Lord Of The Landlines

Robert Hale became a billionaire by capitalizing on the technology Alexander Graham Bell patented in 1876. But time’s up and now the 21st century is calling.

- JOHN HYATT

“GOOD FUN, GOOD FUN!” BELLOWS ROB Hale on a recent Friday morning. It’s 6:30 a.m., and two dozen employees of Granite Telecommunications have gathered for one of their CEO’s favorite rituals: hourlong morning workouts, a grueling grind of pushups, squats, sit-ups, planks, jumping jacks and stair runs through the company’s four-story office headquarters in Quincy, Massachusetts, a blue-collar burb 10 miles south of Boston.

Hale, 56, likes routine. His typical workday includes nabbing the parking lot’s fifth spot (five is his lucky number), downing four extra-large decaf Dunkin’ coffees (two in the morning, two in the afternoon), overseeing a second group work-out at noon (this one, mercifully, 20 minutes), then getting home in time for dinner with Karen, his wife of 28 years. “My life is very regimented,” Hale explains. “It doesn’t deviate much at all.”

Such discipline pays big dividends. Privately held Granite generated over $1.6 billion in sales last year and has no long-term debt. Twenty years after Hale’s first company collapsed, he boasts a $5 billion fortune from his estimated 70% stake in Granite and is one of America’s 400 wealthiest people for the second year running.

How did he do it? Forget about the blockchain, the metaverse or the cloud. The Bostonian built a 21st-century telecommunications empire on the back of 150-year-old technology: twisted-copper-wire telephone lines, or “plain old telephone service” (POTS, as it’s known in the industry). Granite, a telecom wholesaler, leases these old-fashioned lines from phone companies, then sells the service back to businesses at a premium.