TDS carves out mid-market cloud, managed service niche

TDS (NYSE: TDS) has found that in the wireline segment of its business, the best opportunities lie within the managed services and cable industry segments.

"We have identified both the hosted and managed services area and the cable space as areas where we think it makes natural sense to continue to invest in our business," said Jane W. McCahon, vice president of corporate relations for TDS, during the Citi Internet Media & Telecommunications Conference.

After purchasing five different managed services companies, the focus for TDS will be on executing on its strategy.

While there are certainly large business opportunities for OneNeck IT, the main focus will be on serving the mid-market customer.
 
"We are looking to put together cloud, colo, and hosted services for the mid-market customer," McCahon said. "All of the research we have done when we started this business is around the demand and requirements of these customers because they are much earlier on the curve in terms of starting to outsource these functions."

McCahon added that "mid-market customers really want a bit of a local presence and they want a higher touch and higher customer satisfaction."

In order to give customers a common look and feel, the telco recently renamed its TDS Hosted and Managed Services subsidiary OneNeck IT Solutions.

OneNeck IT Solutions will build a portfolio that will give it a mix of both equipment revenue and monthly recurring revenue from the managed services they will provide.  

Besides managed services, TDS sees the potential in purchasing other local cable assets.  

Stopping short of mentioning any specific cable acquisition targets, McCahon said that they "continue to look for cable assets to buy."

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