Firm markets digital phone service

Venture Telecom LLC has begun marketing its digital telephone service to business customers.

The company headquartered in Sparks was launched late last year by Peter Flowers and Al Lachner, veterans of the telecommunications and cable industry in northern Nevada.

Flowers, who leads the company's marketing effort, said Venture Telecom expects to position itself as a lower-cost telecommunications alternative for small and mid-sized businesses.

Basic packages are priced at $24.99 monthly per line. The company's digital service requires that customers have high-speed or broadband Internet service.

Another initial target market, Flowers said, will be companies with distributed operations that want to present a unified telephone presence.

"You can be in Beijing and have a 775 number," says Lachner.

Lachner, who oversees Venture Telecom's technology, said the heart of its system is a voice-over-Internet technology utilizing a MetaSwitch Digital Voice platform.

The company employs three sales people and an office administrator. That number is expected to grow, Flowers said, as Venture Telecom extends its service to markets outside of northern Nevada.