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Telecom Brokerage Inc., an agent of telecommunications services, has announced that Granite Telecommunications (News - Alert), a provider of telecom for multi-location businesses, has joined its vendor program lineup.

Granite Telecommunications "works with agent firms who can represent Granite's value proposition of nationwide consolidation and savings to businesses," company officials say, adding that TBI "offers Granite access to telecom agents across the country, creating more opportunities" to distribute its services.

"In choosing a Master Agency to partner with, the team at TBI demonstrated to us that they are built to support professional telecom agents thoroughly; sales process, commissions, client support and more," said Charlie Pagliazzo, Director of Channels for Granite Telecommunications.

Geoffrey Shepstone (News - Alert), President of Telecom Brokerage, added that Granite's status "as the nation's largest provider of POTS to multi-location business clients makes them a great fit for us."

Based in Chicago, Telecom Brokerage (News - Alert) offers what company officials say is "unbiased advice and telecom services from major providers of Internet, Data, Local, Long Distance, Mobility and Managed Services. Agents partner with TBI to simplify quoting, earn high commissions and benefit from support by a back-office."

News of Qwest's (News - Alert) impending purchase by Century Link back in early May sure did spread like an oil slick, and according to a post on TBI's Master Agent blog in late April, it went with "a cloud of misinformation and speculation" settling over us all.

Some say the sale is great for business, the blog noted, "providing a larger footprint for agents to sell products and services. Others aren't so sure, citing Century Link's previous inability to penetrate the B2B marketplace (though isn't that why Qwest makes sense?)."

At the time, the blog wrote that "the name Qwest will undoubtedly survive a while in the business marketplace," but the name of the new company will be CenturyLink: "There will be no new names, as Century Link is confident enough that their brand will carry into new territories and marketplaces. This was reaffirmed by Glen Post of Century Link during the conference call announcing the acquisition."