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Lingo

Available through IT Raven

  • Network and Voice
  • Unified Communications
  • Cybersecurity
  • Cloud and Infrastructure
  • Mobility and IoT

Lingo is a communications provider that buys internet and phone service from many carriers and resells it on one contract and one invoice. Its customers are mostly businesses with many locations. It is based in Southfield, Michigan, with about 330 employees.

Most of the material you will be shown carries another name, BullsEye Telecom. Lingo acquired BullsEye in August 2022, and BullsEye's products, all named with a "be" prefix, are what Lingo sells to businesses today. The specialty is unglamorous and useful: taking hundreds of analog phone lines and mismatched internet circuits across a chain of sites and turning them into one managed service.

Best for

  • Chains with many small sites, such as restaurants, retail, property management and senior living, that want one provider and one bill.
  • Companies with hundreds of analog lines to move to internet calling without disrupting the sites.
  • Buildings with alarm, elevator, emergency and pool phone lines that must keep working when power or internet fails.
  • Organizations replacing MPLS with SD-WAN and needing card payment or health traffic kept separate from guest Wi-Fi.
  • Microsoft Teams users who want outside calling inside Teams.
  • Businesses that want someone to send a technician for cabling and installs at remote sites.

What they offer

Business Connectivity. Internet access sourced from more than 150 underlying providers, from cable and DSL up to fiber. Where one connection is not enough, Lingo combines whatever access types a site can get. LTE failover takes over when the wired line drops, on data plans described as unlimited and unthrottled.

Cloud Phone Systems. A hosted phone system built on the BroadSoft platform. SIP trunking for existing phone systems, added one line at a time. Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams. A family of replacements for safety and alarm lines, the main one running over two paths with battery backup and described as NFPA compliant.

SD-WAN and SASE. SD-WAN built on VMware, with traffic separated by type.

Managed Security. Cloud security built on Zscaler, and firewall, endpoint and email protection built on Sophos. A bundle called Insync packages the Sophos pieces and can be run by you or by Lingo.

Managed Mobility. Cellular data plans, pooled plans, modems and routers. The documents list these without describing a management service.

The catalog also lists Lingo under Hosted Fax and Cloud and IaaS. The documents available for this page describe neither.

Coverage

  • US (Nationwide)

Coverage is a starting point. We check every address before we quote it.

Proof

BullsEye's briefs state a 99 percent customer retention rate and a founding date of 1999. Lingo's overview says its network reaches all 50 states and Canada.

Its customer stories withhold the names.

A large distributor of heating and cooling parts with 209 locations. BullsEye converted 1,050 analog lines to internet calling, with 436 more planned, standardized equipment and put everything on one monthly invoice.

A restaurant franchiser with more than 420 restaurants in 42 states. BullsEye converted 650 analog lines and set up a response team for each site to cut downtime.

A regional health system. BullsEye moved 1,410 analog lines, added broadband and virtual numbers, and consolidated vendors and billing while the system was acquiring facilities.

These figures and accounts are the company's own.

Good to know

  • Lingo resells other carriers' circuits and other vendors' security and SD-WAN technology. The value is aggregation and management. Ask which carrier and which platform sit under each service.
  • The lighter analog line replacement, be-LYTE, requires that you already hold a license for the main one, be-ALERT.
  • Lingo has grown by acquisition, including Impact Telecom in 2018 and BullsEye in 2022, and its overview says it became a B. Riley company. Expect more than one brand name on your paperwork.
  • The cloud security service can be billed monthly as an operating cost.

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How buying works

The store is the easy part. Staying on the account is the job.

Anyone can show you logos. The reason to buy here is what happens on install night, and on the ticket you open nine months later.

  1. 01

    Build your quote list

    Add services and companies as you shop. No form stands between you and the shelf.

  2. 02

    We bring back real options

    A person shops the bench against your addresses, then walks you through what fits and what does not.

  3. 03

    We handle the order and install

    Paperwork, site survey, install dates, cutover night. You get one thread, not five vendors.

  4. 04

    We stay on your account

    Same team for moves, adds, tickets and the next renewal. That is the part everyone else drops.