Mexico's IUSAcom in VoIP pact with Vistula

JAN. 12 6:56 P.M. ET Mexican communications company IUSAcom and New York-based Vistula Communications Service Inc. said Thursday they signed a deal to provide Voice Over Internet Protocol communications services.

Under the agreement, Vistula said in a statement, the U.S. company will provide technology to IUSAcom, which will offer VoIP services ranging from Internet-based phone calls to video conferencing.

"The new VoIP service will be marketed directly to customers in Mexico, as well as to Mexicans living in the U.S. when launched in the spring of 2006," Vistula said.

IUSAcom's chief operating officer Enrique Lopez-Negrete was cited as saying the company expects the agreement to help expand its customer base in Mexico and among Hispanics in the U.S. through demand for the VoIP services.

IUSAcom is part of Grupo Iusa, an industrial group owned by Mexico's Peralta family.

Mexico's main fixed-line carrier, Telefonos de Mexico SA, or Telmex, uses VoIP technology but doesn't market it as an individual product. Smaller rivals, such as Avantel, offer VoIP packages along with broadband Internet. IUSAcom, which markets the service as Vox IP, requires its customers to have their own broadband connection.