Upcoming Webinar: Creating End-User Stickiness — An Opportunity for Broadband Providers

Tuesday, March 29, 2011 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CDT

Broadband subscribers are 46% less likely to leave their current provider if they are satisfied with their services, but 348% more likely to leave the provider if they are dissatisfied, according to a Parks Associates’ study.

Retaining customers and maintaining high customer satisfaction can’t be achieved by only providing high broadband speeds. Customers factor compelling add-on services, reliability and customer support into their level of satisfaction.

In this Webinar you’ll learn how to create end-user stickiness, satisfaction and loyalty with value-added services that generate new revenue streams.

ANPI and Zone Telecom Agree to Merge

Transaction Brings Together Two Industry Leaders with a Unique Combination of Assets, Expertise and Capabilities Offering Significant Benefits to Wholesale and Enterprise Customers

Springfield, Ill. – October 13, 2010 – Associated Network Partners, Inc., and Zone Telecom, Inc., have signed a definitive agreement to merge. Under terms of the agreement, both companies will contribute 100 percent of their shares and assets to a new holding company. ANPI and Zone will each own 50 percent of the new entity, and will continue providing service under both current business names, while leveraging synergies and respective strengths to further advance the business objectives of customers.

Pending shareholder, federal and state regulatory approvals, the transaction will bring together two businesses which had combined annual sales of approximately $180 million in 2009, and is expected to produce levels of financial performance sufficient to underwrite ongoing network expansion, infrastructure investments, new product development and distribution. The merged organization will utilize an extensive network with OC-3 to OC-192 connectivity, and a recently completed state-of-the-art network operations center staffed 24/7, to serve 1,300 enterprise customers and nearly 800 wholesale customers in the independent local exchange carrier (ILEC), competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) and interexchange carrier (IXC) markets.

“Obviously we’re very excited about what this merger means for our companies,” says Dave Lewis, President and CEO of ANPI who will assume the role of CEO of the new company. “The telecommunications marketplace is undergoing fundamental change, and that change is ushering in both tremendous opportunities as well as numerous challenges. We firmly believe that the merger stages the new company to assume a leadership position in the markets we serve, allowing us to aggressively realize the opportunities present while effectively managing the challenges the unfolding environment will inevitably present.”

“The more I talked to Dave Lewis, the more I realized this merger was too compelling not to do,” said Dan Boynton, CEO and President of Zone Telecom who will continue as President of the new company. “The combination of personnel, entrepreneurial vision, engineering talent, network and infrastructure positions the new company to be a leader in both the wholesale and enterprise sectors.”

Benefits of the Transaction:

• Increased Capabilities: The merger creates a company with greater scale, scope and diversification, assembling a deeper set of capabilities from which to extend products and services into complementary markets and geographies.
• Synergies: The marriage of network, infrastructure and systems increases operational efficiencies and eliminates duplicative systems and functions, rendering a materially more efficient operation in-step with the unfolding demands of today’s telecom marketplace.
• Customer Benefits: The merger creates an organization with extensive network, deeper capabilities, and greater disciplinary depth. The new company will have the scale and capital base to provide a more diverse product suite and product integration capabilities.
• Strong Platform for Continued Growth: The new company expects to generate enough EBITDA and free cash flow to invest in new technologies and product development, expand sales and marketing efforts as well as pursue additional accretive acquisitions.

The new company will have a board comprised of six directors with three delegates from each shareholding body. Dave Lewis, President and CEO of ANPI, will become CEO of the new company. Dan Boynton, President and CEO of Zone Telecom will become President.

Both are expecting a seamless transition. “Customers will continue to deal with their current ANPI and Zone contacts,” says Lewis. “The new company will be a more powerful and capable vendor and business partner, and we’re dedicated to ensuring that customers receive an even greater level of attention and service than they’ve historically enjoyed.”

In addition to the corporate headquarters in Springfield, Ill., and network operations center in Dallas, the new company will have regional operations, sales and support offices in Los Angeles, Cherry Hill, N.J., and Mount Pleasant, Utah. The merger is subject to approval by ANPI and Zone Telecom shareholders, as well as federal and state regulatory approvals.

