Industry Telecommunications Defunct July 2014 | Founder James F. Geiger | |
Fate Acquired by Birch Communications Headquarters 320 Interstate North Parkway
Atlanta, Georgia, US Area served 14 Markets in the continental United States | ||
Cbeyond, Inc. (formerly Cbeyond Communications) was a telecommunications and information technology company based in Atlanta, Georgia, until it was purchased by and became part of Birch Comm in July 2014. Founded in 1999 by Jim Geiger, Cbeyond, which developed the world's first 100% Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network, provided voice, data, mobile, and cloud services to over 60,000 small and medium-sized businesses in 14 markets across the domestic United States.
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History and Development
Cbeyond was founded in November 1999 as a provider of managed technology services to small and medium-sized businesses, and began serving the Atlanta area in 2001. In October of that year, Cbeyond opened a Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas branch, serving small and medium-sized businesses in the Metroplex. In 2002, the Denver, Colorado branch was opened, serving businesses in Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, and other locations in the Front Range Urban Corridor. In March 2004, Cbeyond's fourth market branch was opened in Houston, Texas.
On November 2, 2005, Cbeyond went public, opening at $12 a share. Also in 2005, Cbeyond added SIPconnect service (see below: Technology) to its service offerings, and opened its service branch in Chicago, Illinois. In the following year, 2006, Cbeyond launched its Mobile Services division, integrating BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) service to its small and medium-size business-oriented offerings, and opened its Los Angeles, California service branch.
In 2007. Cbeyond launched new branches in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego markets in California, and in the Detroit, Michigan market. Miami, Florida and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota branches were launched in 2008, and Cbeyond expanded into Washington, DC and Seattle, Washington (with service in Olympia and Tacoma in 2009.
In June 2010, Cbeyond launched its fourteenth branch, serving the greater Boston, Massachusetts area. In October 2010, Cbeyond opened a second customer care and technical support call center in Denver, CO.
In November 2010, Cbeyond expanded its service offerings to include cloud services, purchasing cloud services providers MaximumASP, based in Louisville, Kentucky, and Aretta, based in Roswell, Georgia, for a combined $40 million. The acquisitions were combined in a new division within the company, called Cbeyond Cloud Services.
On April 21, 2014 Birch Comm entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Cbeyond for US$323 Million.
In November 2014, Cbeyond protected its users' privacy by challenging Rightscorp, when Cbeyond was asked to hand over the identities of users behind more than a thousand IP addresses.
Technology
Cbeyond created the world's first 100% Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network, and was the first VoIP service provider to utilize SIPconnect technology and among the first to offer Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking in the marketplace. Cbeyond was also responsible for the creation of the SIPConnect Interface Specification program, creating the first industry standards for interconnection between IP PBXs and VoIP service provider networks. In 2006, a SIP Forum team led by Cbeyond Chief Technology Officer Christopher Gatch created the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation establishing the industry standard for SIP trunking between IP PBX and service provider networks.
Services
Cbeyond offers a range of managed services for small and medium-sized businesses, including:
Awards
Cbeyond has received several industry awards and honors to date, including:
2001 ComputerWorld Honors Laureate
2004 2004 Stratecast Partners' Best in Class IP Integrated Access Service Provider Award
Named to Pulver.com's 100 Companies to Watch
2005 Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Differentiation Innovation
2006 Storage Networking World "Best Practices in Storage" Award in the Securing the Storage Fortress Category
Medical Association of Atlanta Cooper Award for Outstanding Customer Service
Top 25 performer in Fortune Magazine’s 2006 stock scorecard
American Electronic Association (AeA) Southeast Spirit of Endeavor Award for Technology Entrepreneur
2007 Founder, Chairman, President, and CEO Jim Geiger named Ernst & Young Southeast Entrepreneur of the Year
2008 Ranked 6th on Forbes' list of Fastest-Growing Tech Companies in America
2010 Awarded Internet Telephony Magazine Product of the Year Award for Virtual Receptionist
2012 Forbes America's 100 Most Trustworthy Companies
Sales Operations
Cbeyond sells its services through a mix of independent sales channels: midmarket (direct) and indirect. In May 2011, Cbeyond hired Zane Long to head up the indirect sales channel. Since Mr. Long's addition to the Cbeyond team, several well-known distributors have signed contracts to sell Cbeyond services. Some of them include Innovative Business Solutions, Telecom Brokerage Inc., Communications Management Group, and Telarus.