Wheeling And Dealing: Top 6 Telecom Moves Impacting The Channel In November

Partners Playing Together

With the continuing convergence of the IT and telecommunications industry, it's no surprise that carriers and service providers have been consistently adding new services to their repertoires. These providers are also entering into strategic relationships with fellow providers in the industry in an effort to give business customers access to the connectivity solutions they've been demanding. The channel has to stay on top of these industry changes, especially as it relates to the carriers and service providers they partner with.

In case you missed it, here's a review of telecom and service provider news and moves that impacted the channel in November.

CenturyLink, Cogent Strike Interconnection Deal

Telecommunications provider CenturyLink and Internet service provider (ISP) Cogent Communications have agreed to share its respective IP networks.

Via the terms of the newly-inked deal, CenturyLink and Cogent have entered into a long-term bilateral interconnection agreement that will allow the providers to exchange internet traffic in a "balanced, scalable and mutually economical manner," Monroe, La.-based CenturyLink said.

Washington, D.C.-based Cogent struck a similar IP network interconnection deal with Time Warner Cable in October.

SaaSMAX Automates Tedious Partner Profiling Process

SaaSMAX Corp. has ripped the cover off its new partner profiling solution, PartnerOptimizer.

SaaSMAX is a leading SaaS marketplace that channel partners, business users, and vendors can use to review and compare SaaS apps. The provider's mission is to help channel partners identify and do business with the right cloud providers. PartnerOptimizer can help partners avoid the manual process of updating their profiles, while still keeping their information current on vendor partner Websites.

The solution is based on technology that SaaSMAX originally built for internal use. The technology can sift through partner websites for up-to-date information on its business, including products, certifications and partnerships, and then deliver this information to prospective customers, according to San Diego-based SaaSMAX.

Intelisys Grows Cloud Team To Meet Partner Demand

Master agent Intelisys has expanded its cloud sales engineering team. The Petaluma-based company has tapped Duane Barnes as its new Cloud Sales Engineer dedicated to solution providers in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions south of the Washington, D.C. area.

Barnes is bringing 17 years of expertise in complex data center solutions, such as managed hosting, virtualization, cloud storage, security, and VoIP to Intelisys. He most recently served as vice president of presales and professional services for Open-Xchange, and before that appointment, Barnes served as Windstream's director of solutions engineering.

Intelisys said that it's seen explosive growth in the Southeast, and Barnes will help educate Intelisys partners on available cloud solutions. Barnes is reporting to Ray Nelson, Intelisys' Cloud Integration Specialist for the East Region.

TNCI, Impact Telecom Merge Operations

After promising a rebrand and a re-commitment to the channel, telecommunications provider TNCI Operating Co. announced it will merge with Impact Telecom, a Denver-based telecommunications provider.

The soon-to-be-combined companies will go by the name Impact Telecom, and will continue to provide unified communications (UC), cloud, and voice offerings to business customers, according to the two companies.

TNCI CEO Laura Thomas will become Chairman of the Board of Directors of the new company and Impact CEO Bob Beaty will continue on as CEO of the new organization. The deal is subject to FCC approval and slated to close in January 2016.

TelePacific Communications Inks New Master Agent Partnership

Telecommunications and managed services provider TelePacific Communications has signed a distribution agreement with Aligned Communications, a Dallas-based regional master agent.

The partnership will extend TelePacific's connectivity and cloud offerings -- including hosted PBX solutions -- to channel partners working with Texas-based small and midsized businesses (SMBs).

Via the direct relationship, Los Angeles-based TelePacific also can access Aligned Communications' network of over 300 subagent partners.

Corvisa Cloud UC Goes Overseas

Cloud communications provider Corvisa LLC. is going global with its PaaS and SaaS solutions. The provider announced it has added new points of presence (POP) locations in London and Amsterdam.

The global expansion of Corvisa's contact center and telecom solutions will help channel partners and end customers keep their communications on-network. The POP locations will help users avoid using multiple vendors to support overseas locations, according to Corvisa.

The new POPs are connected via Corvisa's private fiber network, and the provider will continue to pursue network expansion based on partner and customer demand, the provider said.