Adelphia Business Solutions
Coudersport, Pa.
1-877-242-0454
www.adelphia-abs.com
Adelphia Business Solutions — formerly Hyperion Communications — is majority owned by Adelphia Cable. With the advent of local competition in 1996, Adelphia Business Solutions positioned itself to become a full-service provider and a facilities-based competitive local exchange carrier. The company serves Richmond, Charlottesville, Roanoke, Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads through regional offices. Beginning Jan. 1, it also will serve Winchester, Staunton, Harrisonburg, Bristol, Lynchburg, Danville and Martinsville. Services include local and long distance, Centrex-type services, calling card, Internet (dial-up and high speed), data interconnection, LAN/WAN connection, frame relay, ATM and ISDN.

Alltel
Little Rock, Ark.
1-800-ALLTEL3
www.alltel.com
Alltel, with corporate headquarters in Little Rock, provides communications services to about 8 million customers in 24 states and has information services clients in 54 countries and territories. The company provides wireline and wireless communications and information services. Virginia regions served include Hampton Roads, Richmond, central Virginia and the Tri-Cities area around Bristol. Southeastern Virginia services include wireless, long distance, paging, competitive local exchange and Internet. Services in the central Virginia and Tri-Cities areas include wireless, long distance and paging.

AT&T
Basking Ridge, N.J.
1-800-648-0768, ext. 5480
www.att.com
AT&T provides services to more than 10 million business customers from start-ups to the largest global companies and government agencies. Business services include long distance, local, wireless, Internet access, Web hosting, e-commerce, DSL, frame relay, 100 percent digital ISDN, VPN, network management, teleconferencing. The UniPlan OneRate Service is for business customers spending between $3,000 and $85,000 monthly on telecommunications services. Charges are included in one consolidated bill, with reports and graphs to help track expenses, control costs, allocate staff, evaluate marketing programs and manage other aspects of a business.

Bell Atlantic — Virginia
Richmond
954-6888 (in Virginia)
Bell Atlantic — Virginia provides local telecommunications services to roughly two-thirds of the state's population. Serving 3.6 million telephone access lines, the company is the largest local telephone company in the state. Ninety-eight percent of all the company's switching offices are digital, and the company boasts more than 610,000 miles of fiber optics in Virginia. Bell Atlantic offers a full array of services, including frame relay, wide-band services and ISDN.

Buggs Island Telephone
Bracey
(540) 636-2274
www.buggs.net
Incumbent local exchange carrier, approximately 3,830 access lines. Provides local telephone service and unlimited Internet access through Buggs.net.

Cavalier Telephone
Richmond
1-800-950-7858
www.cavtel.com
Cavalier is a facilities-based competitive local exchange carrier that began serving customers in the Richmond area in July. It serves businesses through direct fiber from its backbone to a customer's office, or through co-location with analog circuits from the incumbent local exchange carrier. Business services include local phone service, standard business lines, PBX trunks, digital ISDN, Internet access, DSL, long distance, data and video. Data products include point-to-point 56K lines, T1 service, frame relay service; DSL Internet connections; ISDN BRI and PRI. Cavalier also offers business customers an employee-benefits program, with special discounts for residential service.

CFW Communications
Waynesboro
(540) 946-3500
www.cfw.com
CFW Communcations started in 1897 as a local telephone company. CFW stood for "Clifton Forge-Waynesboro," the locations for the two exchanges that housed the switching equipment. CFW Communications, doing business as CFW Intelos, provides digital PCS, local Internet access, local telephone services, long distance, directory assistance, high-speed data transmission (DSL), cellular, paging, cable television and home and business security systems. The company serves primarily western Virginia. It also provides some services in Martinsville, Danville, Roanoke, Charlottesville and Lynchburg.

Citizens Telephone Cooperative
Floyd
(540) 745-2111
www.swva.net
This small, member-owned cooperative was founded in 1956. It is an incumbent local exchange carrier with approximately 6,600 access lines and serves Floyd County for telephone and nine surrounding counties for Internet through Citizens InterNet. The cooperative provides local, long distance and Internet and plans to roll out ISDN early next year.

Cox Communications
Atlanta, Ga.
(404) 843-5000
www.cox.com
Cox Communications is among the nation's leading broadband communications companies, serving 3.8 million customers. Services include cable television, local and long-distance telephone, high-speed Internet access, advanced digital video programming services, and commercial voice and data services via Cox Business Services. Cox is an investor in several telecommunications companies, including AT&T, Sprint PCS and At Home Network.

