TDS wants to make it clear: It’s not just a phone company anymore.

The Madison telecommunications company broke ground Thursday on an expansion of its Team Cos. data center in Fitchburg at 5515 Nobel Drive. The $14 million project will triple the 7,000 square feet of space available to house its customers’ data and computer equipment. About half of the new space will be put into use at the outset. The rest will be opened as business grows.

The secure, climate-controlled building is equipped with backup power and steel-reinforced concrete walls built to withstand a tornado, flood or earthquake.

Bill Megan – who recently was named president of the new subsidiary TDS Hosted and Managed Services Operations – said the company is trying to grow those services through the data center expansion.

“We, as a company, are looking for ways to sustain and grow our business,” said Megan, former executive vice president and chief financial officer of TDS. “We think if we build up the service set, we can offer it in many different geographies.”

TDS provides telephone and high-speed Internet service in 30 states, and digital TV in two cities in Tennessee. Data centers, though, can host and maintain technology for clients anywhere in the U.S.

Megan said the expansion will create about five jobs, but he added, “We are building a business that we hope will sustain many more jobs than that.”

TDS owns three small data centers in Madison. The company bought Team Cos. in December, which has data centers in Des Moines and Cedar Falls, Iowa, in addition to Fitchburg. In March 2010, TDS bought Visi, which has data centers in St. Paul and Eden Prairie, Minn.

In all, TDS has 55,380 square feet of data center space in the Upper Midwest.

“We’ve always had residential and business customers. On the business side, we have turned away from traditional phone systems and migrated to managed (Internet Protocol) phone systems,” said DeAnne Boegli, TDS national public relations manager.

Data centers are a continuation of that trend, she said. “That’s where the growth is in the business market,” Boegli said.

Tri-North Builders is the general contractor for the Fitchburg project, expected to be completed by November.

Copyright © 2011 Madison Newspapers, Inc.