Alpheus extends wholesale Ethernet to AireSpring

Las Vegas -- Alpheus Communications on Tuesday extended its wholesale Ethernet services to AireSpring, a Los Angeles-based competitive service provider, enabling it to expand its MPLS and Ethernet presence in Texas.

Customers that purchase AireSpring's MPLS Mesh product can combine multiple MPLS networks with a single SLA, single bill and one point of contact. The provider claims that since it manages the connection, customers will realize "greater flexibility and increased cost savings."

Similar to the dark fiber IRU agreement it signed with Fidelity Communications on Monday, Alpheus' contract with AireSpring illustrates again that it is becoming another alternative that competitive telcos can go to for wholesale services to quickly establish presence in the Texas market.

David Lonstein, executive vice president, product management for AireSpring, said in a release that what made Alpheus an attractive wholesale partner were two attributes: its knowledge of the Texas market and the amount of CO (central office) connections it has throughout the state.

For this particular deployment, Alpheus is providing its wholesale Ethernet over Copper (EoC) product.

With a particular focus primarily on the DASH (Dallas-Austin-San Antonio-Houston) market, Alpheus has been aggressively growing out its fiber and EoC network footprint. Currently offering EoC out of 123 AT&T (NYSE: T) COs, the provider plans to offer the service in more COs in the South Texas region, with the ultimate goal to have the service in every CO in which it has a colocation agreement with AT&T.

One of the advantages that Alpheus brings to the table for service providers like AireSpring is that it has its own fiber connections out of all of the COs where it offers EoC to customers.

Scott Widham, CEO of Alpheus, said its agreement with AireSpring is part of two ongoing evolutions of how competitive service providers that need to quickly expand their market presence are seeking out new partners.

"The first evolution is to find a national provider like an XO that can provide EoC coverage in most of the country," he said. "What happens over time is they become more sophisticated in ridding the costs out of their businesses; they are getting more granular in terms of their approach and partnering with regional providers that are best of class in that region."

Stopping short of revealing other customer names, Widham added that its agreement with AireSpring is one of many new wholesale customers it has signed recently that are looking for the "best way to terminate Ethernet traffic or TDM traffic in the state of Texas" with "better rates than they can get from other national providers."

Outside of Texas, competitive providers are taking a similar approach with other regional operators in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states.

For more:
- see the release

Special report: EoC makes a new dent in Ethernet market

COMPTEL Spring 2013: Continuing coverage from Las Vegas

Related articles:
Alpheus brings dark fiber to Fidelity Communications
COMPTEL's James: CLECs need more regulatory certainty
Windstream announces Carrier Switched Ethernet expansion, names new chairman