Master agency Telarus (Booth #1612) announced at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo the launch of CarrierQuoteShop.com, a no-charge multicarrier quoting portal for telecom agents.

CarrierQuoteShop.com is launching with six carrier partners, including MegaPath, XO Communcations, Telnes Broadband, TelePacific Communications, One Communications and AireSpring. Telarus expected that number to double in the coming months.

“Until now an agent who sells for various carriers had to either hunt down information in a myriad of different back-office Web sites or pay a license fee for a consolidated real-time quote,” said Adam Edwards, president of Telarus. “Now carriers will be able to connect with their entire channel, at no cost to the end-users. It’s a very exciting paradigm shift that we believe will make the channel more efficient and valuable for everyone on both sides of the equation.”

Based on GeoQuote, the patented real-time quoting software developed Telarus, the new portal gives agents access all low-end broadband and voice pricing for products that include data T1, bonded T1, data DS3, integrated voice and data, PRI, local voice, and Metro Ethernet products (under 10mbps).

The free portal operates like many traditional social media Web sites: An independent agent signs up for a free account at www.CarrierQuoteShop.com.  The agent then applies for permission to run quotes with each carrier in their portfolio. The request is sent to the carrier, who has the ability to “accept” or “reject” each request. After approval is granted, that carrier’s quote feed is instantly added to the agent’s CarrierQuoteShop price quote tool.

“We are very excited to have a platform that will expose our offerings to a much wider audience, in addition to giving us full control of who can see what,” said Tom Gorey, national director of indirect channels for XO Communications. “Telarus has done a terrific job presenting our pricing to its own agents for years through GeoQuote and I’m confident they’ll be able to support the quote requests of the entire channel in a professional, ethical manner.”

“This new service better serves our agents and most importantly, their customers,” said Dan Foster, chief sales and marketing officer at MegaPath. “CarrierQuoteShop.com enables agents to access pricing for our services when they need it, which will improve their responsiveness while also allowing MegaPath to streamline our support costs without sacrificing quality.”