Note, transcription performed by AI and may contain minor mistakes.
Date: July 23, 2026
Topic: Stronger Together: Metro Wireless & Volli Communications
Speakers:
Paul Asquini — VP of Sales, Metro Wireless
Travis Curnutte — VP of Partner Development, Volli Communications
Keith Madden — Channel Manager, Volli Communications
Paul Asquini: There you go, there you go. You're watching that, Travis — give me a thumbs up when you think it's time to kick it off.
Travis Curnutte: I'd say let's just do a hard start.
Paul Asquini: Okay. Getting there, we're getting there.
Travis Curnutte: Thanks everybody for joining, appreciate it. Excited to let you guys in on all that we're doing.
Paul Asquini: All the secrets are going to be revealed today, right?
Travis Curnutte: Yeah.
Keith Madden: Very exciting time. Very exciting.
Paul Asquini: Oh boy. You guys came at the right time to get all the secrets. Alright, let's get this going. Hey everybody, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to listen to us talk about some exciting news.
Today's installment of the Metro Wireless webinar series, which we've been running for a couple of years now, is focused on the big news that happened about two months ago as we speak — that's Metro Wireless acquiring Volli Communications. I'm Paul Asquini, Vice President of Sales here at Metro, been in the business for about 30 years. Joining me today are my two newest friends — Travis Curnutte, Vice President of Partner Development, and Keith Madden, Channel Manager extraordinaire.
So let's get right into this, guys. Thanks for joining and for sharing your insights. Here's a quick agenda — you can read that, but really today is focused on the reason behind the acquisition, what Metro Wireless brings to the table, what Volli brings to the table, why that matters to you, our partner community, and what's going to change, because nobody likes change. We'll go through a few examples and then at the end we'll have time for a Q&A session.
As you've probably noticed, your microphones are muted. For any technical difficulties, don't come to me because I'm not the guy — Ebrahim is our guru on that, so there's his email address. For any questions or comments, please drop them in the Q&A window during the presentation — there's also a chat that Travis is watching, so we'll do our best to get to those. And yes, we will be recording this and sending it out.
Again, thank you so much for taking the time. This is Metro Wireless's third acquisition to date, and the largest one. Really exciting, and I'll give you a sneak peek — it's already proving benefits on cross-selling. Travis, take it away.
Travis Curnutte: Thanks everybody. I'm very excited to be here. Some of you know who we are at Volli Communications — a quick overview: we started in the industry in 2009, began in the on-prem space, slowly built up a wholesale product, and eventually got into cloud and into the channel around 2021. The rest of the story is that we grew up in the channel — got to meet everybody, make connections, and grow our product. In the earlier days there were instances where we were missing certain products, which caused us to lose some deals.
A big issue with a lot of customers is that they want a single contract — one organization that can handle their voice traffic as well as their data, SD-WAN, wireless backup, Starlink, whatever it is. This acquisition brings those two pieces together. With Metro Wireless and Volli joining forces, customers now get one throat to choke for basically everything they need across the Volli and Metro stack — voice and connectivity both.
This acquisition makes me really excited because I knew the Metro team before it was acquired by Tyler Hoffman. I developed friendships with them — we've done a couple of off-sites together, so the teams have always been friendly and worked well together. Tyler messaged me one day and said, "Let's make this official." When you get a call from a friend about a fun adventure ahead, you take it. We were excited to combine forces — two organizations with very strong products finally coming together to offer everything through one organization, for our customers in the channel and beyond.
I think we're ready for the next slide, Paul.
Paul Asquini: Oh.
Travis Curnutte: Like I said, this brings us to being one single trusted provider. If you need SIP, we have that. If you need Starlink for multiple locations, DAS, cellular — all of that, e-fax, you can get it all with us now. It's a combined powerhouse of two very mature teams and multiple mature products.
With the Volli team, we've been in business since 2009, so you're getting 15-plus years of UC excellence — the best in the house when it comes to voice. Now we get to add all the great products from Metro Wireless on top of that, giving all our partners more avenues to get market share, get new customers, and reduce confusion, since a lot of partners are juggling multiple products right now.