About ANPI

Associated Network Partners, Inc. is a leading provider of voice and ISP-related telecommunications services nationwide. In 1996, several independent telephone companies formed the organization to diversify their businesses and combine their resources to more efficiently negotiate long distance rates and provide more competitive long distance prices to their respective communities. Today ANPI is one of the largest and most successful companies of its kind, offering a wide range of communications products and services to independent LECs, cooperatives, CLECs and wireless carriers across the United States. For more information, visit: www.anpisolutions.com.

About Zone

Zone Telecom, Inc. is a leading provider of high quality voice, data and voice over IP products to enterprise businesses, ILECs and wholesale customers nationwide. The company employs a multi-carrier, network-neutral approach and skilled professionals who develop unique telecom solutions and provide superior customer service and support. For more information, visit: www.zonetelecom.com.

Media Contact:

Eamon Egan
Chief Financial Officer
Zone Telecom, Inc.
eegan@zonetelecom.com
(856)414-6904

Microsoft triggered Blue Screen of Death – SecurityCoverage steps up to help ISPs

Microsoft update blamed for blue screens;  SecurityCoverage steps up to help ISPs respond to their end-users. If you are an ISP or support ISPs then you know the chaos that started to hit your customers this week. ANPI ISP services partner, SecurityCoverage, continues to receive calls from customers being impacted by this Microsoft update issue and provided an update on what they see directly as well as what they continue to read and hear outside of SecurityCoverage.  The following is an update from SecurityCoverage regarding their efforts to assist ISPs (many are ANPI customers) through the issues affecting many end-users.

This Microsoft issue is not unique or specific to SecureIT, although it is having a direct impact on many SecureIT customers, and we recently learned that Microsoft has pulled patch MS10-015 (KB977165) from their update servers because of continued issues they are receiving.  Please see the following for further information.

Microsoft stops serving Windows patch blamed for blue screens

We have read that this patch is specifically related to updating the Microsoft kernel, which is used by numerous third-party programs including SecureIT.  This update to the kernel system appears to be a possible cause of the blue screens and boot loops and will manifest itself in the form of STOP messages.  For SecureIT, this STOP message may show “SCFltr.sys” as the file impacted.  For non-SecureIT systems running other impacted third-party software, we have read reports of the STOP message showing PCI.sys, ATAPI.sys or generic STOP 7e or STEP 7b codes.  We have also read that this update extends beyond just XP and is impacting Vista and Windows 7 customers.

An important note in this story is that SecureIT does not install Microsoft patches directly and only reports on whether the Microsoft patch functionality is turned on or off, and SecurityCoverage does not receive a pre-release of Microsoft patches for testing prior to them releasing to the general public. SecurityCoverage report they received a response from Microsoft’s IDC Kernel test team and is continuing to investigate with them why this issue occurred and, more importantly, what can be done to ensure it doesn’t impact SecureIT customers moving forward.

To their credit SecurityCoverage has tirelessly worked around the clock to address this issue and answer the high call volume coming in to the SecureIT call center.  Many of ANPI’s ISP customers have utilized their guidance and assistance since the start of these issues. The high call volume is currently not impacting any of our other services, including ISP help desk support calls.  In addition, to further assist customers, they brought in additional SecureIT resources who continue to call customers back to help resolve this blue screen and boot loop issue.  As SecurityCoverage is offering support for ISP partners who were impacted by this Microsoft update issue regardless of whether they are a SecureIT subscriber or not.

Our goal is to help everyone through this issue as quickly as possible as we understand the importance of computers in today’s digital life.

SecureIT Support Team

About SecurityCoveage:

SecurityCoverage provides fully managed, fully supported, corporate-style desktop computing security and technical support services to individual users through a partnership group of Internet Service Providers, Telecommunications and Cable companies, and Financial Institutions across the nation. Based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the privately owned company offers SecureIT, SecureIT Live, and SecureIT Plus as well as Online Backup for seamless data backup and recovery. These products and services give individual users the same level of “hands-free” support, “hands-free” protection, and convenience large corporations provide their employees. Product and company information is available at www.securitycoverage.com.