GTE
Irving, Texas
1-888-483-7965
www.gte.com
GTE offers local service in 28 states and wireless service in 17 states, as well as nationwide long distance, directory and internetworking services ranging from dial-up Internet access for residential and small-business consumers to Web-based applications for Fortune 500 companies. Business services include the GTE Business Value Plans, which offer 10 cents per minute on all domestic, state-to-state calls, around the clock. The GTE Platinum Value Plan offers the same flat rate in-state as state-to-state; rates depend on monthly usage and decrease annually for three years. For wireless services, the GTE HomeChoice rate plans starts at $20, with 30 minutes included, and increases to $125 per month with 1,500 minutes included. GTE Wireless EasternChoice rates start at $35 per month with 30 minutes included and increase to $140 per month with 1,500 minutes included. The company also offers Web hosting services and B2C Commerce for e-commerce support.

Highland Telephone
Monterey
(540) 468-2131
Incumbent local exchange carrier, approximately 1,300 access lines. Also offers Internet service.

Jones Cable
Alexandria
(703) 670-0189
www.comcast.com
Jones Cable is managed by Comcast Cable, whose regional offices are in White Marsh, Md. Regions served in Virginia include Reston, Prince William County and Alexandria. Jones Cable's services include cable television, telephone service and high-speed Internet service.

KMC Telecommunications
Bedminster, N.J.
1-888-562-8431
www.kmctelecom.com
KMC Telecom Holdings Inc. is a privately owned facilities-based competitive local exchange carrier. It operates local fiber-optic networks in 23 cities throughout the Midwest and South. it serves Roanoke and Virginia Beach in Virginia. Founded in 1995, the company offers local phone and data communication services, including voice, data, Internet and multimedia applications.

MCI WorldCom
Clinton, Miss.
1-800-374-6400
www.wcom.com
MCI WorldCom is a global leader in communications services with 1998 revenues of more than $30 billion. MCI WorldCom's government markets division is headquartered in McLean. UUNet, MCI WorldCom's Internet division, is headquartered in Fairfax. Services include facilities-based and fully integrated local, long distance, international, Internet, Web hosting, toll-free, call center, conferencing, wireless voice and data services. The company offers business customers discounted integrated communications services. Local customers in Northern Virginia have a choice of three local calling plans: per call, per minute or flat rate. On-Net Internet Access Services include T1, T3, frame relay, digital gateway to IP, Web hosting, ATM, ISDN and more.

Metrocall
Alexandria
1-800-611-8488
www.metrocall.com
Metrocall is the nation's third largest paging and wireless messaging company. It provides wireless products locally, regionally and nationally to more than 5.8 million subscribers in all 50 states. Metrocall services are available throughout Virginia. Business services include pager I.D., e-mail notification, numeric retrieval, voice messaging with notification, custom greeting, 800 number service, voice mail. Metrocall One Touch Service links the communications functions of a home phone, office phone, cellular phone, fax machine and pager together with a single, personal toll-free telephone number.

MGW Telephone
Williamsville
(540) 925-2255
Incumbent local exchange carrier, approximately 1,500 access lines.

Net2000 Communications
Herndon
1-800-220-6382
www.net2000.com
Founded in 1993, Net2000 is a full-service integrated communications provider. The company offers local and long-distance voice and data services to business customers via a national network. The company has offices in Tysons Corner, Richmond and Virginia Beach. Business services include consolidated billing and discounts and Net2000Synergy frame relay. Net2000Synergy Integrated Access combines voice and up to two data services on the same access circuit, eliminating the need to purchase separate access services for data applications. Another service allows online account control, letting customers view telecom usage and call detail reports, analyze location-specific information, monitor order status, and order additional services or pay invoices.

Network Access Solutions
Sterling
(703) 742-7700
www.nas-corp.com
Founded in 1994, Network Access Solutions is a DSL provider based in Sterling. In Virginia, it serves Richmond, Norfolk and Northern Virginia. The company's DSL service is branded CuNet. The company has a direct sales force but also sells services through a number of Internet service providers headquartered in the commonwealth. Business customers that sign up for CuNet also have access to Network Access Solutions' fiber-optic WAN stretching between Richmond and Boston, allowing data transmission through a high-speed, direct, secure pipeline.

New Hope Telephone
New Hope
(540) 363-5277
Founded in 1903, this is a subscriber-owned telephone company with approximately 950 lines, providing incumbent local exchange carrier service to Augusta County.

Nextel Communications
Reston
(703) 433-4000
www.nextel.com
Nextel Communications Inc. provides fully integrated, all-digital wireless service. The Nextel National Network provides customers with voice mail, text/numeric paging capabilities and Nextel Direct Connect, which allows the user to speak with one or more people at the touch of a button. Virginia coverage areas include the Richmond metropolitan area, Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Williamsburg and Northern Virginia. Business services include The Nextel National Business Plan, one flat rate for all wireless calls on the network. With Nextel Integrated calling plans, customers receive digital cellular airtime, unlimited Nextel Direct Connect private call, and unlimited numeric paging for one monthly rate. For integrated plans and cellular-only plans, long-distance charges are 15 cents per minute.

