Sunday, June 21, 2009

Telecom: Covista and NationLink are bullish

In Chattanooga, Covista Communications founder and long-time telecom entrepreneur Henry Luken (at left) intends to ride the Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) wave to increase Covista revenue from its current $35MM. The Times Free Press reports. Covista pricing undercuts Vonage. The company has both a phone switch and a call center in Th' Noog. U.S. Sen. Bob Corker sold many of his own business holdings to Luken, in 2006, according to Chattanoogan.com. Luken, a Kentucky native, has been in many ventures, from yacht-building to real estate, and moved Covista to Chattanooga after acquiring it, partly using funds he realized from the sale of Telco Communications, which he cofounded and which prior to its sale was reportedly generating more than $400MM per year in revenue. In Nashville, Andy Bailey of NationLink says he believes his company's revenue will go from $1.8MM to $3MM by the end of '09. The NBJ reports (sub.).

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