DSL.net gets DSL lines from Abacus America’s Aplus.net

DSL.net continues to pursue an active acquisition strategy in the DSL ISP sector. The New Haven, Conn.-based provider today said it is acquiring an unannounced number of DSL lines for an undisclosed sum from Abacus America’s Aplus.net division.

The lack of numbers is par for the course with these types of acquisitions, said Ray Allieri, DSL.net’s senior vice president of sales and marketing.

“We just don’t want to show our hand out there when we go after the next one and set some kind of ceiling or floor on what we’re willing to pay,” Allieri said.

DSL.net defines lines and subscribers interchangeably. “The market that we have addressed has been predominantly the small-to-medium-sized business market, and generally those guys are going to end up with one line per customer,” said Allieri. “Because we’re a national ISP, we deal with many multi-location customers, but the bread-and-butter of our business has been the small 20-employee-and-below businesses that are moving up from multiple dial-up lines.”

In either case, the numbers could be skewed because DSL.net does not purchase the lines wholesale but works to transition the customers from one ISP to another.

“We work together with the company that is getting out of this business--in this case Aplus.net--and we indicate to those customers that we’re going to do an ISP switch,” said Allieri.

DSL.net always gets more than half of those subscribers to switch, and “usually it’s upwards of 70%-plus,” he said.

Thus, he said, it’s difficult to release numbers.

“If we tell people how big it is without knowing how many customers are actually going to come on board, we could potentially set false expectations,” he said.