Another thing I'm excited about — anyone who's worked with Volli knows our porting and support team is our shining star, and this takes it to the next level. We've expanded the team, and cross-training is giving us even more hands and eyes on things to make sure nothing gets missed. That gives partners the ability to scale — great for VARs, partners, everybody. It gives that extra bit of ammunition partners need when going into a lot of these customer conversations.
So it's two great combined teams, and I'm really excited to see what we do this year. We just had our first combined company off-site earlier this week, and I can tell you both sides are raring to go and excited to deliver for the telco community.
Keith Madden: Paul, I just wanted you to be aware that Travis said our strong suit is porting — that's my department, Paul, I just wanted to let everyone know that.
Paul Asquini: I saw the crown, I saw the crown.
Keith Madden: My shoulders are big, I can carry it, Paul.
Paul Asquini: My man, my man.
Travis Curnutte: Someone deflate his head.
Paul Asquini: Yeah.
Keith Madden: Hey, let me have my moment wherever I can grab it. So as Travis was saying, I'm on the operations side — sales and operations. On the porting side, one of the big parts is that we have direct carrier relationships. We don't have anyone in the middle; we work with carriers directly, with direct contact. That makes a big difference. Also, e911 isn't separated — with us, it's already part of the package, not an extra cost or something else you have to sign up for.
On the global side, there are some areas that can be a little more difficult, but we've worked out that process with our carriers to help you get through it and hit the areas we can, making it as easy as possible. And with the human touch — the US-based team — you'll often see white-glove treatment on the partner or broker side, but maybe a little lacking on the customer side, or vice versa. One thing I'm proud of at Volli is that we white-glove both the partner and the customer. We make onboarding as easy as possible with our portals, and we also have portals for customers — for setting up 911, and so on.
We try to make sure that once a customer is part of the process, they don't just get one person handling porting, or one person in billing or customer service — they get the whole team. So if there's a question or something to work on, you don't just get one person, you get five, six, or seven people who will jump on it and work as fast as possible. That's something I'm really proud of on the Volli side — our porting process, our onboarding process, and our customer service process. So if we want to move to the next slide, or if I'm talking too much, just let me know.
Hey, Mike Redden, I see you — good to see you, buddy. Really quickly, the three things we flagship at Volli Communications are Volli Connect, which is the SIP trunk side — mostly on-prem; Volli Direct, which is Teams routing; and Volli Business, which is our UCaaS cloud platform. On the onboarding side, the customer gives us the information and we put everything into the system for them and walk them through the process. At any point we'll have multiple meetings or demos with the broker or the customer as needed.
You get a Volli person — a manager like myself — who starts with you at the quote or demo stage and stays with you all the way through to the end, including porting and billing. You have that one point of contact the whole way. That means a lot to everyone, because nothing is ever perfect, but if you have one person you can count on, plus the portals, the ticketing system, and the team behind them, that makes a real difference for everyone involved. That's what we care about most — making sure white-glove service covers not just the customer, but the partners and brokers too. Our job is to make sure the transition is smooth, and if anything comes up, our team is there 24/7 to help. There's a lot of times I don't know the answer — you can see the white beard here, I'm old.
By the way, hello Hope, my granddaughter — I told you I'd bring that in.
Paul Asquini: I just won five bucks.
Keith Madden: Yeah. Poppy loves you, just so you know — that's all that matters in this meeting for me. I'm kidding. But really, that's Volli in a nutshell — what we bring, what we represent. I'll say this about the merger: in the accounts we've worked together on, about 80% have said it's great because Volli does its part really well, but now I can bring in other parts from Metro Wireless too. So it's not just one team helping — now you have 15 teams that can help with whatever's needed in a given situation. I think it's exciting, and if I were a broker looking in from the outside, this is where I'd want to be, because I know these guys can hit 21 out of 20 things — if they don't have something ready, they'll figure it out and get it done. I see that on both sides and I'm really excited about what's ahead. I'll be quiet now.
Travis Curnutte: Yeah, and to piggyback on what Keith's saying about the white-glove approach — we like to think of ourselves as architects. So if you've already worked with Volli and love that architect approach, get ready for things to get even better.
