Universal Telecom offers uniquely thorough coverage in the state of Oregon, making its product attractive both to local ISPs and to national providers.

by Jeff Goldman [January 28, 2004]

Universal Telecom was founded in 1998 to provide managed modem services for ISPs in the state of Oregon, marketing its services under the brand name US POPS. In addition to its wholesale dialup offering, the company also provides a number of value-added services to its customers, including an accelerator product and VoIP services.

David Hodgert, Universal Telecom's National Account Executive, says the aim is to help ISPs serve their customers more proactively. "We've been trying to answer the question of how ISPs can be profitable, be successful, and continue to grow—and to answer those questions before the ISPs ask them," he says. "That's what's led to our success in this whole market."

Universal Telecom Voice: (888) 773-7677 sales@uspops.com

Jeff Martin, the company's President, says ISPs need to offer value-added services to their customers in order to compete in today's marketplace. "If independent ISPs can be a channel of distribution, they're going to survive against the MSNs and the EarthLinks," he says. "They have to have other ways of making money, and that's where the value-added stuff comes in."

With good customer service, Hodgert says, there's still a significant market for dialup. "It's not really seen as a growth market any more, but we believe it is," he says. "My parents just got on the Internet not too long ago; there's still a large market there. There's also a large market of ISPs that are losing customers because they're not really taking care of them."

Depth of coverage
For its dialup offering, the company has focused on Oregon from the beginning, selling both to Oregon-based ISPs and to national providers who want wall-to-wall coverage in Oregon. "Instead of going wide, we went deep into the state," Hodgert says. "We cover about 95 percent of the population of Oregon. We've hit all the major population areas—and some very small areas as well."

ISPs who work with Universal Telecom get access to a web portal that provides a wide range of information on customer activity. "We've given them all the tools they need to analyze and control their customers," Hodgert says. "Basically, an ISP's success comes down to meeting their subscribers' needs and diagnosing issues; we've tried to help them be proactive."

The web portal lets an ISP see who's online, and to knock individual customers off if necessary. An online reject log also allows the ISP to see which customers are having trouble connecting. "They get information on that before the customer calls up to cancel," Hodgert says. "It's too expensive to earn a customer, let alone let one just walk away without having a chance to solve the problem."

Pricing plans are available for specific areas within Oregon, or for the state as a whole. To encourage growth, a seed program is also available which provides access numbers in a range of different areas to see where new opportunities might lie. "From there, we've made it an easy step to expand by reducing the cost of the ports while they grow into that new area," Hodgert says.

Working face to face
According to Martin, most ISPs who come to Universal Telecom are in the process of deciding whether to outsource dialup or to do it themselves, though others come to the company for its depth of coverage and quality of service. "The way that we do business is very comfortable and easy to work with," he says. "We give them the ability to deal with somebody here in Oregon face to face."

Todd Grannis is President and CEO of VISP Technologies, an Oregon-based aggregator founded in 1996, which targets both affinity opportunities and ISPs. The company offers nationwide coverage through a number of different providers, but in Oregon, it uses Universal Telecom almost exclusively. "They have absolutely the best and most prolific coverage in Oregon," Grannis says.

In addition, Grannis says that Universal Telecom's network is more robust than most, and they're proactive when issues do occur. "When we call up to get an issue resolved, which is rare, they're generally on top of it before we call," he says.

Most importantly, he says the people at the company are approachable: it's easy to get the right person on the phone when necessary. "We've worked with at least three quarters of the wholesale POP providers in the industry, and compared to the others, US POPS just doesn't have a lot of layers of management between us and getting a problem solved," Grannis says.

— End

Related articles:
	[Nov. 3, 2003]	Accurate Billing is a Value-Added Service
	[March 16, 2001]	Va-Va-VISP
	[Nov. 27, 2000]	How to Pick A Wholesale Access Provider

Online resource:
	Wholesale Dialup Directory