Another weapon in resellers' arsenal: Toll-free service from Mexico opens to long-distance competitors

IXC Communications last week provided U.S. resellers with one more weapon in their arsenal to take market share from the long-distance giants. Carriers and resellers can now offer toll-free service provided by IXC to the U.S. to companies doing business south of the border.

"There is large demand to expand toll-free services beyond the U.S., and the largest concentration of business traffic is between Mexico and the U.S.," said Tom O'Neill, senior marketing manager for IXC.

Toll-free 800 numbers have been available in Mexico for some time, predominantly through Telmex. AT&T, MCI and Sprint had arrangements with Telmex to offer toll-free service from Mexico to the U.S., but offering it for resale was not legal. Now, IXC customers can resell the Mexican toll-free service for several applications.

Calling card companies and other enhanced services providers are most likely to benefit from the new toll-free product. "They can now bring in 800 calls from Mexico just like [the calls were] from Oklahoma," O'Neill said.

"The only unique thing here is that we are finally doing it," said Gary Mann, IXC's general counsel. "It has been permitted for a long time, but nobody did it. Telmex wasn't pushing 800 service."

Toll-free calls can originate from anywhere in Mexico and terminate in the U.S. on a switched number or an IXC-provided T-1 or trunk line. Calls are routed over IXC's fiber optic network in the U.S. and over MarcaTel's network in Mexico. MarcaTel is a Monterrey, Mexico-based joint venture between IXC, Westel International of Austin, Texas, and Radio Beep of Monterrey.

"We are getting a lot of demand for this Mexico product," David Harral, IXC's director of marketing, said. "Mexico is huge and exciting for our business. We are seeing tons of applications on it."