Black entrepreneur in talks to acquire Detroit-based telecom firm

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African-American entrepreneur Joseph Durham and a group of private investors are in talks to acquire Voxplus, a Detroit-based Telecom firm that provides telecommunications solutions, alternative voice solutions, data access and ISP services.

Durham, a former AT&T executive with 25 years of telecom experience, was instrumental in bringing AT&T into the influential ‘Billion Dollar Roundtable,’ a national organization that distinguishes U.S. corporations that spend at least $1 billion with minority and woman-owned suppliers. The ‘Billion Dollar Roundtable’ also works to promote inclusion of minority- and woman-owned suppliers in telecom.

VoxPlus will target fortune 1000 companies and government agencies that require rapid telecom and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services. Large corporations and government agencies transmit enormous amounts of data, and Voxplus plans to offer its high performance product at a lower cost. Currentl,y Voxplus processes 50 million minutes of phone and data transmissions per month:  the company says they will increase their data transmission to 200 million minutes within a year.

Voxplus expects to move its corporate offices to a HUB zone in New York so that Durham may continue his work increasing the number of minority business that are included in the government procurement process. “My own success at AT&T and as an African-American entrepreneur can serve as an inspiration, and eventually increase their participation in these rapidly growing technology fields,” Mr. Durham stated in a press release.

HUB zones are Historically Underutilized Business Zones. This program was created by the U.S. Small Business Administration to help small businesses in urban and rural communities gain preferential access to federal procurement opportunities.

Follow Caryn Freeman on Twitter.