BUSINESS DIGEST || Contracting firm to open in Valley

Contracting firm to open in Valley

YOUNGSTOWN

De-Cal Inc., a Michigan-based union mechanical- contracting firm, is putting the finishing touches on its new Youngstown location, which could bring 30 jobs to the Mahoning Valley.

“Youngstown is very competitive,” said Frank Gambino, director of operations at De-Cal. “So we said, ‘Hey, why send it down south when we can set it up in Youngstown?’”

The facility, at 1062 Ohio Works Drive, the former home of Superior Chemical Products Co., was acquired June 17 for about $500,000. Gambino said the facility’s office space is complete and the fabrication plant is “about 75 percent done.”

De-Cal, which has an agreement with V&M Star, wants to take on local projects across the Valley.

It employs about 300 union and nonunion employees.

It will host a ground- breaking Monday.

Companies have plan for rural broadband

WASHINGTON

AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and four other telecom companies are offering a proposal to overhaul the $8 billion federal phone-subsidy program to pay for high-speed Internet connections in rural and other underserved areas.

They say the plan, which was filed with the Federal Communications Commission on Friday, would bring broadband service to nearly all Americans within five years.

The proposal is one of dozens that the FCC likely will receive as it seeks to bring the federal program, called the Universal Service Fund, into the digital age. The agency voted unanimously in February to begin drafting a blueprint to modernize the fund.

Clean-coal plant in Wyo. suspended

CHEYENNE, Wyo.

General Electric and the University of Wyoming announced Friday they have suspended plans to build a $100 million joint clean-coal research facility near Cheyenne amid uncertainty in the nation’s energy policy, lower natural-gas prices and tepid demand for electricity.

Construction of the High Plains Gasification-Advanced Technology Center was expected to begin this year and finish in late 2012. The plant would have been a test site for turning coal into gas, which burns more cleanly than coal.

Google buys 1,000 IBM Corp. patents

NEW YORK

Google Inc. has bought about 1,000 pending and issued patents from IBM Corp. in its quest to shore up its defenses against suits by other technology companies, according to documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Google and IBM spokesmen wouldn’t comment Friday on the purchase.

The patent transfers were recorded two weeks ago and cover a range of technologies, many of which have little to do with Google’s Internet search and advertising business.

But even patents that have little do with Google’s business can be useful ammunition in the hyper-litigious technology world.

Staff/wire reports