Holmes & Narver Forms Communications Unit : Systems: The Orange-based engineering and construction services firm hopes subsidiary will help land contracts for wireless networks.

International engineering and construction services provider Holmes & Narver Inc. said it has started a subsidiary to take advantage of the explosive growth of the wireless communications industry.

The unit will oversee Holmes & Narver’s network engineering and communications specialists, who now work at corporate headquarters in Orange, and at facilities in Denver and Albuquerque, N.M., said company President Zoltan A. Stacho.

Telecommunications services account for only about $10 million of Holmes & Narver’s $200 million in annual revenue, Stacho said, but the company’s business plan suggests that the subsidiary someday could be a $100-million-a-year business that would bring in 25% to 30% of total revenue.

Stacho said he expects to add 10 to 20 new management and engineering employees to the telecommunications unit’s 25-member staff in the next year. Most will be hired for the Orange office, Stacho said.

Once the Denver-based subsidiary lands a significant contract, he said, much of its staff likely will be consolidated in a single location.

The unit will provide engineering and support services for clients in a broad spectrum of telecommunications projects, including cellular and personal communications services systems, and computer networking systems.

One potential job, he said, would be establishing a wireless system to connect all of the shipping for an oil company like Chevron or Texaco. Holmes & Narver has talked to several oil companies, he said. The company also tried unsuccessfully to persuade the nation’s Native American tribal councils to establish a wireless communications system.

The company, which has almost 2,000 employees worldwide, joins another large Orange County engineering and construction services firm--Irvine’s Fluor Corp.--in plumbing the fast-growing telecommunications industry for clients.

Fluor earlier this year formed a joint venture in Dallas, Wireless Engineering Services Group, to provide network engineering services for wireless systems.

A number of Orange County high-tech companies design and produce hardware and software for the telecommunications industry. Rockwell International Corp.’s telecommunications systems division in Newport Beach is the world’s second-largest manufacturer of semiconductors for telecommunications products.