our equipment is not released to someone else, so a short delay does not grow into a long one.

**Why does the company put so much weight on documentation?**: Documentation decides what happens to the plant after the crew leaves. A bore without a recorded depth or an accurate as-built becomes a locate problem, and eventually a strike or a repair bill. Capturing records in the field, by the people who did the work, is what makes the closeout package match the ground and keeps the owner's file usable for years.

**Strilla started in 2020. How should we evaluate a newer contractor?**: Evaluate any contractor on evidence you can check rather than on age alone. Ask for current insurance certificates and a prequalification package, a sample closeout format, and references from past project owners, all of which we provide on request. Then ask who owns the equipment and who will supervise your route. Those answers predict schedule performance better than a founding date.

**Has the company's approach changed as it has grown?**: The scale has changed and the structure has not. Owned equipment, employed crews, records captured in the field, and a single point of contact are the same today as when the company was formed. New footprint is added only when the crews, equipment, and supervision exist to run it at the standard we hold in Volusia County.

**Does Strilla work outside Volusia County?**: Yes. Volusia County is the primary area, and Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, and Polk counties are active coverage. Statewide Florida work is available for projects that justify staging and travel. The company is also extending toward North Carolina as regional broadband work develops, with the same equipment and documentation standards it uses at home.

## Related services

- [Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD)HDD crews for fiber and utility conduit across Volusia County and Central Florida. Pilot bore, reaming, and pullback with logged depth and as-built records.](https://strillacommunications.com/services/directional-drilling/horizontal-directional-drilling)
- [Aerial Cable ConstructionPole line construction, strand placement, lashing, and aerial fiber installation with make-ready coordination and NESC clearance verification.](https://strillacommunications.com/services/aerial-cable-construction)
- [Fiber BlowingFiber blowing and jetting into HDPE duct and microduct across Florida. Duct proofing, low tension placement, and continuous runs with fewer splice points.](https://strillacommunications.com/services/fiber-splicing-installation/fiber-blowing)
- [Conduit InstallationHDPE duct, innerduct, and microduct placed by bore, trench, or plow, proofed with a mandrel, and made locatable with tracer wire and marker tape.](https://strillacommunications.com/services/conduit-installation)
- [As-Built DocumentationAccurate as-built records captured in the field during construction, not reconstructed afterward. Coordinates, depths, photos and reconciled footage.](https://strillacommunications.com/services/supporting-services/as-built-documentation)
- [Outside Plant ConstructionTurnkey OSP construction that carries a fiber build from permitting and boring through aerial, splicing, restoration, and a documented closeout.](https://strillacommunications.com/services/outside-plant-construction)

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Source: https://strillacommunications.com/about/our-story