By Khali Henderson

Master agency Intelisys Communications Inc., Petaluma, Calif., announced Thursday that it will acquire certain carrier contracts from partnerTEL Inc., a master agency, reseller and managed services company based in Atlanta. The value of the transaction was not disclosed but included a combination of cash and continuing residuals.

Intelisys will acquire partnerTEL’s agreements with about 30 service providers, such as Qwest Communications International Inc., AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Level 3 Communications Inc., with which it also has agreements as well as a few that are not in common.

Intelisys will absorb partnerTEL’s base under its own contracts, increasing its overall volume, said Steve Gareleck, executive vice chairman and co-founder of partnerTEL, explaining that partnerTEL will then become a subagent of Intelisys.

partnerTEL’s more than 350 subagents will remain under partnerTEL and will continue to be paid by partnerTEL. In addition, partnerTEL agents will have immediate access to Intelisys’ supplier partners they don’t currently sell.

“We’re excited to be bringing on new Intelisys supplier partners through this agreement with partnerTEL and look forward to building on the successes of the partnerTEL agent community,” said Rick Dellar, co-founder of Intelisys. “As Intelisys executes on its long-term strategic plan, we are energized by the partnerTEL purchase and anticipate completing additional purchases in 2010 and beyond.”

Gareleck said the agreement enables partnerTEL to shed the burden of managing carrier agreements and increasing volume commitments. In addition, it will enable it to focus on its reseller and managed services businesses. Presently, partnerTEL has wholesale agreements with carriers that it resells. In addition, it operates a back office out of Costa Rica that provides business process outsourcing, such as TEM, MACD and change management services.

Gareleck said partnerTEL will not lay off any workers as part of the deal. In fact, it is hiring employees to beef up its operations center in Costa Rica and its direct sales staff for the resale business. It will also keeps its agent channel managers.