TDS extends managedIP Hosted service to 80 new communities

TDS Telecom is extending its VoIP business tool managedIP service to cable customers in over 80 communities in seven states, a move that enhances its cable business line.

Wade Holmes, director of Engineering and Technology at TDS, said the telco is trying to make sure these customers would be able to access the features and functionality that have resonated with business customers in other states.

The VoIP service is now available in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Utah.

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TDS brings together major vendors including Cisco, Polycom and Broadsoft to offer a solution that it said provides business tools such as Meet-Me conferencing, Call Center, Receptionist Client (to allow one person to answer calls from multiple locations) and Call Recordings.

The company said even its employees are seeing the benefits of these services. Stephanie Senner, a commercial marketing manager for TDS based Bend, Oregon, said in a release that the services improves how she communities with co-workers across its territories.

“I can be hundreds of miles away and talk directly to a person just as if they were sitting across from me at my desk,” Senner said.   

Extending the managedIP Hosted service over its cable network footprint makes sense. TDS Telecom, similar to other regional telcos, has made their own mark in the cable industry via acquisitions.

In 2014, the service provider purchased Bend, Oregon-based cable operator BendBroadband for $261 million, giving it access to a network that passed at the time about 79,000 homes and business.

Earlier, TDS Telecom purchased Baja Communications, a deal that came with 56,000 high-speed broadband subscribers and 15,000 digital voice subscribers serving residential and commercial customers in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Utah. 

Drew Petersen, VP of external affairs and corporate communications, told FierceTelecom when it purchased Baja in 2013 that “managedIP is something we can bring into the Baja market relatively quickly and really penetrate the commercial space."