‘Nothing New?’

Many partners, when asked about the deal, said they don’t find it surprising. They said direct contracts are common with vendors and agents that have built a strong relationship.

“Upstack signed a direct agreement with Lumen. There’s nothing next-gen or digital ‘transformation-y’ about it. At least not to me. Much ado about nothing,” C3 Technology Advisors lead consultant Matthew Toth told Channel Futures.

Jay Morris, chief aggregation officer at MOReCOMM Solutions, agreed.

“The vast majority of carriers and suppliers have doubled down on TSBs, so to me this deal means nothing,” Morris said. “When any agency scales, often a direct agreement is warranted or beneficial. Always has been, always will be. Some TSBs even have to use other TSBs to fill agreement gaps. TSBs go direct the moment they have the volume to do so as well. Nothing new here, absolutely nothing, zero. Other than for some reason, both carrier and agency decided to prance down the runway together like peacocks. That is new, and short-sighted, in my humble opinion.”