Editorial

Vodia Partner Spotlight: Skyetel

Published on:

December 15, 2021

Founded in 2014, Vodia partner Skyetel is “the telecom company that scares the big guys,” an independent telco with customers in all 50 states and all Canadian provinces. Skyetel maintains a robust network spanning North America that provides true multi-tenancy to resellers. The company’s platform was built for resellers to manage multiple customers from one convenient portal.

Founded in 2014, Vodia partner Skyetel is “the telecom company that scares the big guys,” an independent telco with customers in all 50 states and all Canadian provinces. Skyetel maintains a robust network spanning North America that provides true multi-tenancy to resellers. The company’s platform was built for resellers to manage multiple customers from one convenient portal.

Skyetel’s multi-tenant, SIP trunking platform is configured for resellers to easily connect with Vodia to provision and manage their DID inventory – resellers can take advantage of relationship pricing without any contracts, commitments or upfront fees. The company’s “bring your own PBX” policy enables its resellers but doesn’t compete with them: they Skyetel platform makes it so resellers can easily handle multiple customers from a single, easy-to-use portal.

Prior to Skyetel, Chris Bardos – President of Skyetel and former California State Debate champion – founded SkyeBlue, a successful phone service provider to small- and medium-sized businesses. As a reseller, however, Chris found there weren’t any good carrier-grade, SIP trunk platforms catering to the unique needs of multiple tenant-customers. Chris sold SkyeBlue to focus on serving resellers as a carrier with a completely different approach and, in 2014, he founded Skyetel, a SIP trunk provider with a specific focus on resellers.

In 2016 Skyetel deployed its current next-gen nationwide carrier platform, which has had zero customer-affecting outages since it was deployed; as of 2020, Skyetel was the fastest growing North American carrier deploying its own OCN (622J) coast-to-coast and had developed a reputation for awesome customer service, by reducing average support response time to mere minutes. The company has had 100 percent uptime for seven consecutive years.

Skyetel is as committed to its community as it is to its resellers. The company has won The SW Washington Business Journal Best In Business award four times. In 2018 Skyetel committed to going from “carbon neutral” to “carbon negative,” to offset more carbon than it produces. Skyetel has also partnered with One Tree Planted, a non-profit organization committed to global reforestation – Skyetel has contributed to planting thousands of trees and is a member of Conservation International’s Emerald Circle, a group of donors who have made significant investments in the Conservation International mission.

Like Vodia, Skyetel is a relationship-first company, and its team is what’s propelled the company to its current level of success. Chris Bardos is an entrepreneur and fierce competitor who loves technology – he embodies Mark Twain’s quote, “find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” He absolutely loves what he does. When he’s not running one of America’s most awesome SIP trunk providers, he and his wife relax at their cabin on the coast of northwestern Washington and travel abroad whenever they can in search of fine wines and joie d’vivre.

Like Chris, Brian Smiley, VP, Sales & Marketing, loves what he does, delineating and executing the company’s revenue strategy. A 20+ year resident of Denver, CO, a continuously growing telecom hub, Brian previously worked for Qwest, Level3, Inteliquent and Peerless Network. He built his career as a sales leader on a technical background in quality and sales engineering. Brian most enjoys consultatively sharing what he has learned over two decades in telecom, especially about the reseller market, whether it is with his clients or employees.  An avid boater, lacrosse coach and pilot, he has three children.

Want to find out more about these indefatigable telecom pioneers determined to provide the best service to resellers throughout North America? Contact Brian Smiley, bsmiley@skyetel.com.

Vodia will host a joint webinar with Skyetel on Thursday, 13 January at 1:00 PM EST – this webinar will take resellers through the entire configuration process. Register here: https://my.demio.com/ref/3mqwR2LGEZu5vT06.

Latest Articles

View All

Handle with Care: Avoid These Cloud Migration Missteps

Moving your business phone system to the cloud can improve flexibility, scalability, mobility, and access to modern communication tools, but a successful migration still requires careful planning. From bandwidth and hardware compatibility, disaster recovery, staff readiness, and MSP support, there are several areas businesses need to assess before deployment. Understanding these common risks early can help reduce disruption, avoid unexpected costs, and create a more reliable cloud communication environment.

July 14, 2026

Manually Provisioning a Cisco 3PCC Phone in the Vodia PBX

Vodia now supports provisioning for Cisco 3PCC phones, giving businesses and service providers a clearer way to connect compatible Cisco multiplatform IP phones to the Vodia PBX. Admins can add supported Cisco devices through Vodia Device Management, pair them with extensions, and configure provisioning settings through the phone’s web interface. This expands Vodia’s supported device ecosystem while helping customers continue using trusted Cisco IP phones within their existing business phone system.

July 9, 2026

Vodia Hub brings click-to-call and call control to every Windows workspace

Vodia Hub for Windows brings click to call and desktop call control to Windows, making it easier for users to place, answer, manage, and automate calls from the applications they already use every day. With system wide tel: link handling, inbound call screen pops, queue details, and automation support, Vodia Hub helps connect the Vodia PBX with Outlook, CRMs, browsers, documents, and other Windows tools. Users can keep working without manually copying phone numbers, opening the user portal, or switching between applications just to handle a call.

July 7, 2026