Paul Asquini: Well done, fellas, well done.
Travis Curnutte: Keith, you can move on to the products now.
Paul Asquini: Yeah, I'll get going. Alright, here we go. So for those of you coming over from the Volli relationship who aren't sure who Metro Wireless is — we're based out of Detroit. We began our wireless journey as a traditional wireless ISP over a decade ago, and we continue that today. We're a wireless engineering firm, which is different from your typical cellular-backup-internet-for-20-bucks-a-month provider — every aggregator out there will fight for that business, but that's not engineering, that's just handing you a quote. When it comes to the channel, we're solely focused on new customer logos — though we do have some existing Detroit customers who come back and upgrade or buy new services, and some of them will likely pick up Volli services going forward too. We've already had some good cross-sell success, which Travis will probably talk about.
Keep in mind: all things wireless. And I'll do the old caveat — we're not a cell carrier, we don't sell cell phone minutes or tablets. Nothing wrong with companies that do, but that's not us. Our claim to fame is that we keep investing in the back office for customer success — I'm actually tripling that team right now — and in tech support, so we can continue providing white-glove support even on the support side. Our average wait time is significantly under 30 seconds, so your customers won't be talking to a chatbot — they'll be talking to one of our techs or engineers, who will work the ticket through to resolution. We've enjoyed great client satisfaction — average client tenure is about 62 months.
ou'll keep hearing "white glove" — that's our thing for installations and onboarding, same as you're hearing from the Volli guys. None of that is going away; it's only getting better as we cross-train both sides of the house.
Starlink — we became a certified authorized solution provider a little over two years ago. Today we've successfully installed nearly 800 Starlink instances globally. I had one installed in Brisbane, Australia, and since it's one of our portable internet solutions, it's now in Perth. We recently had a successful installation in Monterrey, Mexico — geography isn't a limitation for us, and Volli has that same global reach for their services — another synergy between the two companies. And since our inception, we've been a Peplink shop for our routers and hardware — rugged, built for outdoor use, fantastic gear.
As I mentioned, all things wireless. Where we really shine in the channel — and I'll just say it — is bonded solutions. We were on a call with a TSD about two weeks ago, and they mentioned there's really nobody in the channel who can deliver a true bonded solution. Picture stacking multiple Starlinks. A single Starlink gives you around 150 megabits down. A single 5G connection, depending on signal strength, might give you 120 megabits down. Companies today are buying a gig connection like it's nothing — the way they bought 10 megabits ten years ago. Some are buying two-gig or five-gig connections, and 150 megabits won't cut it if there's an outage — they want more bandwidth. I'm working on an apartment building in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where the carrier has a 2-gig connection with no backup — no coax, nothing — and they want close to a gig. We can deliver that.
Here are a couple of examples: you can bond multiple Starlinks, multiple cellular connections, or any combination, to deliver the speed a client needs, whether for a primary connection or backup — 300, 400, 600, 800 megabits, up to a gig. I have a solution in Rhode Island for a TV broadcasting company — a "Bond x2," meaning two circuits: one Starlink, one unlimited 5G. That customer gets 338 megabits down and 77 up. Just taping cables together doesn't double your speed — there's real technology behind it. We have an AI research firm in Boulder, Colorado on a Bond x2 solution — dual unlimited 5G, no metering — getting 410 down by 108 up. Next month we're installing a Bond x6 — six circuits, I believe four 5Gs and two Starlinks. When you mix Starlink and cellular like that, you get real diversity and redundancy in case one technology goes down. The sky's the limit — bring us those opportunities and we'll show you what we can do. Nobody else in the channel is doing that. We deliver all of this with static IP addresses where needed — we're a WISP with our own ASN.
A couple of other areas that have been growing a lot this year: DAS, distributed antenna systems — fancy term for cell signal boosting. With a lot of new buildings going up, I almost want to become an ambulance chaser for whoever's installing LEED-certified windows, because an unintended consequence of those super energy-efficient windows is that cellular signal doesn't penetrate them well. We've got solutions for that and we're seeing a huge uptick there. I'll stop there, since I could talk about individual products forever, and I see the chat filling up — let's get to those questions.
