Posted: 12/2000
Briefs
* Universal Access Inc. (www.universalaccess.net) has entered into an agreement to manage and deploy the network infrastructure to support the broadband transport and content services for Atlanta-based NetRail Inc. (www.netrail.net). Terms of the relationship were not disclosed.
As a carrier-neutral service provider, Universal Access will provide NetRail with provisioning, installation and maintenance of high-capacity circuits. In addition, NetRail will have the backing of Universal Access' Universal Information Exchange (UIX) databases, which offer circuit routing and redundancy solutions.
* USIntellicom (www.usintellicom.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Dual Point Communications (www.dualpoint.com , formerly Pre-Cell Solutions Inc.), has been chosen to provide prepaid wireless communications services for the Unified Signal Holding Inc. (www.unifiedsignal.com) wholesale platform, which enables resellers and agents to become a privately branded, nationwide communications service provider.
"There is incredible demand in the marketplace from consumers and channels of distribution for effective back office and unified billing services," says chairman and CEO Paris Holt. "With the help of companies like USIntellicom, we are able to offer our clients one nationwide operating and pricing platform for services of many of the leading facilities-based carriers.
* Pac-West Telecomm Inc. (www.pacwest.com) signed a multiyear service agreement with dotNow! (www.dotnow.com), a provider of free Internet access throughout the United States and Canada, to supply local access ports, modems, and Internet backbone to dotNow! through its managed modem service.
By aggregating its incoming calls into Pac-West SuperPOPs, dotNow! can expand its coverage area and provide users with access to the Internet through a local call, while reducing its equipment and trunk costs, says Kevin Maginnis, Pac-West's vice president of sales for wholesale markets.
* The network unit of Williams Commu- nications (www.williamscommunications.com) has completed a $41.1 million agreement, as valued over the contract term, to sell fiber and services on its nationwide fiber optic network to Dominion Telecom (www.dominiontel.com), a subsidiary of Dominion, the nation's largest natural gas and electric company.
Under the terms of the 20-year agreement, Dominion Telecom will utilize more than 6,000 fiber miles between Cleveland and New York; Albany, N.Y., and Boston; Boston and New York; and New York and Washington, D.C. Williams will also provide Dominion Telecom with fiber maintenance and collocation services for the length of the contract. The agreement also calls for Williams to be a preferred provider of off-network services.
