What Is Virtual Internet Service Provider?
That is visp.net for short, and they invented the wholesale ISP business to build better ISP.
Visp.net started in 1989 when founder Todd Grannis and his business partners took a small bulletin board service (BBS) called Public Data Network nationwide using packet-switched X.25 networks and then later co-invented Chatlink! by linking the chat rooms of bulletin boards across the country together into one giant, full-featured chat network. By 1993, Chatlink! had become the world's largest BBS chat network.
When the Internet became publicly accessible in 1994, Todd and his partners bought one of Oregon's first Internet circuits and upgraded Chatlink! Seeing the vast potential of the Internet, they also launched an Internet service providing free public access to the local community. However, the inefficiencies of offering Internet services were abundant and the challenge was to drive down costs, leverage economies of scale and stay ahead of the technology curve with research and development. Another challenge was to enable stores to have the presence of a full-service, facilities-based ISP without the extensive investment in equipment, circuits, and administration staff.
In the spring of 1996, the breakthrough came; visp.net developed technology that allowed multiple ISP brands to share a bank of modems located in Portland, Oregon. This service was named 'VISP' for Virtual Internet Service Provider. Thus, the world's first wholesale ISP company was born. Registered in the domain name 'visp.net', it began providing wholesale Internet services using the first generation ISP in-a-box technology.
In 1998, visp.net developed Permissions Technology to manage subscriber access to nationwide networks allowing visp.net ISP's access to a wide number of national networks while isolating visp.net partner ISP's from the risk of multiple-network login charges. By 2000, visp.net had established
wireless ISP software.
By 2002 new internet service providers came into existence almost overnight to take advantage of the demand. When the Internet bubble burst later in 2002, however, many of these companies collapsed. Subscribers of ISP's who had outsourced to a single network provider lost Internet access, often without warning. Many ISP's went out of business within months because they had no answer to give their subscribers.
But that didn't happen to visp.net partner ISP's. When subscribers called, visp.net simply gave them new access numbers. Permissions Technology and investment in redundancy enabled visp.net to provide an instant solution to their problem.
In 2002, visp.net received the RCC SBDC Business of the Year award. In 2004 and 2005, visp.net was listed as one of Oregon's 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies and also earned the SOREDI Workforce Development Award.
When visp.net released the fourth generation of the ISP in-a-box technology, this powerful, easy-to-use account management and wireless billing software for use by partner ISP's was an immediate success. By also radically simplifying wireless ISP management software, partners were able to launch full-service, low-overhead businesses that delivered unmatched Internet access to their end users.
Today, visp.net offers a footprint of over 78,000 dial-up access numbers and broadband access for 27 states, partnering with hundreds of satisfied ISP's, and business continues to grow thanks to its ISP and wireless ISP software.
To learn more, click on http://www.visp.net/ to find out more about how your Internet service can change radically.
