News Briefs December 2004

PAETEC Communications Inc., a CLEC serving customers in 27 U.S. markets, announced a wholesale package for resellers migrating their customers from UNE-P. The package combines special access with integrated services, including integrated T1s, e-mail scanning, conference calling, MPLS and quality of service. In addition, the company provides a loop-quote tool and WebFront online customer service portal to help resellers manage and grow their businesses. The quoting tool allows customers to enter NPA/NXX information and receive a local-loop price quote virtually instantaneously. The program also is designed for batch uploads that give customers the ability to access a spreadsheet from their desktop and provide hundreds or thousands of quotes at once.

Hostopia announced in late October it will pay ISPs and other service providers for outdated servers, encouraging hosting providers to move customers onto Hostopia’s private-labeled managed service. The program will offer up to $2,500 for a Sun Cobalt RaQ server appliance, or other similar equipment. Wael Doukmak, CEO of Hostopia partner NEGIA - Northeast Georgia Internet Access, says he was impressed with the feature set and performance cost model for Hostopia’s privatelabel hosting, so he made the decision to move off of Cobalt over time. “Hostopia’s server buyback plan put cash on the table to accelerate our plans and move customers sooner,” he says.

Global Crossing Ltd. has enhanced its video and Web conferencing services, which are sold through authorized agents and resellers. The company recently launched Ready-View Instant Meeting, a new productivity tool for the company’s IP video conferencing and iVideoconferencing services. The feature lets a chairperson schedule and launch a video conferencing call without a prior reservation, connecting up to five multipoint sites and two dial-out audio ports. Global Crossing also has introduced the iCalendar feature to simplify meeting management.

Conference Plus Inc. is offering resellers new branded Web site options for its privatelabeled conferencing services. The Branded Web site includes the ConferencePlus MyAccount Dashboard and the ViewPlus meeting management tools branded with the reseller’s logo and colors. The branded MyAccount Dashboard provides “at a glance” access to all the key information a user requires to manage their conferencing needs. With the branded ViewPlus tool, users can manage their ConferenceAnytime reservationless automated conferences from their computer in realtime.

A branded reservation line may be displayed on all branded Web pages. ConferencePlus also supplies the Meeting Center URL addresses for integration with the organization’s own Web site. A Branded Web site can be available within 30 days.

The ConferencePlus Personalized Website service enables Web pages to be further customized with additional customer-provided graphics, customizable page and section titles, and customized page copy. Hosting services and menu links to customer-provided Web pages are also available. A Personalized Web site can be available within 60 to 90 days.