MegaPath Makes Way For Premier Partners To Sell Into Enterprise

The program is geared toward helping master agents sell broadband and managed services to enterprise customers.

As a MegaPath Premier Partner, an agent will receive team sales support; training via Web seminars; consolidated billing and technical support from MegaPath across multiple locations; dedicated account managers; priority technical support; and higher commissions.

Premier Partners must sell at least $100,000 of new business over a 12-month period, said Dan Foster, chief marketing and sales officer at MegaPath, Pleasanton, Calif. The company offers connectivity services including Business DSL, T1/T3, dial-up and Web hosting through relationships with more than a dozen carriers, as well as its own private network.

"We offer agents a one-stop shop with our 9,000 COs [central offices in which phone companies' switching centers reside], consolidated billing and help-desk solutions across the U.S. and also in Canada next quarter," Foster said.

The impetus behind the new program was master agents such as AB&T Telecom, Gaithersburg, Md., he said. After signing on as a MegaPath partner in August, AB&T Telecom began winning orders and is working on some fairly large multisite opportunities with MegaPath, said Emmet Tydings, president of AB&T Telecom.

"MegaPath does a great job of aggregating multiple DSL and other broadband networks and providing a single billing entity and support structure," Tydings said. "Pricing is competitive, and commissions through the master agent are good. "

Master agents are being more selective about the service providers they are willing to work with, but MegaPath's reach has been particularly attractive, Foster said.

"We bring to bear a large footprint of 9,000 COs where we can reach locations 95 percent of the time," he said.

Steve Sire, vice president and general manager of carrier services for master agent Expanets, Englewood, Colo., said MegaPath has about a 90 percent hit rate, whereas other carriers can provide services in only 25 percent to 65 percent of his customers' locations.