From left, Bob Boyd, Tony Bacher, Dave Rader, Mike Bacher and Kevin Mooney of TulsaConnect stand in front of the Tulsa Skyline. The principals in the company have been wiring Tulsans to the Internet since 1996.
TOM GILBERT / Tulsa World

WebZone founders return with new ISP

The new ISP was formed by some of the original owners of WebZone, a local ISP that was sold in 1999. TulsaConnect is even using some of the same WebZone equipment and office space.

The new company's history is a bit complicated, partner Tony Bacher admits, but it makes for a good story and great dinner party conversation.

Bacher and Carol Mersch started Mersch Bacher Associates, a software development firm, in 1989. A few years later his son, Mike, came to work for the summer.

The younger Bacher developed an idea to create a local ISP.

"At the time, I had no earthly idea what the Internet was," the elder Bacher admits.

He did have the foresight to hire business consultant Bob Boyd to examine his son's idea. After some financial analysis, Boyd determined the business plan was viable.

The younger Bacher brought in Kevin Mooney, a Virginia native he met online, and the group hit the ground running. Tulsa-based WebZone was born in February 1996.

The elder Bacher said he expected WebZone to attract about 600 customers in the first year. But when the company opened during a local technology showcase, it signed up 300 its first day.

As the Internet grew in popularity, so did WebZone. By July 1999, it had almost 12,000 customers and was doing about $3 million a year in business.

It was at that time that owners Bacher and Mersch decided to sell WebZone to Rocky Mountain Internet, a Denver-based company that later became Internet Commerce and Communications. Mooney and the younger Bacher, as well as more than 30 WebZone employees, stayed on with the Colorado company until it went bankrupt in July 2001.

Last February, during its downward spiral, IC&C sold its Tulsa residential customers to Earthlink.

"That's when WebZone got its black eye," Mike Bacher said. "We had a reputation of good customer service, and that hurt the WebZone reputation."

The younger Bacher said many customers had problems with their service after they were switched to Earthlink.

Mooney, the two Bachers and Boyd regrouped and began investigating how to purchase assets from IC&C, but SpeedCell beat them to the punch. Then the former WebZone owners went into negotiations with SpeedCell and purchased all of the office items, Internet-related equipment and specified customers located in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

Now they are working to win back some of their former customers as well as attract new residential and business dial-up members, and DSL and cable modem users looking for a local ISP, Tony Bacher said.

The reformed company is comprised of five partners: Kevin Mooney, who serves as director of engineering; Mike Bacher, director of operations; and Tony Bacher, Bob Boyd and former University of Tulsa football coach Dave Rader.

The company's offices remain at 810 S. Cincinnati Ave. -- where WebZone was located -- and company officials said they don't plan on moving anytime soon.

"We intend to be here," Mike Bacher said. "We're not going to sell ourselves again."

"Our primary focus is to take care of our customers because we feel they've been abused."

Aside from trying to move past the tarnished WebZone image, TulsaConnect plans to expand its services to the Broken Arrow market soon as well as relocate and expand its collection of servers, he said.

More information about TulsaConnect is available by calling 584-1100 or by visiting http://www.tulsaconnect.com.

Nicole Nascenzi, World business writer, can be reached at 581-8315 or via e-mail at nicole.nascenzi@tulsaworld.com.