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NORTH DALLAS - With its recent merger with a Kentucky company, Dallasbased VarTec Telecom Inc. is quietly pushing to steal a bigger piece of the telecommunications pie.
The deal with Lightyear Communications gives the combined company - whose umbrella structure will retain the VarTec name - annual sales of $1.5 billion, nearly 2,100 employees and more than 6 million customers using 200,000 local phone lines. But the biggest change is the instant access the transaction gives VarTec to the business market.
Founded about 13 years ago, VarTec made its name providing "dial around" long-distance phone service to consumers. That type of service allows...