Changes were in the offing at Excell Agent Services LLC where the new CEO Clint Streit is shifting the company's focus to the directory services side of its business while getting out of the customer care business. "We've laid off 75 to 80 people overall, so the restructuring is largely completed," Streit said. He explained it made little sense to try to run two businesses with such different cultures, especially when Excell's parent company, Excell Global Services, Inc., is a big player in customer care. Excell has just renewed its contract with AT&T Corp. through 2004 and is preparing to move into the wireless side of the directory assistance business as well. "On the wireline side 90 percent of our business is with AT&T, and their long-distance business is declining significantly," Streit said. "But wireless is the flip side, where carriers are growing by leaps and bounds and the margins are higher." Normally a move into wireless for the directory services provider would require an investment on the order of $6 million in a platform that could connect wireless calls through Excell's call centers, Streit noted. But, by availing itself of an opportunity to use a third party's platform on an outsourced basis, the company can move into wireless very cost effectively. The company's new emphasis on sales and marketing adds to the momentum behind Streit's strategy.
Velocita Corp. debuted its Internet Access service, which is the first in a series of IP services it plans to roll out during the next two quarters. The Internet Access service includes a nationwide network-based Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) mitigation feature that will protect customers' networks from being overwhelmed and their service adversely affected. "It normally takes eight to 48 hours to identify" a DDOS attack, says Bob Collet, Velocita's CTO. "We can do it in five to seven minutes." Initially Internet Access will be offered at speeds up to OC-48, expanding to OC-192 in the future. Costs will be up to 40 percent less than current market rates, says Collet. With its Internet Access, and subsequent IP services that will include gigabit Ethernet and private address IP VPN, Velocita will leverage the 144-strand, Cisco-based optical network it lit earlier this.
On the heels of being named preferred provider of SBC Communications Inc.'s U.S.-originated long-distance traffic, Williams Communications Group Inc. announced it extended its long-haul network into about 80 metro access points in 17 top U.S. cities and introduced a four levels of quality of service for its private line services. With its metro access services, Williams is targeting bandwidth-centric points such as carrier hotels and major peering facilities and offering end-to-end on-net connectivity to customers, says Maryann Lamer, Williams' channel manager for market management. "We provide a nice fit between the BOCs and the CAPs," she adds. With its Private Line QoS offering, Williams will allow customers to select the level of protection, restoration and reliability they require from a private line, and pay only for what they need.
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