Phones Plus Inc., a Coeur dAlene-based vendor of voice and data communications systems, has spun off much of its business-sales operation to B&C Telephone Inc., of Spokane, so it can focus more on retail sales of mobile phones and service.


Terms of the transaction, which Phones Plus President Chris Cheeley describes as a combining of parts of the two businesses, werent disclosed.


Cheeley says that as result of the transaction, Phones Plus has shrunk to about five employees from 17 before the sale, although the workers who left Phones Plus have been hired by B&C Telephone.


That company, which sells and services commercial telephone systems, now employs about 30 at its Spokane office, at 55 E. Lincoln, says Pat Kaufman, general manager.


Cheeley, who founded Phones Plus in 1990, says the mobile-phone side of his business has been taking up so much time that it looked like it would actually be better for everybody involved to sell most of the business-sales operation. Phones Plus sells Verizon Wireless mobile-phone service, he says.


The company, however, will continue to sell business telecommunications services to its own customers, as well as to B&Cs, for XO Communications Inc., he says. Eventually, Phones Plus will close its Spokane office, at 10020 E. Knox.


Kaufman says B&C pursued the transaction because it to expand its service in the Coeur dAlene market.


In a related move, Phones Plus also is opening two new retail locations. One, which is located in leased space at 4010 E. Seltice Way, in Post Falls, was to open this week. The other will be located in a 6,500-square-foot building that Cheeley plans to build near Silver Lake Mall, in Coeur dAlene. Phones Plus will occupy about a quarter of that space when its finished, which is expected to be in October, Cheeley says. He plans to hire a few more employees when that store opens.


The company will retain its Coeur dAlene office, at 1048 N. Third.