Nuvio announces a new program to enable larger ISPs to own a greater portion of their own VoIP solution.

by ISP-Planet Staff [August 23, 2004]

You've probably already seen ads from Kansas City, Mo.-based Nuvio on ISP-Planet's website or in our newsletters. The company has more confidence than others in small ISPs like Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based startup WISP Anywhere Internet and also larger ISPs, such as FreeFlow, a veteran business-oriented WISP based in Rockville, Md.

That's because Nuvio's co-founders, Jason Talley and Noah Wood, both once ran their own ISPs. Talley started Talley Communications in 1994, while he was still in college Missouri Southern State College in Joplin, Mo., and received an entrepreneur of the year award in 1998 from the Jefferson Smurfit Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Saint Louis University. He turns 28 this year. "Those were the golden days of the ISP," he jokes. "I had to pay $3,000 a month for a T-1 from Sprint."

Noah Wood's ISP was called GXL Online, and evolved from BBS to ISP.

Talley, who is CEO of Nuvio, says the company's understanding of the ISP market is paying off. "We have more ISP partners than any other VoIP provider today. Some startups, especially WISPs, provide more customers than larger ISPs, partly because the WISPs are signing up more new customers."

But the company is unveiling a new offer to larger ISPs. The original offer to small ISPs across the U.S. still stands. It calls for Nuvio to do the provisioning and billing and the ISP to get a recurring revenue stream (see Nuvio Targets Tier 2 and 3 Cities for VoIP).

The new offer allows larger ISPs to handle billing and provisioning themselves. In either case, the key, Talley says, is that the ISP have as low and up front cost as possible. "The idea is to try to make sure that the ISPs aren't prohibited from getting into this market."

If the ISP will be doing provisioning and billing themselves, they will have some up front costs to take care of anyway, including CPE, which must be bought from Nuvio at under $100 per customer.

But there's no up front setup fee. "We don't feel it's appropriate to charge an ISP an up front fee when they have to do their own tech support and are purchasing CPE from us," says Talley.

Nuvio does run a credit check on any ISP opting to buy CPE from it, and would require a deposit in some cases, but has not yet required a deposit from any of its ISP partners.

And yes, Talley does use his company's system. Although the company's based in Kansas City, Mo., we reach him in California where he's to make a presentation to investors. "I am talking to you on an IP Centrex phone in California that rings in the office in Missouri."

Besides ISPs, Nuvio is finding that enterprises of all sizes are finding value in VoIP. For Talley, Nuvio VoIP is the business phone number you can bring with you when you're on the road.

For Chuck Butler, president and CEO of FreeFlow, Nuvio is just what his company was looking for. Butler writes to us, "Free Flow began looking for a VoIP partner in response to customer requests for bundled voice and data services. We spent a number of months speaking with numerous potential partners and were impressed with Nuvio's attention to partner programs. We believe a VoIP offering will allow us to provide a better experience for our clients. "

—End