Ingram Micro Offering Telephone Bandwidth

Computer hardware companies that traditionally have had little to do with the Internet have made a flurry of announcements in that area recently, ranging from electronic commerce to Intel Corp.’s Pentium III microprocessor for offering “a better Internet experience.”

Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc. last week launched a program to offer voice and data transmission bandwidth to the company’s customers, who are themselves computer resellers.

While Ingram Micro, the world’s largest wholesaler of technology products, has made its name on selling hardware and software, the company has had a telecommunications integration division selling services to computer resellers for the past 2 1/2 years.

Under the new program, Ingram Micro will offer the network bandwidth of local and long-distance telephone companies to its resellers, who will sell it to their end-user business customers.

The program will be tested for the next month or two, said Laura Skinner, vice president of the telecom integration division. The company declined to say how much revenue comes from that division or how many employees work for it.

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Jonathan Gaw covers technology and electronic commerce for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7818 and at jonathan.gaw@latimes.com.