StarNet Lands MSN Deal

The agreement puts Microsoft's Internet access business in a bunch of new municipalities throughout the country, expanding its nationwide dialup service area by some 1,200 POPs in secondary U.S. Markets.

by Jim Wagner of internetnews.com [March 6, 2001]

Hoping to increase its dial up Internet presence, the Microsoft Network this week signed a contract with Chicago-based wholesale provider StarNet, Inc.

The deal puts MSN in a bunch of new municipalities throughout the country, giving it a footprint with that includes roughly 1,200 Points of Presence (POPs) in secondary U.S. Markets.

Financial terms of the agreement were not released.

Michael Alonzo, StarNet senior account executive, is credited with landing the MSN contract. He said MSN officials were surprised that a relatively unknown company like StarNet could—unknown only to major Internet service providers like MSN—could have such a large dialup coverage area.

"I cold-called them and approached them about StarNet providing dial up access, and they were surprised that a company with no stock symbol could offer the access we have," Alonzo said. "Once they saw what we had to offer, they signed on."

MSN now gets instant access from some of the 1,200 worldwide POPs StarNet owns, access it couldn't get from industry heavyweights like AT&T and UUNET.

Bob Visse, MSN group product manager, said MSN will now be able to "offer fast and reliable Internet connections to even more consumers."

With that access, MSN can market new services to these areas and garner more subscribers in its quest to catch up with AOL Time Warner, which has 17.5 million dial up customers in the U.S. MSN lags a distant fifth in terms of subscribers, with four million dialup users nationwide.

StarNet has roughly 1,000 ISPs signed on for wholesale service to date. Among them are Juno Online Services, Inc., and NetZero, Inc., the third and fourth largest, respectively, dial up Internet providers.

Russ Intravartolo, StarNet StarNet chief executive officer, said the deal validates its business model and brings three of the top five ISPs in the nation under his purview.

"We're excited and honored that a company with the stature of MSN has selected StarNet to provide such a core service to their subscribers," Intravartolo said. "I believe that the selection of StarNet by MSN further validates us as a leading provider of wholesale dial-up access service."

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