Boston -- After more than two years of slogging through the complex state regulatory process, CommPartners this fall will unveil its new national network, with certified CLEC status in all 50 states and a national backbone built on agreements with Level 3 Communications and Global Crossing that raches 92% of the U.S. market.

The company is now prepared to leverage that network asset to deliver VoIP services to the small to mid-sized enterprise market, in part through the acquisition of TxLink, a wholesale provider of VoIP to SMEs, resellers, ISPs, PBX integrators and carriers.

“WE have 67 customers representing 76 different brands that we consider our internal customers,” said David S. Clark, president, CEO and cofounder of CommPartners. “Most are wireless ISPs, ISPs and others who have a broadband base, and most of them also are focused on the residential and SOHO markets.”

CommPartners is reaching out to the SME market through a channel it is building with Anexeon that uses IT integrators to reach the businesses themselves.

“Five years ago, everyone knew the telecom guy,” Clark said. “Today, everyone knows the IT guy. We are building a series of relationships with IT integrators who serve the SME market.”

By building on the existing base of IT expertise, CommPartners is taking into account that having a national VoIP network is only half the battle when it comes to integrating voice service onto the data operation of any sized enterprise.

“The demark [demarcation point] is no longer at the door or on the wall outside, it’s inside the door or even on the desktop,” Clark said. “You can’t simply show up and have VoIP, you have to be able to interoperate with the routers and the firewall, and with all the end points of the network.”

CommPartners believes that doing that cost effectively in the SME world means working with the companies that are providing IT services to these customers already.

“We have already established a typical profile for these companies in the areas where we have been working as a CLEC,” Clark said. “They do about $3 million to $10 million a year in business, with about eight to 12 employees and 50 clients.”

CommPartners allows the IT integrators to private label their services if they choose.

“We’re wholesale,” Clark added. “But we are not simply a network operator. We also provide the applications, and we are all that with a CLEC underneath. We have the back office and we can partition portions of that off, so they can come in and operate the part of the network that affects their customers.”