Hey, I talked earlier about white glove — it was interesting to hear how often Volli says the same thing, the same mantra: customer first, partner first. We're carrier-agnostic. For a 5G solution, for example, we provide two different carrier SIMs, one hibernated — in case we need to troubleshoot and shut off the first one, we can remotely turn on the other and keep the customer up and running.
Something we didn't cover yet — portable and mobile internet. I don't mean mobile as in cellular; I mean Starlink mini dishes on telehealth or mammography vehicles, that kind of thing — we're seeing a huge uptick there. And we're the only ones in the channel custom-building rugged, weatherproof portable cases with internet — Starlink, cellular, Wi-Fi capability built in. One of my guys just quoted a case where the Wi-Fi access point covers a 1,500-foot radius around wherever the case is placed — great for job-site Wi-Fi in construction, and first responders like it too. Reach out if you have questions — we can show you pictures of three different builds we made for customers this year.
Paul Asquini: Alright, is this you, Travis?
Travis Curnutte: Yeah. So again, guys, the combined power of everything Paul talked about and everything Keith and I talked about comes together into one main point of contact. On the Volli side, we've got Volli Connect for SIP trunking, Volli Direct for Teams routing, and Volli Business, our UC product built on NetSapiens. Mixed with everything Paul just described, it gives us a really strong offering for pretty much any customer you're looking at.
Keith, want to give a quick overview of one of the customers we've already worked with on both sides? I know we've already closed a couple.
Keith Madden: Which one are you thinking of?
Paul Asquini: No, for—
Travis Curnutte: Oshkosh.
Keith Madden: Oh, Oshkosh — yeah. In the process of making sure everything's up and running, we mention some of the other opportunities and things we offer. In this case it was their elevator — they had old POTS lines and needed help there — and while we were in that process, they asked about it and Paul stepped in. I think it was the next day we had a discussion with them, and they were very excited about how it was going to work together. It wasn't something where they had to go out and get a separate contract or agreement — it was all packaged into one thing. So yes, they were very excited, and a process that would normally take about 90 days, we can do in 30. They're very excited about that.
Travis Curnutte: And piggybacking on one of Paul's points about how fast our NOC is — that goes across the board. We're very quick to get customers what they need so they can make a decision, and now we're able to do that even more efficiently with more optimization in our product line — quick, concise, and taking care of everything for our partners so they can take care of everything their customers need.
Keith Madden: Right. Yeah, our job is to make the brokers look good, right?
Paul Asquini: Yeah, that's right.
Travis Curnutte: Yeah, everyone throws around the term "customer experience" a lot, and obviously you want the customer to have a good experience, but what we've really focused on at Volli — and I know Metro's team has done the same — is the partner experience. Your customers are going to have a bad experience if you have a bad experience. So the name of the game for us is making it easy for partners to go out and do what they need to do.
Keith Madden: Right. Awesome.
Paul Asquini: Alright, so for the next part — I don't know if we want to go into the questions we've been getting from you all, but I saw the chat blowing up.
Travis Curnutte: Yeah, I've got a couple of Q&As from the chat. This one's from Mark — definitely a Keith question: How does the acquisition affect Volli's 4.0 voice product?
Keith Madden: Nothing at all — nothing is changing. The relationship stays the same, contacts stay the same, products stay the same — there aren't any changes whatsoever. Everything on that side will continue as-is, but now there are some other opportunities if something comes up — a place to go ask, "Hey, this customer has this need, can you help with it?" So it's more of an addition, nothing gets taken away.
Travis Curnutte: And Mark, Keith is still organizing all of that — he's built a great team over the past several years, and now he's getting augmented with more help, so it's only good things from here.
Keith Madden: Yeah, absolutely.
Travis Curnutte: Next one is for Paul — this is from Chris in the chat: Do you do the maritime version of Starlink?
Paul Asquini: Yes. The only thing we're excluded from selling is the aircraft version — that's it.
Travis Curnutte: Okay. And another one for Paul: Is BGP supported with the multiple-internet-provider solutions?