Increasing Value and Interaction with ISP Customers by Integrating Products

Today, ANPI and services partner SecurityCoverage announced a FREE Webinar highlighting the newest Community Portal enhancement that directly benefits Google’s Postini customers. While this seamless integration can certainly benefit ISP and service providers, it also provides great value for your end-users. These benefits include:

ISP Benefits:

-Branded environment that you control

- Increased opportunity to interact with your customers

- Increased traffic to a portal product that generates revenue

- A new marketing channel capable of promoting other telecom services and events

Benefits to End-Users:

- One place to manage all email services

- A seamlesss single sign-on is a convenient way to manage services, check email, catch on news, and pay their bill

- Access to a customizable “MyPage” section to manage other internet accounts, favorite sites, and gadgets

“As customers migrate a greater number of their daily activities to the web, it’s more important than ever for service providers to differentiate and simplify their services,” states Charlie Vogl, Partner Manager at SecurityCoverage. “The goal is to create and be the web destination, not just the pipe customers use to get there.”

By merging many in-demand services into one, sleek community facing site, ISP’s will gain the leverage and stickiness they desire, which will simultaneously reduce churn and drive revenue. What’s even more rewarding is ANPI and SecurityCoverage have done the work – and you get the credit!

Webinar space is limited, to reserve your seat, visit:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/804072194

ANPI’s 2010 Annual Meeting is Headed to Vegas

After reviewing several locations for ANPI’s 2010 Annual Meeting, we’ve made our final selection based on attendee feedback from last year’s event. The Venetian five-diamond resort in Las Vegas, Nevada will play host to our meeting on May 3 and 4, 2010.

Agenda highlights and speaker biographies will be posted to our website as they are made available.

Webinar: How Network Intelligence Improves Your ISP

ANPI invites you to a Webinar with IP Networks, Inc. and Procera Networks

Tools are available that let you…

• Prevent viruses and attacks on your network
• Personalize services for higher customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Tier packages based on demand/usage
• Manage your bandwidth
• Provide expected resources to all your users

Join us Thursday, December 3rd at 10:30 AM CST for this free informative Webinar aimed at helping you protect your network investments.

Ask the Expert: John Pearson of IP Networks, Inc.

John Pearson will share why ISP’s need network intelligence and how it can improve their service provider business during ANPI’s November Customer Webinar.

John is founder and CEO of IP Networks, Inc. headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. IP Networks works with service providers nationwide to optimize, secure and monitor their network infrastructures. One of his company’s missions is to make ISP’s more profitable by helping them reduce their operational expenses, protect their networks from malicious traffic and attacks, and give them full visibility into what their subscribers are doing with the Internet.

The November Customer Webinar is scheduled for 10:30 AM CDT on November 17. If you are an ANPI customer and would like to register for the Webinar, please call your dedicated account representative at 877-FON-ANPI for more information.

NewStreets Unveils New Offerings

A new set of ISP-related service offerings are now available from NewStreets, a division of ANPI. Based on our expanded partnership with SecurityCoverage, NewStreets will provide a complete array of value added services, including Internet security, parental controls, virtual advanced computer repair, technical help desk support, remote support and communication platform, online data backup and a robust community portal.

Computer Protection
NewStreets will continue to offer SecureIT Plus for customers looking to provide automatic virus protection, a secure firewall, spyware, pop-up blocker, online malware blocker, parental controls, content filtering and disk defragmentation. The service is further enhanced with 24×7 live support, reporting and supported fresh start remote installation.

Virtual Advanced Computer Repair
TotalTech is your dedicated provider of computer, networking and technology support that’s available wherever you are. Trained U.S. based technicians are on-call 24×7 to provide virtual PC repair.

Technical Help Desk Support
ISP subscribers can easily interact with technical support representatives who speak English first and industry jargon second. ISP Support is fully staffed 24x7x365, complete with the ability to provide web integrated chat support, branded call answering, a dedicated call queue, daily detailed reporting, and flexible ticket tracking system.

Remote Support and Communication Platform
Customers can use CleverAssist to connect technical support teams and users remotely in order to quickly troubleshoot and solve problems. The service features integrated chat and encryption for secure communication. Premium client features include an Internet connection repair tool plus malware scan and clean.

