Business View Magazine - November 2016

72 Business View Magazine - November 2016 NAV Industrial The key to connectivity NAV Industrial, a provider of cellular services to wire- less companies throughout the southeastern United States, began about 15 years ago in the garage, base- ment, and pickup truck of J.D. Newsome. “I started out with a 75 thousand dollar loan and a dream,” New- some says, “and my trusty companion, a bull terrier named Toby. And pretty soon, he became more fa- mous than I was with all of our travelling.” Armed with a degree in RF Communications and Fiber Optics, Newsome says he recognized a niche market for basic RF (Radio Frequency) infrastructure testing in his part of the country, which involved sweep testing and PIM (Passive Inter-Modulation) testing for some of the area’s larger cellular carriers. “We built the busi- ness from there,” he says. “And in less than a year’s time we moved into a 4,500 square foot building with 12 employees. And two years after that, we moved into a 25,000 square foot building with 42 employees.” Today, NAV Industrial, which is based in Roanoke, VA, has 35 employees who service the entire states of Vir- ginia and West Virginia, western Pennsylvania, west- ern Maryland, eastern Kentucky, and eastern North Carolina. Its customers include Verizon Wireless, U.S. Cellular, T-Mobile, nTelos, Sprint, and some local, pub- lic service agencies, who all rely on the company to keep their networks operating at optimum capacity