Comcast Rivals AT&T with Small Business Telecom Service

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Comcast Rivals AT&T with Small Business Telecom Service

8:45 am on March 25, 2008 | Category: Business, Telecom Services, Telephone

America’s leading cable company, Comcast, is entering the small- to medium-sized business telecom market for the first time, putting additional pressure on industry incumbents like AT&T.

Comcast’s Business Class Voice service, which can be bundled with high-speed internet and IPTV for as little as $100/month, was launched yesterday in a number of New England states.

“These business owners now have the option of choosing Comcast for all of their communications needs where they work,” said Jeff Freyer, Comcast’s regional vice president of business services in Connecticut-West.

But don’t expect big telecom operators to give up lucrative business subscribers without a fight, especially given their past investment in enterprise infrastructure.

“Small businesses are becoming a sweet spot for AT&T,” commented Adam Cormier, an AT&T spokesman. “A lot of the products run downstream from large businesses to small businesses.”

But businesses are increasingly bundling all of their services with a single provider so as to save money, and it seems to be an all out battle between cable and telecom as to who can provide the best deal.

Saving money, after all, is critical to most small businesses, and many managers won’t hesitate to switch providers when it comes to saving a few dollars a year.

“For a small business to save any money — even if it’s just $100 — can be a big deal,” explained Andrew Markowski, director of the Connecticut chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, who isn’t surprised by Comcast’s play for the small business market, and expects more competition in the months and years to come. “It’s a very interesting trend,” he said.

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ATT small business sucks! I got completely suckered and misled by the woman who sold it to me–it was much much more than she portrayed it. I am a lawyer so I read the fine print–and I still got screwed. Here is one example.

My partnership dissolved and in the confusion the bill did not get paid. ATT not only disconnected the phone–but insisted I pay them an additional $235 as a “security deposit” AND another $64 dollars for the difficulty of pushing a button to turn it back on!

That’s fricken close to $300 dollars I have to come up with IN ADDITION to the amount that was past due.

A THREE YEAR CONTRACT IN HELL!

I have told ALL the new lawyers I know–and old ones–how badly I feel screwed by Ma Bell. They trapped me–but it has cost them (is costing them) 10 times what they are getting out of me in lost business from how pissed off and dissatisfied I am.

Let the buyer beware!

Oh god its just got worse than above. My small business partnership ended and the phone went off. I called and spoke with 2 people from ATT who assured me if I paid the 250 I owed everything would be fine and my next bill would be less than 100 bux, so I did. My next bill was over 750$$ o my god!

ATT claims the right to charge me a $600 penalty because my phone went off! At every single stage of my dealings with ATT the people on the phone have told me one thing–while their boilerplate apparently has assorted nasties hidden in it.

ATT small business would destroy many businesses if this is how they act. The first woman I spoke to who talked me into the contract told me it would only cost 20 a month for the remaining time in the contract if I wanted to kill service.

Lies, lies and more lies. I am so mad at ATT small business. Use Cable and get vontage–giant carrier pigeons–do what ever you can but do not use them.

Comment by cHRIS iRWIN — April 5, 2008 #