EarthLink , the third-largest premium-based Internet
service provider (ISP) in the U.S., will announce the acquisition later
this week of Volaris Online’s dial-up customer base.
Officials confirmed Tuesday morning a deal that’s been rumored for days
now, and is a significant subscriber boost to EarthLink’s existing 4.7
million subscribers. According to Carla Shaw, EarthLink spokesperson, the
details of the acquisition won’t be announced until their release is issued.
According to Volaris’ Web site, the ISP serves 250,000 dial-up, digital
subscriber line (DSL) and dedicated access (T-1) customers throughout the
Southeast U.S. region. Officials said they wouldn’t divulge the number of
dial-up customers make up that 250,000.
Volaris as an entity has been an ISP serving a quarter-million customers
for less than a year, the result of a merger between
Durocom and 10 other ISPs in the Southeast last November.
Styling themselves the “Southeast’s alternative provider to AOL,” according
to Ozzie deFaria, Volaris CEO, the company now finds themselves looking for
revenue help from an AOL competitor.
While Volaris officials weren’t available for comment at press time, the
ISP is likely to announce its decision (in the EarthLink release) to focus
on business-class customers, the ones who buy into pricey broadband and
dedicated access lines. Dial-up residential service, while a consistent
moneymaker for any ISP, doesn’t have the profit margins to be found in
business services.
While EarthLink’s main competitors, AOL and MSN
, have been busy spending millions on advertising campaigns to
launch the latest updates
to its service, EarthLink has been quietly spending its money on ventures
that boost the ISPs operations.
The ISP has long sought customer growth through acquisition, not pricey
advertising campaigns involving butterflies in
Times Square. In June of 2000, EarthLink bought
out OneMain.com and its 762,000 subscribers, while last year it acquired
the dial-up subscriber base of Netpliance’s i-opener, a Texas-based
operator with roughly 50,000 customers.
