Archive for the ‘Business Services’ Category

FAQ’s on U-Verse Service By AT&T

Friday, February 19th, 2010

A third option is now available in many areas of the United States when it comes to cable television. While in the past you either had to go with whatever local cable company was in the area, or one of the satellite companies, now you may be able to get AT&T U-verse services in your neighborhood.Let’s look at a few of the frequently asked questions about AT&T U-verse.

Does U-verse use a satellite dish?

No. AT&T is deploying fiber to the node, or FTTN technology to most of the major areas it serves. This fiber is deployed to a large serving terminal in each area, then the existing copper lines deliver the signal the rest of the way to your home. No satellite dish is needed, only the necessary receiving equipment is needed inside. So U-verse is actually more like cable TV than satellite. Sign up for the AT&T digital video recorder and your setup is just like cable television

What kind of specials is AT&T offering with U-verse?

These of course are changed from time to time.Current offers generally match what cable TV companies offer for triple play bundles of voice, video and internet. Usually, you can get all of these services for about $100 a month for the first year or so. Sometimes the promotional price can go for as long as a year, but check with AT&T for the current offer.

How quick is the Uverse download speed?

There are several different levels of service to pick from. The lowest level is the U-verse Express, which is 1.5 Mbps, and the highest is the Max18 service, which tops out at 18 Mbps, great for downloading movies or even video conferencing.  As you can imagine U-verse pricing vary based on the level of service.

What are some of the features of the digital home phone service?

The AT&T Voice unlimited plans include all of the local and long distance calling. Other features include voice mail, call forwarding and call waiting so you won’t ever miss an important call. So if AT&T is your local phone company, a quick internet search or phone call can alert you to the availability of U-verse. If it is not yet available, you can still bundle your video service with AT&T with one of their Direct TV deals.

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What Business Users Want From VoIP

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

It isn’t just the rock bottom price that attracts business users to VoIP according to IP Centrex Vendor 8el. That doesn’t mean businesses are not attracted by the low prices of VoIP. It means that VoIP is maturing as a business and users are looking for more features from it. In the near future, what will differentiate VoIP from other similar offerings or VoIP from VoIP is what features the service offers.

Differentiable VoIP features include a temporary voice mail greeting with a configurable number and also enhanced centralized unified messaging. The king of features remains the quality of voice transmission though. This is what business users want the most of. That there is great room for improvement in international calls and business conferences is a common opinion. High definition audio quality could be the next big “feature” of VoIP.

This interesting analysis features in fiercevoip.com.

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Google Voice: New Options, New Fears.

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

For those of you who have been following Google and telecom for the last couple of years, you know that Google owns Skype and purchased a telecom startup called Grand Central a couple of years ago. Google has now changed the name of Grand Central to Google Voice and is getting ready to go main stream with it. In a few weeks, Google customers should be able to start signing up for their free Google Voice accounts.

Google Voice has some cool features, but, if you’re paranoid, these features might also freak you out a bit. Google’s new service will issue you a new phone number, and that number will be able to be set to ring to all of your current phone numbers and track you down. The service also has the ability to take phone messages, turn them into written transcripts and email them to you. This will give you the ability to search your text voice mail content, which is cool and scary at the same time.

It’s cool, because with this service it will be really easy to organize your life, but the scary part may just be more than most people will be interested in subjecting themselves to. Since Google’s ToS says they pretty much own anything you do when you use their free services, they may own your voice, the content of the voice mails you get and they will also have the ability to data mine your voice mails if they so choose. I don’t know about you, but that scares the bejesus out of me.

For a good article on the whole thing, visit Csmonitor.com.

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Telecom Audit Saves Hospital 800K per Year!

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

There is an article on TelecomAuditGuide.com that explains the need for businesses to have a yearly telecom audit. Telecommunications audits are free, and can end up saving a business a ton of money. The audit that the hospital went through covered 4 areas of telecom; local, long distance, cellular and paging, and came up with $789,335.40 in anual savings.

The hospital’s telecom audit showed that they were spending too much in the following areas:

  1. Local Phone Service: $26,800.95 per month.
  2. Long Distance Service: $8,175.54 per month.
  3. Cell Phone Service: $5750 per month.
  4. Paging Services: $5197.46 per month.

Every business should have an annual telecom audit of their phone bills, their cell phone bills and their local bills. By doing an audit, the hospital above was able to save $800,000.00 per year, and your business could end up save a substatial amount of money also. If you would like your bills audited for free, please email them to info@calling-plans.com.

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Posted in Telecom Audits | 3 Comments »

Total Call International vs. Pioneer Telephone

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Total Call International (TCI) is a really hot business product right now. Their 3 cent long distance plan is billed in 6 second increments, and that has the plan really moving with my business customer. The top seller used to be Pioneer Telephone among the business croud, but Pioneer’s 2.7 cent plan is billed in full minutes, which can really add up if you have a company that averages long distance phone calls that are less than 3-4 minutes each.

You wouldn’t think that full minute vs. 1/10th minute rounding would make a lot of difference, but it does. For example, if you made 1000 2.1 minute phone calls with Pioneer, that would cost you the same as 1000 3 minute calls, or $81.00. Those same 1000 2.1 minute calls with TCI would cost you $63.00. Sure it’s not a lot, but if you’re running a whole bunch of lines without your own T1, it can really add up.

TCI’s toll free and PICC fees are also cheaper than Pioneer’s. TCI’s monthly toll free fee is $1.00 per line per month for the first number, and 50¢ for each additional number. Pioneer’s fees for toll free service are 99¢ per number per month. (OK, it’s cheaper than TCI if you only get one, but who can stop at one?)  TCI’s PICC Fee for business lines is $2.75 per month per line, with the first line being free. Pioneer’s PICC fee is $4.21, so if you have very many lines, that can really add up too.

Since I’m really a fan of both companies, you should go to the rate calculator at Lowertel.com and run the numbers for your state’s instate and state to state calling rates to find out which one of these companies will be the best for your businesses bottom line. You can also drop me a line at info@calling-plans.com, and I will gladly run some numbers for you and show you how much you can save by moving to one of these discount carriers.

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