PROVO — When Brian Beutler was selling prepaid calling cards in Mexico three years ago, he was unable to get the Mexican telecommunication goliath TelMex to work with him.

TelMex has a virtual stranglehold on Mexican business, which makes international calling 400 percent more expensive than in the United States, Beutler told an audience Friday at Brigham Young University's 2005 Business Plan Competition.

Then, however, Voice over Internet Protocol was born — a telecommunications system that uses the same technology as the Internet.

So Beutler last year headed back to Mexico, armed with new technology. He targeted Mexican businesses as potential customers for his newly launched Alianza, a global communications services company based in Lindon and Orem.

Today, Beutler and his business partner, Scott Bell, lead the start-up company while still attending classes at BYU. And, yes, Beutler speaks Spanish.

"I'm attending three classes at night and working full-time during the day and on weekends on this business," he said, after winning first place and $50,000 in cash and services. He has targeted December for graduation.

His company also captured the $9,000 first-place Global Award prize from the Center for Economic Self-Reliance, an award for socially improving humanity. The company is seeking $2 million in equity financing to build the company.

Beutler, a history major and business minor, is an example of how the business competition has become a campuswide contest for students of all disciplines.

More than 500 businesses are Alianza subscribers, and the growth is expanding about 30 percent a month, he said. TelMex, meanwhile, doesn't plan on getting into the VoIP business for at least three years.

By then, he said, his company will have sure footing in Mexico, ripe for the picking.

He offers international long distance calling 75 percent below the TelMex price of 50 cents a minute, and if an Alianza customer is calling another Alianza customer the call is free.

Calls are routed over the Internet to Alianza's equipment in Lindon, where they are then switched to analog systems.

Other contest winners include Pacific Industrial Contractor Screening, a student-owned company that acts as a clearing house of information so major contractors can screen subcontractors on safety issues before hiring them. Subcontractors must meet certain government- and industry-required safety information before contractors will hire them. PICS brokers that information to its subscribers.

PICS took home a $30,000 second place prize.

Third place went to Informera Corp., a company that offers advertising on wide plasma television screens in restaurant waiting areas. The split screens also offer a waiting list of patrons and news and information. The cash and services prize was for $20,000.

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E-mail: rodger@desnews.com