Verio expands DSL, names NorthPoint preferred provider

Verio has expanded its digital subscriber line offerings into 10 markets and named NorthPoint as its preferred provider in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. By the end of April, Verio expects to offer DSL in Atlanta, Dallas and Houston.

In addition to giving NorthPoint preferred provider status, Verio is investing $5.6 million in the company.

"Having Verio come in and support NorthPoint and small businesses is an important milestone for us," said John Stormer, vice president of marketing for NorthPoint.

Both carriers are targeting small and medium-sized businesses, and they can offer a potent combined package for that under-served market. The offering includes Web-site hosting, security options, domain name registration, e-mail accounts and other business Internet services.

Verio is co-branding its DSL packages with NorthPoint and will support the DSL rollouts with advertising, telemarketing, sales and direct marketing campaigns.

"Our goal is to meet the needs of the small and medium-sized businesses. As we make the Web friendlier, the users' requirement for bandwidth increases. DSL is an outstanding solution from a bandwidth point of view for mission-critical applications," said Sean Brophy, vice president of corporate development for Verio.

Verio has spent the last few months investing in its network and acquiring more Internet service providers. In January, Verio bought The Access Group and its affiliates, and the ISP will pay Qwest Communications $60 million for expanding its network services.

Verio's future expansion plans include providing managed services such as e-mail and other desktop applications.

FNet Corp., an IP telephony and Internet subsidiary of Franklin Telecom, signed an agreement with Pacific Bell to provide ADSL service in Southern California. The agreement follows a similar deal with GTE.

American Management Systems Inc. will deploy a new converged billing and operations support system in competitive local exchange carrier RCN Corp.'s network.

US LEC Corp. signed interconnection agreements with Sprint in Virginia and Tennessee. These agreements, in conjunction with previous certifications, will allow the company to expand services in the two states.

ITC DeltaCom, a southeastern CLEC, contracted with Bellcore to test Year 2000 network interoperability of components in its network.