Modemports combines nationwide virtual ports with a number of attractive selling points, including no setup fees, no contracts, and both per-port and per-user pricing.

by Jeff Goldman [December 11, 2002]

Ryan Troy, one of the founders of Modemports, is now the company's Director of Business Development. Like many wholesale dialup providers, he says, Modemports was started in response to the founders' frustration at the limited options available to ISPs. "We wanted to create a product that was easy to set up," Troy said. "We can have a customer up and running in ten minutes."

The company was founded in April 2002, Troy explains, with the intention of competing directly with such providers as Qwest, UUNET, Broadwing, and MegaPOP. Modemports' wholesale dialup network is based on strategic partnerships with ICG, Level 3, Allegiance Telecom, and Electric Lightwave, among others.

Modemports PO Box 883205 Steamboat Springs, CO 80488 Voice: (970) 870-0484 E-mail: sales@modemports.com

The resulting network provides approximately 3,000 access numbers in 1,500 cities. "We cover 45 states, in Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 markets—and over 56 percent of our network is V.92, which a lot of the other vendors don't have right now," Troy said. "Customers are looking for V.92: it seems to be pretty popular, and it's a great value added service."

Facile yet flexible
Most significantly, Modemports provides nationwide virtual ports. "You can buy ten ports and use them anywhere in the country," Troy said. "It's not regionalized. That's why we call it Nationwide Virtual Managed Modem. If you buy ten ports, you have access to all 3,000 access numbers: it doesn't matter where you use your ports."

And the customer isn't charged for switching between POPs, no matter how often they do so. "That's one of the problems ISPs have," Troy said. "Let's say an ISP uses UUNET and Qwest. If they have a network outage on UUNET, they have to pay five bucks to move that user over to Qwest to get them online. With Modemports, they don't have to do that: they can use any number we have, with no additional cost."

In addition to making the setup process as speedy as possible, Troy says, the company was also founded with a focus on keeping the working relationship simple and flexible. "We don't make the ISP sign any long term contracts," he said. "We just offer month to month service, and they can buy per port or per user, depending on which model fits their business needs."

Per port pricing ranges from $14 to $36, depending on volume. Per user pricing is $6.95 for unlimited access, or $3.95 with a 300-hour limit. There are no setup fees for either option. Customers who are paying per port have to use a minimum of ten ports, but ISPs who pay per user have no minimums. "If they put two users on it, they get billed for two users," Troy said.

Modemports' flexibility and pricing structure, Troy explains, all go back to the original reasons for founding the company. "Whether they're a small guy who's trying to start up, or a medium-sized reseller who has a lot of ISPs underneath them, we don't want to lock them into any kind of commitment," he said. "We want them to be able to have a flexible service they can offer to their customers."

Family ties
The Colorado-based ISP Screaming Internet was Modemports' first customer, and for good reason: it's also owned by Ryan Troy. According to Jake Strawn, the ISP's Director of Software Development, it was Screaming Internet's difficulties in finding a good wholesale dialup provider that led to the founding of Modemports.

Over the past couple of years, Strawn says, Screaming Internet has explored a number of different options. "We started out going through a reseller with a per user contract, but that didn't work well," he said. "Price was an issue, but there was also just a lot of shoddy service: they went through two or three parties before it ended up with someone who was actually running the backbone."

In the process, Strawn says the ISP has tried just about every network available. One of the biggest problems he's encountered has been overcrowding. "I'd say 85 percent of our customers are in rural areas," he said. "So many of those places have one number that 50 ISPs are using, and we've always had problems associated with that."

And providers that didn't offer nationwide virtual ports presented another kind of headache. "When you've got to commit in certain areas, breaking it down is very time-consuming, and our customers really do fluctuate in where they come from," Strawn said. "Something like Modemports gives you flexibility, so you don't have to worry about where your customer base is going to be the heaviest."

Ultimately, Strawn suggests, any provider should be focused on the kind of simplicity and flexibility that drove Troy to create Modemports. "We've been able to phase out Qwest, UUNET, all of those major players, to where everything is on this particular network," Strawn said. "It's just made it easier to keep going without having to make a lot of huge decisions until we're ready to."

— End

Online resources:
	Wholesale Dialup Directory
	Wholesale Dialup Quick Reference Chart

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