Birch Communications, Inc., a leading nationwide provider of communications, network and cloud services to small, mid-sized, enterprise and wholesale businesses, announced today its recent agreement to purchase select assets and customers of Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc., one of Canada’s largest independent, full-service, telecommunications service providers. The closing is expected in the second quarter of 2016 and this transaction will mark the 28th asset purchase for Birch.

Primus’ more than 250,000 business and consumer customers will significantly expand Birch’s service footprint. The transaction will also include 20,000 customers in the United States and Puerto Rico. In addition, Birch and Primus complement each other from a product perspective, each offering industry-leading broadband internet, cloud-hosted PBX, dedicated data access, local phone, long distance and a variety of wholesale solutions.

“This transaction demonstrates our continued commitment to grow our service territory, product-set and customer base,” said Vincent Oddo, President and CEO at Birch. “Primus customers will benefit from being part of a larger service provider with a strong commitment to award-winning customer care, and Birch customers will benefit from a new, significantly larger service territory. With the addition of the Primus assets, Birch expects that a significant portion of its revenue in 2016 will come from its fast-growing fiber and managed services segments.”

Michael Nowlan, Chief Executive Officer of Primus said, “We are excited for Primus customers as this transaction offers them a broader array of products with a wider geographic reach, thus bringing an extremely competitive choice to the marketplace. Our customers and partners will seamlessly transition to Birch and continue to enjoy enterprise-class service.”

“We are excited about the expansion of our service footprint to include all of the major cities in Canada. A significant portion of our current enterprise customers do business in Canada and are interested in expanding their existing services due to our larger presence. Birch will be one of a select group of service providers who can serve businesses across both the U.S. and Canada. This provides our customers with a unique opportunity to consolidate their operations with us,” said Christopher Ramsey, Senior Vice President and Chief Sales Officer. “Our ability to attract new customers, particularly enterprise customers, has just grown exponentially. We look forward to leveraging our growth on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border.”