Comptel: Qwest ups wholesale ante

ORLANDO--Qwest today unveiled a new wholesale service offering aimed at making it easier for CLECs to buy a package of local exchange services.

The new Qwest Local Services Platform bundles local switching services, local switching features such as call waiting, and shared transport of local traffic at what the company says is a competitively attractive price. While allowing CLECs to offer features, fast provisioning and quality of service that is attractive to their customers, Qwest is also offering volume discounts that reward growing companies, officials said.

Since the demise of federally required UNE-P sales, which set pricing on local service bundles that included switching, CLECs have had to commercially negotiate rates for those services with incumbent LECs. According to Roland Thornton, Qwest executive vice president, wholesale market, this offering is the first attempt by a telecom provider to enhance the commercial offering it has for the CLEC market.

Granite Telecommunications, a privately held CLEC serving 9500 multi-site enterprise customers, has already signed on to the new Qwest service, the two companies said.

“We have been a proponent of the wholesale market for some time,” said Roland Thornton, Qwest executive vice president, wholesale markets, in a Comptel interview. “We focus on those companies that rely on another network to deliver their services, and we are a dedicated force for the rebillers and resellers. Our customers know that Qwest has always been here and they trust that relationship.”

The new platform is the next generation of Qwest Platform Plus, the initial post-UNE-P product, said Derek Koecher, director of wholesale for Qwest.

“We were able to develop this with the help of our CLEC customers who are growing,” he said. The initial QPP pricing, like that of other post-UNE-P commercial agreements, gradually raised pricing, which had the net effect of penalizing customers who increased their wholesale business with Qwest, Koecher said. Partially as a result of the pricing strategy, Qwest and other ILECs have seen wholesale business decline, due both to customers taking business elsewhere and CLECs themselves losing business, he said.

The new Qwest Local Services Platform includes incentives to wholesale customers to stay with Qwest and to grow their business.

“We give you a bonus to retain your customers and when you grow your business, you get a discount on the growth piece,” Koecher said.

In general, Qwest has increased its focus on wholesale as a viable business, he said, including both the national long-distance wholesale and its local service piece, based within the old U S West footprint.