In addition to its wholesale dialup offering, MegaPOP now offers both wholesale and private label VoIP.

by Jeff Goldman [October 10, 2007]

StarNet was founded in December of 1994 as a retail ISP, and entered the wholesale dialup business in 1997 using the brand name MegaPOP. "And that was really the cash cow," says Michael Alonzo, the company's director of business development. "We ended up selling the retail business to one of our wholesale customers, and were able to focus solely on wholesale aggregation."

In 2004, North Carolina-based US LEC acquired the company for $1.2 million in cash, and in February of 2007, US LEC merged with PAETEC to form PAETEC Holding Corp. Through all of those changes, though, Alonzo says the MegaPOP offering has always been operated as a separate business unit within the larger organization.

Wholesale VoIP
In addition to wholesale dialup, MegaPOP now has two VoIP offerings: wholesale VoIP and private label VoIP. "Looking at some of the competition that's out there, we have one of the more robust and user-friendly wholesale products," Alonzo says.

MegaPOP VoIP 1901 N Roselle Rd #110 Schaumburg, IL 60195 Tel: (888) 212-0099 Web contact form

The wholesale service offers DID origination in 31 states, along with E-911 and full back-end integration via XML. "It allows for real time number reservation and number provisioning—and all of the E-911 information is done via the XML spec, so there are no spreadsheets being passed back and forth, and no two or three day delays to get an update," Alonzo says.

That kind of straightforward data transfer, Alonzo says, has made the service particularly attractive to ISPs. "If an ISP is selling to an end user, and the ISP has a web interface that allows the end user to go in and change their address on the web portal, all of that is delivered via the XML over to us and updated in real time," he says.

Private label VoIP
The private label offering, Alonzo says, handles the full suite of VoIP services on the ISP's behalf. "We control all of the calling features, the voicemail, the call forwarding, the fax-to-email," he says. "All of the features are controlled by us, and the customer is basically a marketing company."

End user billing and tier one tech support are handled by the customer. "We provide a second tier of support—so we support all of our customers on a 24/7 basis, and provide the real time CDRs [call detail records] and accounting records via an online portal that allows them to go in and bill their customers," Alonzo says.

The ISP, Alonzo says, is also responsible for acquiring and distributing the ATAs to the end users. "The private label company goes out and sources their own ATA, and they deliver it to an end user. Through the XML, they can go ahead and activate it, assign a number to it, configure it in real time, and the customer's up and running," he says.

For both wholesale and private label customers, Alonzo says, local number portability is handled automatically via XML. "It truly does it all for you," he says. "You build your brand, you build your website—and all of the calling features and everything else is maintained and managed by us."

Pricing options
Alonzo says flexibility in pricing is a key strength of the offering. "Even though PAETEC is a billion-dollar company, this organization is still pretty small—and we understand our costs and are able to develop pricing models on a case-by-case basis depending on what the customer needs, whether it's a per-port model, a usage model, concurrent session, you name it," he says.

While the service is targeted to customers of all types, Alonzo says the private label product is generally geared towards ISPs that are selling directly to end users. "People that are selling to small businesses or enterprise customers probably have their own softswitch and are buying origination from multiple providers," he notes.

And in considering the target market, Alonzo warns that CALEA compliance is an ongoing issue for the company. "I'm not ready to make any statements on how we're handling that yet," he says. "It's still being worked on—and I'd say if somebody has that concern and it's mandatory before they sign an agreement, an agreement won't be signed yet."

The fact that the offering is operated as a separate business unit, Alonzo says, makes a real difference in the company's relationships with its customers. "We have about 30 employees, and I'd say 85 percent of them have been here eight years or more," he says. "So it's a pretty cohesive group that's worked together for a long time and understands this infrastructure, and understands the industry and the customers."

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