Inteliquent Inc.
Headquarters Location: Plymouth, Minn.
www.inteliquent.com
Q: Please tell us about your company history. When was it founded? How has the company evolved since its founding? Have your services changed? Are there key milestones in your company’s history and growth that you can highlight?
We are proud to have helped shape the world of telecommunication and of our heritage in voice innovation. One part of our story begins nearly 40 years ago with a local Minnesota telco consortium, which eventually merged with Minnesota Regional Networks (MRNet) in 1997 to form Onvoy Inc. Onvoy quickly grew as a leader in communications enablement solutions including inbound voice, long distance, tandem, SS7 and voice peering delivered over a carrier-grade network.
A few years later Neutral Tandem incorporated in Delaware on April 19, 2001. The company believed in interconnectedness and sought to elevate the landscape of voice technology by providing more capacity and a clearer signal. Neutral Tandem changed its name to Inteliquent in 2011, with the sole focus of innovating inbound and outbound voice services.
In 2007, Onvoy was acquired by Zayo Group and then spun out of Zayo in 2014 after acquiring Vitelity, LLC. Onvoy, LLC continued major growth acceleration acquiring Broadvox and Layered Communications in 2015, followed by ANPI in 2016, all with the goal of expanding the network-based communication enablement platform.
GTCR, the PE firm which owns Onvoy, LLC, acquired Inteliquent in early 2017 and merged the two companies under the Inteliquent brand. The “new” Inteliquent is equipped to provide customers with a superior network experience through industry-leading voice quality, a reliable and expansive network footprint, and advanced features – all supported by a team of market experts. More than 70 percent of Inteliquent’s traffic is managed on-net, and the network carries more than 25 billion voice minutes and text messages per month. Additionally, Inteliquent’s portals and APIs allow customers to manage services whenever and wherever they are needed with intuitive interfaces and rich features.
Q: Please tell us about company’s top executives and the work that they are doing in our industry.
Fritz Hendricks is the CEO of Inteliquent. Prior to this position, he led Onvoy as CEO since 2007 and was previously COO of the company. Before joining Onvoy, Hendricks had a long career at US WEST (now CenturyLink), where he held various leadership positions, including center and field operations, next-generation business and technology planning, engineering and systems automation, culminating in a role as vice president of Operations for Qwest Global Services.
Hendricks earned a B.S. from the University of Bellevue and is a graduate of the Carnegie Mellon Information Networking Institute for Advanced Telecommunication Innovation. Fritz most recently won an industry award supporting call completion for rural calls.
Dr. Surendra Saboo has more than 28 years of telecommunications executive management experience. Surendra has come full circle and now leads Inteliquent as president. Prior to this role, Surendra served as the executive vice president and COO of Onvoy, starting in 2015, shortly after leading the Telecom Services Division of Transaction Network Services (TNS) as CEO. Preceding TNS, Surendra was the president and COO of Inteliquent, where he was responsible for Sales, Product Management, Network Engineering and Operations, Service Delivery, Customer Care and Information Technology. Surendra started his career with AT&T in 1986 as a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, NJ and then spent the next 14 years in a variety of operating areas, including research and development, engineering, product management, strategy, systems development and operations. He was instrumental in launching AT&T into local services after the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Surendra earned a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology, India, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Ohio State University. He has also completed the Advanced Management Program from University of Hawaii.
Q: Explain your geographic reach. Where do you provide services?
Inteliquent is a premier network-based communications enabler focused on delivering high quality, reliable and robust voice and messaging services. The foundation of our services is our network, which is trusted by the nation’s largest wireline, wireless, cable, long distance and cloud communication service providers. Every month the Inteliquent network carries over 25 billion voice minutes and text messages, serving over 190 markets and reaching over 8,700 on-net rate centers across the U.S. We are committed to enabling customers with the capabilities they need to deliver communications solutions across various applications in a continuously changing environment.
Q: What types of services do you offer your customers?
Inbound and outbound voice services, toll-free, access, messaging and most recently we added 911 to our portfolio.
Q: What are your competitive opportunities and threats?
Pricing and peering.
Q: Have you recently acquired new customers? Entered new markets? Added new services/products?
We announced 911 emergency services in March 2018.
Q: Describe your relationship with INCOMPAS. How long have you been a member. Why did you decide to join the association? What are you looking to gain from your INCOMPAS membership (policy advocacy, new business, networking, education, etc)?
We’ve been members over the last six years. INCOMPAS is known for policy advocacy and it’s that pilar of the organization that we are most interested in.