One Buy Ups EarthLink Business Value for Agents







Author: Khali Henderson - PhonePlus Magazine

EarthLink Inc.'s announcement Monday that it intends to buy CLEC One Communications Corp. is getting praise from the indirect sales channel for boosting the ISP's business services strategy, but it's too early to tell how it will impact partner programs for the newly minted EarthLink Business.

Once the transaction closes, One Communications will join Deltacom and New Edge Networks as part of EarthLink Business, a new subsidiary formed Dec. 8 following the acquisition of Deltacom, another troubled CLEC. New Edge Networks, an access aggregator and MPLS network provider, was bought by the ISP back in 2005.

With One Communications, EarthLink Business will operate a nationwide IP network with underlying fiber assets in 30 of the country's top 50 MSAs. Its fiber network will span 27 states with 923 colocations. And, it will employ almost 3,500 people.

One Communications enables EarthLink Business to expand in the Northeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic while Deltacom's eight-state region covers much of the Southeastern United States.