Verio sells LI ISP accounts to I-2000

PLAINVIEW - Competition among Long Island Internet service providers ratcheted up a notch with the recent purchase of 200 business broadband accounts by 1-2000 Inc.

In the latest industry consolidation, Verio Inc. is exiting Long Island and selling its business accounts to 9-year-old I-2000

Chris Hall, I-2000's vice president for mergers and acquisitions, said the acquisitions fit well with his company's infrastructure, which includes points of presence for connecting to its network in Garden City, Plainview, Selden, Riverhead, Southampton and East Hampton.

Closely held I-2000, now based in Manhattan, was founded in Plainview and over the past 2 1/2 years has acquired the assets of two other major Long Island ISPs, ASB Inc. of Hauppauge and Peconic Online Inc. of Southampton.

"There's been consolidation of the Long Island market," said Hall. "There are relatively few players left."

The Verio deal involves about 200 T1 or T3 lines for clients that include hospitals, municipalities, stockbrokers and the media, said Hall.

Among I-2000's rivals as a Long Island business ISP are Verizon, Cablevision System's Lightpath unit and Invision.com, which hosts the Web site of the Long Island Business News.

I-2000 has maintained a strong commercial presence on the East End, sponsoring the Hamptons International Film Festival and the Hampton Classic Horse Show.

In 2000, Verio was acquired by Japan's NTT Communications, a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.