Some of Uunet's channel partners were surprised but not shocked to hear the ISP has a new CEO.
For one thing, Mark Spagnolo, then president and CEO of Uunet, was a no show at the Uunet's annual solution provider event. At the third annual Uunet's Inforum, held last week at Amelia Island, Fla., it was Uunet Chairman John Sidgmore who gave the channel partners the ISP road map for its plans.
At the event, the biggest push was for the October release of a version of the Ricochet wireless product that will offer speeds between 128 Kbps and 1.5 Mbps.
"It's a wireless product at DSL speeds and DSL prices," says Steve Lenoff, vice president of sales and support at Epicenter Research, Fountain Valley, Calif.
The remote-access device is already available at speeds of 28.8 Kbps. Uunet offers the service with wireless provider Metrocom. The device costs about $100, and the service will be priced from about $60, said one solution provider at the event.
Solution providers have not been told of Spagnolo's departure, which happened earlier this week, and the ISP has not issued a public statement. But a spokeswoman confirmed that Spagnolo has stepped aside to take on a role in "special projects." He will report to WorldCom Chairman Bernie Ebbers.
Spagnolo will be replaced by Bob Hartnett, president of global accounts at Uunet and now president of Uunet.
Most networking VARs say they doubt the executive change will impact the channel.
Mike Hadley, president and CEO at Icorps Technologies., a Boston integrator, says he hopes the move does not change for the worse the quality of service supplied to the customer.
Spagnolo had the respect and loyalty of a lot of rank and file employees at Uunet, Lenoff says, and adds that he hopes there will be no ensuing personnel fallout.
The ISP does not plan a public statement about the management change, says Uunet spokeswoman.
