Cox Communications has entered into a definitive agreement to buy EasyTEL, which is a Tulsa, Okla.-based competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC.)
The deal will give Cox Business better access to a metropolitan fiber network in order to provide voice, video and data services to area businesses. Financial terms of the agreement weren’t released, and the deal still needs to pass the customary regulatory hurdles and closing conditions.
Once the deal is wrapped up, Cox Business will emerge with a network in the Tulsa market that covers approximately 95,000 fiber route miles, connects over 21,000 on-net buildings and serves commercial customers across all industries and sizes.
“Cox Business and EasyTEL share the same philosophy on customer experience and technology innovation,” said Percy Kirk, general manager of Cox Communications Central Region. “We are thrilled to combine our robust fiber networks and strong commitment to service excellence to help Tulsa businesses grow and succeed with speed, reliability and the most advanced set of business services in Oklahoma.”
EasyTEL got its start in the early 1990s as an internal research project for a large corporation. The company started out by offering a voicemail service and then added other voice services, such as call transfer service, to its portfolio.
EasyTEL started offering data services to its customers in the late 1990s, and began constructing its fiber optic network around the same time frame. EasyTEL became a CLEC 13 years ago while continuing to build out its fiber network in the Tulsa area.