Online Data Backup
Online Backup provides easy, automatic and secure backup of data. End-users will never again worry about accidental deletion of files, hard drive failure, lost data from computer theft, or data loss from virus and spyware threats.

Community Portal
The new community portal offers a fully branded environment for live national news articles and videos, local news, sports, community events, community photos and videos, classifieds, stocks, financial information, detailed weather forecasts and radars, radio, single sign-on capability for email and e-billing, flexibility to add custom pages, personalized pages for registered users and more.

“Our customers rely on us to keep them competitive in today’s market. We are raising the bar for managed services by enabling companies to drive new revenue while increasing their customer satisfaction,” says Dave Lewis, ANPI’s president and CEO.

If you are interested in learning more or would like to schedule a demo, please call 866-FON-NWST or email marketing@anpisolutions.com.

About SecurityCoverage, Inc.
SecurityCoverage provides fully managed, fully supported, corporate-style products and technical support services to individual users through a partnership group of Internet Service Providers, telecommunications and cable companies, and financial institutions across the nation. Based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the privately owned company offers SecureIT, SecureIT Live, and SecureIT Plus, as well as Online Backup for seamless data backup and recovery. These products, combined with TotalTech virtual remote support and ISP Support Services, give individual users the same level of “hands-free” support, “hands-free” protection, and convenience large corporations provide their employees. Product and company information is available at www.securitycoverage.com.

About Associated Network Partners, Inc. (ANPI)
ANPI provides wholesale voice and data solutions to ILECs, CLECs and Wireless carriers. Voice services include switched and dedicated 1+ long distance, toll free 800 calling, calling cards, directory assistance and point-to-point/private line circuits. NewStreets, a division of ANPI, offers ISPs value added services including a robust community portal, computer protection, online data backup, spam and virus filter, technical support and Internet accelerator. For more information, visit www.anpisolutions.com.

Stop Thinking Like a Marketer

On November 3, 2009 ANPI sponsored a marketing session at OPASTCO’s Marketing and Technical Symposium in Minneapolis. For a session titled “Social Media: What is it? Why Do It? How it will Change Your Life…or at Least Your Marketing Plan”, we knew we had to break out the big guns to live up to the expectations of attendees. ANPI tapped HubSpot’s vice president of inbound marketing, Mike Volpe, to lead this powerful session. He didn’t disappoint as a room filled with marketers and managers spent the next 2 hours drinking from the proverbial fire hose.

Topics included the importance of having a content strategy that feeds into search engine optimization, blogging, social media and landing pages, but the overarching message — and one that Mike would continually repeat is “Stop Thinking Like a Marketer and Think Like a Publisher”. This advice was key in David Meerman Scott’s “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” and is concurred by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah’s “Inbound Marketing“.

The fundamental step of a content strategy is often skipped by marketers eager to show they are on the cutting edge of marketing and communication. So how does a marketer retrain their brain and start thinking like a publisher? Luckily there are plenty of resources for marketers to turn to when figuring out what works best for them. Books like “Inbound Marketing” are a great starting point for all managers and marketers. As the title of chapter one states, “Shopping has changed… has your marketing?”.

ANPI provided a copy of “Inbound Marketing” to all conference attendees. We have a limited supply of extra copies — if you are a customer of ANPI’s, we’d be happy to send a copy your direction (as long as supplies last).

Thanks to ViodiTV for the video clip.

SecurityCoverage Product Overview Webinar

The number of US households experiencing problems with Internet Security, PC Hardware/Software and Home Networking are 41.3M, 21.7M and 10.8M respectively. The opportunity for enhancing your customers’ experience through services that personally protect their systems and data, also serves to protect and enhance their perception of your ISP network’s value and quality.

ISP partners find that the SecureIT Services not only increase their revenue, but decrease their expenses by reducing the number of virus and spyware related technical support calls.

ANPI/NewStreets invites you to a Webinar with SecurityCoverage to learn more about the value-added services available to your ISP.

• Internet Security
• Parental Controls
• Virtual Advanced Computer Repair
• Remote Support and Communication Platform
• Online Backup
• Community Portal