Rocky Mountain Internet has signed two agreements which it is hoping will help make the regional internet service provider a national player. The Denver-based ISP has struck a deal with PSINet Inc to offer dial-up services to customers in PSINet’s 235 points-of-presence in the US and in 400 worldwide. RMI has also signed an agreement with Seattle-based telecom provider PacNET Inc that it says will allow it to offer wide area network services to businesses anywhere in the US. RMI says the two new arrangements give it the clout to directly compete with national providers such as Earthlink Network Inc and Mindspring Enterprises Inc. The deal with PSINet allows for RMI to offer dial-up services in any of the 235 cities without having to build its own infrastructure. RMI will sell the service for $19.95 a month for unlimited access. It has yet to commit to any specific markets beyond the ones it already serves, but chief executive Doug Hanson says the company’s currently investigating which ones can offer it the most competitive advantages. Hanson says we can expect RMI to begin surfacing in national markets beginning around April 1. The announcements come as part of RMI’s strategy of expanding its reach beyond that of a local ISP, which included the recent launch of a national IP telephony service. No more announcements are forthcoming though, as the company says it’s where it wants to be – and can now offer a complete package of network services to any business, anywhere in the country. Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
