Excel Communications

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Excel Communications was founded in 1988 by Dallas entrepreneur Kenny Troutt as a long distance reseller in the US telecom sector at the birth of telecom deregulation.

In the beginning, as the 432nd-largest long distance company in the United States, it began selling franchises through the business model of network marketing or multi-level marketing (MLM). In seven years, it became the fourth-largest long distance carrier in America and the youngest billion-dollar-annual company in history (8 years as compared to the second fastest growing, Microsoft, which took 15 years).

On May 10, 1996, Excel became the youngest company ever to join the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) trading under the symbol (ECI). The ceremonial honor of ringing the opening bell was afforded to, Kenny Troutt, as the company he founded began its first day of public trading, with an offering of 11.5 million shares of common stock. Excel acquired Telco Communications Group, in June 1997, which was one of the nation's 10 largest long-distance phone companies with its own nationwide fiber-optic network. Before the purchase, Excel had to resell long distance service through other companies networks, such as Frontier. In November 1998, Excel merged with Teleglobe.

Kenny Troutt retired as CEO, to be replaced by Christina Gold, on September 20th, 1999.

By 2002, Excel had entered the local phone service market more aggressively than smaller competitors such as MCI's Neighborhood. However, the gross margins associated with long-distance telephone service dropped precipitously during the period from 1998 through 2003 due to the entry of numerous competitors and additional line capacity into this sector. As such, the profitability of Excel and almost every other telecommunications firm dependent upon long-distance calling customer dropped precipitously.

At some point Excel/Teleglobe was taken over by Teleglobe's major share holder, Bell Canada. Bell Canada then demoted Excel separately to a subsidiary and eventually spun it off to a private company, VarTec Communications, which required FTC approval to return to the private sector. After approval, VarTec continued the network marketing business model for sometime thereafter.

On November 1, 2004, VarTec Communications (the parent corporation of Excel) unexpectedly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the North Texas judicial sector. In this connection, Excel had sought to be released from its contracts with its independent representatives. This move made it likely that Excel, if it survived, would cease to be a multi-level marketing company.

In September 2005 the FCC approved the transfer of licenses to Comtel Assets, LLP and on June 12, 2006 the company emerged from bankruptcy under its new ownership, announcing a return to its former name (although with a slight change), Excel Telecom.