Telia Carrier Boasts 'No Channel Conflict' in New Partner Program

Telia Carrier is targeting value-added resellers (VARs) and master agents through its new partner program.

The Stockholm, Sweden-based company on Monday announced the new program in hopes of attracting more U.S. enterprise customers. Telia also rolled out a self-service agent portal and a customer portal.

Telia’s Rob Pulkownik

Telia operates a direct sales force, but the company said in a news release that partners will not experience any channel conflict. Master agent partners will interact with an account director from Telia Carrier.

“The key to our high growth expectations will be the effective development of our channel partner program,” said Rob Pulkownik, Telia Carrier’s head of channel sales. “With that in mind, we’ve developed a conflict-free relationship where our channel partners work together with our direct sales team, thereby avoiding any channel conflict.”

Telia’s services include internet, ethernet, MPLS and, most recently, SD-WAN. The carrier last week announced a new SD-WAN solution in partnership with Cisco Viptela.

Telia’s Staffan Göjeryd

“We see tremendous opportunities to help global enterprises with their digital transformation journeys through the ‘cloudification of networking’ — using a centralized, unified, cloud-based controller that covers the extended WAN environment, with the support of our backbone as the primary underlay and an award-winning customer experience,” Telia Carrier CEO Staffan Göjeryd said.

The company has promoted Pulkownik, who will oversee the recruitment of master agents and other partner types. He had been serving as director of market development until last fall. He spent six years at Level 3 Communications before coming to Telia.

“Our strong international presence and concentration on leveraging an industry-leading wholesale product set as the foundation of our enterprise products put us in a position of strength to deliver world-class solutions,” Pulkownik said.