Across The Telecom Spectrum: 6 Moves That Made Waves In The Channel In June

Moving On Up

The telecommunications industry heated up in June with new appointments and promotions as well as new solutions and tools to make life easier for channel partners and business customers.

Here are six newsworthy items that happened in the telecom industry last month that solution providers should know.

AT&T Extends Partnership With AWS

Telecom giant AT&T revealed the next step in its partnership with cloud giant Amazon by announcing that it would give NetBond users access to "more than 100" additional cloud software and service providers hosted on AWS, including Symantec, Cisco CloudLock, and Splunk.

NetBond is AT&T's platform that lets users connect their VPNs to cloud platforms. AT&T also announced that AWS software and solution providers can join the AT&T NetBond for Cloud Solution Provider program.

GTT Communications Acquires Global Capacity

GTT Communications recently inked a deal to buy network connectivity provider Global Capacity for $100 million in cash and 1.85 million shares of GTT common stock upon closing.

McLean, Va.-based GTT said that the deal would grow GTT's customer base, and help the provider expand its footprint to cover more than 9.6 million U.S. business addresses from 41 data center locations.

The two companies expect the deal to close in Q3 2017.

TPx Brings On New Channel Manager

TPX, Communications, formerly known as TelePacific Communications, in June signed on a new channel manager for its Northwest region. Telecom industry veteran Kim Cummings is now responsible for recruiting, training and supporting channel partners in the Pacific Northwest, according to the Los Angeles-based provider.

Cummings most recently served as national channel manager for Frontier Communications. Prior to this role, Cummings was a regional channel manager for Windstream.

PGi Makes Leadership Moves

Conferencing and collaboration provider PGi promoted three veteran executives in June. The Atlanta-based provider named John Stone to chief revenue officer, Sean O’Brien to chief strategy officer, and June McCarthy to executive vice president of marketing.

Stone previously served as EVP and managing director of PGi International. In his new role, O'Brien's responsibilities have been expanded to include corporate strategy and business development. McCarthy served as senior vice president of marketing and product for PGi prior to her promotion.

Intelisys Launches Fiber Locator Tool, Brings On New Engineer

Master agent Intelisys has officially launched its targeted Fiber Locator tool that its VARs, MSPs, and agent partners can use to obtain fiber proximity information and source services for their end customers. Partners using the tool can quickly identify lit buildings and all carriers with fiber access accurately from 500 feet up to one mile, according to Intelisys.

The Petaluma, Calif.-based master agent also in June added a new cloud solutions engineer to its team, Nick Tempesta. Tempesta comes to Intelisys from cloud service provider NaviSite, where he served as channel partner manager and regional sales director.

TierPoint Promotes New Channel Leader

Cloud service provider and data center operator TierPoint has promoted Kenny Ash, formerly the assistant vice president of National Channel Sales to VP of Channel.

Moving forward, Ash will responsible for leading TierPoint’s channel sales nationally, in addition to working closely with the provider's six channel directors. Prior to his appointment in 2016, Ash worked in channel sales management for cloud service provider Peak 10, according to St. Louis-based TierPoint.