On June 6, Granite Telecommunications, LLC, hosted its annual Granite Day carnival, which benefi ts Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and honors the memory of company owner Robert Hale Sr., who succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2008. Open to the Quincy, Mass., community, Granite staff and attendees alike enjoyed infl atable rides, mini-golf, bounce houses, face painting, balloon animals, snow cones, and dance lessons, among other fun activities.

PHONE+ magazine, a resource for the telecommunications indirect sales channel, announced that Granite Telecommunications has been selected as a Top 50 Channel Program. The results of this contest are published in the October issue of PHONE+ magazine and in the online Channel Program Guide. The winners also will be recognized at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Miami, Sept. 23-25.

Granite Telecommunications was selected among hundreds of companies – carriers, resellers, master agencies, and hardware and software vendors – that submitted their channel programs for the 2009 ballot. Winners were determined by the votes of nearly 1,000 indirect sales partners submitted Aug. 10-19.

“Every year, PHONE+ is proud to recognize these channel programs for exceptional service to the channel,” said Mike Saxby, group publisher for PHONE+. “These companies set an example for others in telecom’s indirect channel, and we are grateful that so many partners turned out to vote for their favorites.”

Granite Telecommunications provides local, long-distance, high-speed Internet and cabling solutions to businesses in 49 states. Granite clients benefit from a single point of contact; one consolidated online invoice with management reporting for all locations; Web-based line and feature inventory by location; 24/7 customer service and meaningful savings.

PHONE+ magazine is the country’s leading publication for communication distribution channels. For more than two decades, PHONE+ has been the undisputed leader in providing news and analysis to alternate distribution channels serving the communications industry. It is the unrivaled resource for resellers, aggregators, agents, brokers, VARs, systems integrators, interconnects and dealers that provide network-based communications and computing services and associated CPE, applications and professional services. PHONE+ includes a monthly print publication, a Web resource and a weekly newsletter.

PHONE+ also hosts the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, the industry’s only event exclusively for the channel. The fall conference happens next week, Sept. 23-25, at the Miami Beach Convention Center in South Beach. The spring conference is set for March 1-3, 2010, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.