Expanding its Voice over IP has begun marketing a customized version of its CallVantage service
to small office/home office (SOHO) users, the company said.
The plan includes unlimited local and long-distance calling in North
America, and the ability to send and receive faxes for $49.99 per month.
Subscribers can add premium features, such as choosing up to nine phone
numbers with programmable calling features for $7.49 per number, per month.
The additional numbers can be local to the firm or assigned area codes
anywhere in the country.
Other options include directing calls based on who is calling for $1.99 per
month; and conference calling for up to 10 lines at a flat fee of 35 cents
per minute.
Gary Morgenstern, a spokesman for the Bedminster, N.J., carrier, said the
company’s residential VoIP roll out last year “helped the business side of
the house.”
Business decision-makers saw the technology was good enough to be deployed
to residential users nationwide and were convinced it was ready for
business use as well, Morgenstern told internetnews.com.
Details of the company’s marketing plan for the SOHO offering are not yet
set, he said.
Several service providers have VoIP offerings that could fill the need for
some SOHO customers, including telecom carrier Verizon and
startups Vonage and Net2Phone .
And Covad Communications has been expanding its small businesses footprint.
AT&T first announced its
VoIP plans in December 2003 and started rolling out service to residential
customers in late March.
In recent years, the company’s long-distance revenues have dropped sharply,
as customers switched to regional telecoms and national wireless providers.
On the enterprise business side, AT&T already carries more IP traffic on its
network than any other U.S. company. AT&T has been offering VoIP to
business customers through virtual private network services since 1997.
