Wholesale: Empire One Builds New Wholesale Offer

Posted: 11/2000

Empire One Builds New Wholesale Offer
By Khali Henderson

Just when many emerging carriers are shrinking or abandoning their wholesale
activities, retail carrier Empire One Telecommunications Inc. (www.eot.net)
is getting into the game with the mid-September deployment of a switch at 60
Hudson St., New York.

In a press statement, the company said the move will free it from
"third-party economic and service dependency issues."

Empire One’s founder Paul Butler puts it more plainly. He explains the
company has dropped its second-tier carriers in favor of direct relationships
with PTTs in Europe and Asia that offer a higher grade of service at comparable
cost.

Butler, who serves as executive vice president of carrier and network
services following the company’s acquisition by Sonus Communications Holdings
Inc., says the company has been unimpressed with the service it has received
from second-tier suppliers. It set out to secure its own agreements with
tier-one carriers to provide quality service to its retail 1+ business and
residential subscribers, which are primarily Chinese- and Russian-speaking
customers in the United States.

As a byproduct of these reciprocal agreements, Empire One will offer services
to other carriers. During the next three to six months, Butler says Empire One
will build its wholesale sales team and will be aggressive in seeking wholesale
customers, particularly switchless and sub-carrier identification code (CIC)
carriers.

In addition to international termination, Empire One will offer wholesale
long-distance services and local services in New York. Local dial tone and
integrated T1 services were in beta at press time (mid-September).

Butler says these services would be offered to switchless resellers and CLECs
at 30 percent to 35 percent margin–nearly 50 percent better than what they are
currently receiving from the state’s ILEC, Verizon Communications (www.verizon.com).

Empire One plans to install another switch from the merged DTI Networks-CopperCom
Inc. (www.coppercom.com)
in Los Angeles in first quarter 2001. Additional PoPs are planned for Chicago,
Miami and Toronto.