Paul Asquini: Sure — short answer, yes. Long answer, happy to get you on a call with our IT guys so I stay in my swim lane. I want to know who sent that one.
Travis Curnutte: That was Mike — Mike Redden.
Paul Asquini: I'm coming for you, Mike.
Keith Madden: Mike's a good guy. Mike's a good guy.
Travis Curnutte: When this acquisition was happening, we reached out to most of our larger partners to get their feedback and help ease any concerns, so here are a few of those questions. Are Volli services staying as-is, or are things changing? Volli services are staying as-is — we've built a great voice stack, Metro has built a great wireless stack, so it's a perfect merger of the two. How does support work now that the two teams are combined? Support is just getting stronger — we've combined the strengths of both teams, and there are more people behind the scenes to help. If support was already great, it's going to get even better. Who do partners bring opportunities to, and what does that process look like? Same as before — if you're with one of the TSDs, you'll still reach out to your same contacts there; not much changes on that front.
Paul Asquini: Awesome.
Keith Madden: Paul, can I add a quick point to that?
Paul Asquini: Yes, sir.
Keith Madden: One thing I really appreciate is Volli and Tyler's timing and patience with all of this. Two companies coming together — rather than making a bunch of sudden changes and leaving everyone unsure where things stand, they're taking their time, focused on how to improve things and make it better, so we all become one big family, but at the right pace. I want to give a shoutout there — and no, I'm not looking for a raise, Paul.
Paul Asquini: You know how you get a raise, right? Sell more.
Keith Madden: Hey, at some point, ice cream would be fine too. But no, I just wanted to point out to everyone listening that they're being intuitive about this — taking their time to do it the right way, so what's already a great product becomes really great, and that's the goal: keep improving it. So thank you both.
Paul Asquini: Yeah, well, Keith, a lot of that comes from trial and error — you learn from the first couple of acquisitions. So we'll see — but you can already tell it's smooth.
Hey, I saw a lot in the chat — I don't know if it's mostly people saying hi to everybody, Travis, you can check that — but if you're looking for a place to send questions, opportunities, or meeting requests, it's sales@metrowireless.com, as I mentioned before — that reaches all of us in the sales back office. Travis, anything else in the chat?
Travis Curnutte: No, I answered the audience questions first, then filled in with the partner questions we'd received.
Paul Asquini: Well, listen — in 30 years in this business I've been on both sides of these events — I've been acquired, and I've been on the acquiring side. People get really nervous about it, I've seen it, and this has worked out really well — it's been two months and we're already cross-selling. It's a good fit, hand and glove — I'll use "white glove" one more time. Keep doing what you're doing, partner community — we appreciate everything you do to help us. We got one more sneaky question at the end — do we do bonded maritime?
Paul Asquini: Yes.
Travis Curnutte: There you go, Chris. Reach out to me, will you, boss? Keep up with sales@metrowireless.com. Chris lives in Houston, so oil and gas is obviously big out there — let's get you taken care of.
Paul Asquini: Hey, those who've been on Metro Wireless's past webinars know that — I'll just say it — oil, gas, and energy is a wireless company's number one vertical, and it drops off from there. So it's worth knowing where those locations are. In fact, I think Chris mentioned that Starlink performs even better out on the ocean or in remote areas, since there's minimal congestion and interference. I'm seeing some other things coming in, Travis.
Travis Curnutte: Just a bit more color on that one from Chris about the field. We're good — we've answered all the questions so far in the Q&A, and the partner questions too. Awesome.
Paul Asquini: Alright, hey everybody, again thank you so much for joining — we look forward to seeing you at the next webinar and upcoming events. Fall is a big time for the channel, so we'll be out there in numbers — look forward to meeting and greeting again. Hey, Keith and Travis, thanks so much.
Travis Curnutte: Yeah, reach out to your contacts, everybody — let's have some fun. Let's make this a great 2026 and end it strong.
Paul Asquini: Let's go get 'em. Thanks, everybody.
Keith Madden: Thank you.
Travis Curnutte: Thanks, guys.
.png)
