Verizon Communications Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. have signed a multiyear deal to deliver co-branded broadband to subscribers of Verizon Online's DSL and new fiber-based Fios Internet services. Consumers will not pay extra for the service. Beginning this summer, customers will have the choice of Yahoo! in addition to the portal service Verizon now offers; Verizon's existing subscribers will have the option of switching to the Verizon Yahoo! service. Subscribers will need only one user name and password to access their accounts.
CommPartners LLC has added 10 new partners to its list of companies offering its private-label VoIP. The resellers will take part in CommPartners' sales and marketing training programs as they sell VoIP to SMBs throughout the United States. The new partners are: Advantage Voice LLC, E-Integration, CityNetWest, NetVelocite, Shasta.com, Voipia Networks, Next Solutions Inc., Pacific Coast Wireless Internet, onShore Inc. and Ntegrated Consulting LLC.
Metropolitan Telecommunications (MetTel) will use Broadvox Limited LLCs VoIP network to provide broadband services that include local and longdistance packages. Relying on the wholesale carrier as its underlying provider also means MetTel will expand its coverage area to 30 states - up from 14 - by the end of the year. The agreement is good for one year. Among its VoIP features, MetTel will offer users customer premise equipment, and still will provide billing and customer service. MetTel plans to make its VoIP services available in the second quarter of this year.
BellSouth Corp. has signed another wholesale agreement, this time with a CLEC that specializes in prepaid residential service. BellSouth and Budget Phone Inc., based in Shreveport, La., have signed a long-term commercial contract for the provisioning of wholesale local phone services throughout BellSouth's nine-state region. Budget Phone is BellSouth's 29th wholesale customer.
Cordia Corp. announced in late January a commercial agreement with Verizon Communications Inc., replacing a UNE-P arrangement Cordia has used to offer local phone service to consumers and small businesses over Verizon's network. The pact, which includes restructured pricing and expanded product offerings, provides for the continued availability of wholesale services through at least December 2009. Cordia says it can continue to grow its bundled local, long-distance and high-speed Internet service offerings in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania and expand into more Verizon territories. In November, Cordia announced striking a similar agreement with Qwest Communications International Inc., the Denver-based regional phone company with incumbent operations in 14 states.
Hostopia Inc. announced enhancements for its wholesale Web hosting and managed e-mail services. Hostopia's new plans offer a 500 percent increase in disk storage and a doubling of e-mail storage. Wholesale prices will allow resellers to offer advanced Windows services, such as ASP.net, in a lower-cost hosting plan - $19.99 per month - while maintaining healthy margins, the company says. Hostopia also has new, fully developed Web site templates for small businesses or Web developers to instantly create or modify specialized business sites. The templates are organized by vertical industry, and will function with any site-building tool such as Front Page or Macromedia's Dreamweaver. The company also has launched EasyLiveChat, a turnkey business chat application for small business, for talking to customers and prospects via the Web site.
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BellSouth Corp. www.bellsouth.com |