North River Telephone
Mt. Crawford
(540) 350-2700
This incumbent local exchange carrier has approximately 950 access lines.

Pembroke Telephone
Pembroke
(540) 626-7111
This incumbent local exchange carrier has approximately 2,700 access lines.

People's Mutual Telephone
Gretna
(804) 656-2291
Incumbent local exchange carrier.

Picus Communications
Virginia Beach
1-888-852-1617
www.picus.com
Picus is a worldwide long-distance carrier, nationwide Internet provider and East Coast telephone company. The company also provides residential local phone, long distance and Internet service. ADSL will soon be available in Hampton Roads. One of its most popular products was designed for residential customers: Clear-Vision offers three telecommunications services — unlimited local phone service, 500 minutes of long distance to all 50 states and one unlimited Internet account — for $60 per month.

Primus Telecommunications
McLean
1-800-873-9001
www.primustel.com
Founded in 1994, McLean-based Primus Telecommunications Group is a global, facilities-based company providing domestic and international long-distance voice, data, Internet, private network and value-added services. The company provides services through a global network of owned and leased transmission facilities. The company serves more than 1.7 million corporate, small and midsize business, residential and telecommunications carrier customers in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

R&B Communications
Daleville
(540) 992-2211
www.rbnet.com
R&B is the holding company for a collection of telecom businesses serving the Roanoke Valley. Those businesses include R&B Telephone, founded in 1900. R&B offers telephone, wireless cable TV, paging, Internet, wireless SuperNet, long distance, Intelos PCS Digital Phones, and R&B Network services. The company provides phone service to more than 10,000 residences and businesses in Botetourt County. R&B Network is a fiber-optic network from Troutville to downtown Roanoke. Network services are available to high-volume business users. The company also partners with four other independent phone companies to offer ValleyNet — a 525-mile, fiber-optic long-distance network stretching along Interstate 81 from Johnson City, Tenn., to Carlisle, Pa. The Beeper Co. provides paging and voice-mail services in the Roanoke Valley, Lexington, Lynchburg, the New River Valley and Smith Mountain Lake. R&B Internet and SuperNet offers dial-up and dedicated Internet access in the Roanoke Valley. R&B also provides local telephone access services to businesses in the Roanoke Valley, now competing against Bell Atlantic, KMC, and Adelphia in this market.

Scott County Telephone
Gate City
(540) 452-9119
Incumbent local exchange carrier, approximately 5,960 access lines.

Shenandoah Telephone
Edinburg
(540) 984-4141
www.shentel.com
Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. is a holding company that provides telephone service through its subsidiary, Shenandoah Telephone Co., which began as the Farmer's Mutual Telephone System in 1902. The company serves primarily Shenandoah County, with small service areas in Rockingham, Frederick and Warren counties. The company provides cable television service through a subsidiary. It also provides unregulated communications equipment through ShenTel Service Co., which sells and maintains PBX, key systems, security systems and Internet access. Shenandoah Mobile Co. offers paging, mobile telephone and cellular telephone services in the northern Shenandoah Valley. The company is a reseller of long-distance services. Shenandoah Network Co. operates and maintains an interstate fiber-optic network.

Sprint
Westwood, Kansas
(972) 405-5000
www.sprint.com
Sprint Worldwide Communications is headquartered in Kansas, with its government systems division based in Herndon. It is an integrated communications company that provides voice, video and data products and services. Sprint serves some 425,000 business and residential customers across the Old Dominion. Business service is available statewide; local service is available in Central Virginia. In October the company announced it would merge with MCI WorldCom, pending shareholder and regulatory approval. Services include Internet and intranet, secure high-speed data transmission, videoconferencing, PCS digital wireless phone service, network management, calling cards, fax and messaging services.

TDS Telecom — Amelia
Amelia
(804) 561-2111
www.tds.net
Incumbent local exchange carrier, approximately 5,500 access lines. Also offers Internet service.

TDS Telecom — Hot Springs
Hot Springs
(540) 839-2110
www.tds.com
Incumbent local exchange carrier, approximately 2,300 access lines. Also offers Internet service.

TDS Telecom — New Castle
New Castle
(540) 864-5131
www.tds.com
Incumbent local exchange carrier, approximately 2,400 access lines.

Teligent
Vienna
1-88-TELIGENT
www.teligent.com
Teligent provides local, long distance, data, voice, full-motion videoconferencing and Internet services to small and midsize businesses customers. The company uses fixed wireless for applications that would be too slow over copper wire, such as multiple Internet connections, videoconferencing and transmitting large files over the Internet. Business services include SmartWave technology, which speeds data along at 1,544,000 bits per second — nearly 30 times faster than copper wire.

Compiled by Kathleen F. Phalen 

This digest was compiled from Virginia Business lists, state reports, Internet sites and interviews with providers. It is not comprehensive. To be included in future reports, please send e-mail with contact information to llarance@bellatlantic.net.