While working for an internet service provider in Fort Wayne, Surf Broadband Solutions Director of Enterprise Sales Steve Carender learned about wireless connectivity and how it could connect people to the internet who would otherwise not have access, and he grew to appreciate that technology. He then began working at MapleNet Wireless after discovering the company through a friend.
During his time at this company, MapleNet Wireless helped a business called CSI Net with its infrastructure. CSI Net grew into Surf Air Wireless which then merged with MapleNet Wireless to create Surf Broadband Solutions.
Early on in his 19-year career at MapleNet Wireless and Surf Broadband Solutions, Carender traversed the globe to consult on projects in locations such as Chad, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, and Afghanistan. As a recognition of the volume of products it shared worldwide, Ceragon Networks Ltd. presented MapleNet Wireless with the National Sales Award at a conference in Eilat, Israel where Carender also had the opportunity to speak.
In the United States, Carender has stayed in hundreds of hotels. He has found himself at town councils across the country and has business partners he has worked with on hundreds of deals. Now, Carender has scaled back significantly on his travels, and while he was happy to experience the world through work, he is grateful to now work remotely from home.
Working from home suits his taste as he finds motivation and satisfaction through the small endeavors that make a colossal difference.
“The trips to Vegas, Miami, and New York, stuff like that—that's all fine, but I've liked being welcomed into smaller communities and being able to solve a problem,” Carender said. “As we focus our efforts in our own backyard to enhance broadband, it's been like I'm helping my next-door neighbors now instead of neighbors in Arizona. That's the real source of satisfaction for me is building broadband for people to get internet and to have access to that great equalizer.”
In Northwest Indiana, Carender has worked with the steel mills, helping develop automation systems, inter-facility communications, and other technologies.
Since 1995, Carender has been building community internet networks and has worked with local governments and entrepreneurs in rural communities to bring them broadband. He has seen how the federal government has started to recognize good internet access as a utility and the billions of dollars it has invested in securing that access and connectivity. This financial support has helped Carender and Surf Broadband Solutions stay motivated to continue their efforts.
“What really motivates me is figuring out solutions and delivering a good product, which is something that really impacts the ability for a business to be more efficient, or to interconnect, share data, and be more secure,” Carender said.
Carender enjoys working with people who solve problems; knowing that his people are creative, smart, and hardworking gives him confidence heading into his work with sales. When the team and the product are both high-quality, Surf Broadband Solutions is able to deliver on its commitments, which Carender said is absolutely imperative to establishing a solid reputation.
Having established this reputation and working with businesses both across the country and internationally, every time he gets in his car, Carender drives past locations Surf Broadband Solutions has touched.
“There are very few places I drive where I don't recognize that I worked with that business, or I built that tower. There are very few towns in Indiana that I have not stepped foot in,” Carender said. “This also goes for Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee – I just know how to get everywhere. Now, it's like we have a renewed lease on life because we're building a whole fiber network and the possibilities are absolutely endless of what we can do now with this new technology.”
When he’s not impacting businesses across Indiana and beyond through work, Carender spends time with his family, reads about history and current events, and cooks for friends and family. He likes to spice up the menu, preparing anything from Mediterranean cuisine, to backyard barbeque food, to Vietnamese dishes, to homemade bread.
Carender also loves listening to live music, particularly jazz music, and plans to move down to New Orleans once he retires.
“My favorite city in the world is New Orleans,” Carender said. “I will eventually – as an old, curmudgeonly man – buy a small place there and just be able to eat and listen to music every night of the week. That will be my ultimate retirement.”
To learn more about the passionate and impactful staff at Surf Broadband Solutions, visit www.surfbroadband.com.
