TNCI-Impact Telecom Merger Enables Diversified UC Portfolio

By Clayton Hamshar
Contributing Writer

The fast-growing unified communications (UC) trend has led to unification of some companies and/or their product lines, due to the universal benefits of integration and interoperability. The latest merger in the communications sector is between TNCI (News - Alert) Operating Company, a provider of voice, data and cloud services, and Impact Telecom, a provider of voice and messaging services.

“Together, TNCI and Impact Telecom will improve our competitiveness through increased operational efficiency, more robust service offerings, and our strong customer commitment,” said Laura Thomas, former CEO of TNCI. “The new Impact Telecom will invest in platforms which provide our business customers more ways to connect and collaborate with their own customers and partners.”

The new organization will continue to operate under the Impact Telecom brand name and will offer a more diverse and comprehensive range of cloud and voice telecommunications solutions for businesses and consumers throughout North America. The company will also do business with wholesale carrier customers on a global scale.

A wide range of organizations are searching for optimized UC solutions, but are often overloaded with the immense variety of disparate offerings on the market that may have only slight differences in functionality or features, as well as unequal reliability and security. Although competition is beneficial to customers because it facilitates development of innovative solutions that meet their needs as effectively as possible, a certain level of integration between companies offering similar products is necessary to ensure a holistic result. Furthermore, conjoined companies can much more quickly improve their solutions through access to each other’s resources.

“There are compelling advantages to joining forces, such as combining Impact’s nationwide Feature Group D network with TNCI’s access network, creating an infrastructure to support and grow our unified communications platform, including cloud-based voice, SMS, toll free, local and long distance services,” commented Bob Beaty, President and CEO of Impact Telecom. “Both organizations have deep experience in seamlessly integrating businesses along with track records of growth through strategic initiatives. I’m excited about the strength of the new organization.”

Beaty will continue to serve as CEO for the newly combined organization, with Thomas moving to the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors. Pending approval from the FCC (News - Alert) and certain state regulatory bodies, the merger is expected to be completed by early 2016 and the new Impact Telecom will immediately begin doing business with its extended product line and international customer base.