|
Is AT&T’s “Unity Plan” The Cellular
Solution” Small Business Needs?
By Dan Baldwin, TA
Founder & Editor-at-Large, February 2007
Say what you will about the desire small business
owners have about fancy phone system features like “simultaneous ring”,
“voice mail in my email inbox”, etc. When push comes to shove I think that
all most small business owners would really want out of their business
phone systems is cheaper cell phone bills. I would bet a year’s paycheck
that if you offered flat rate cell phone service at $75 a month that most
business owners would dump their PBX phone systems (VoIP or not) and
simply assign each employee a flat-rate cell phone. Why? What grates on
business owners the most is the fact that they’re really paying for two
phones for each employee – their cell phone and a land line.
Is AT&T’s Plan Closer to Free Cellular?
About as free as an all-you-can-eat pancake
breakfast. I’ve got two teen-age sons and even they can only eat so many
pancakes at one sitting. AT&T’s Unity Plan, like other all-you-can-call
telecom plans, is a cleaver “bucket bet” where AT&T bets you can’t make
more than $110 worth of free calls in a month. It’s a safe bet for AT&T
unless you happen to only need to call other AT&T customers. Need to call
a non-AT&T customer? Bring extra cash.
Close but No Cigar
AT&T’s Unity plan sounds better than it really is.
While you get unlimited free cellular calls to other AT&T customers – if
you live in one of the 22 states where you can get the required AT&T
unlimited landline plan – it doesn’t give you unlimited free cellular
calls. Anyone with a landline can already get unlimited free calls with
VoIP. As well, many cellular providers already offer seriously heavy
cellular users unlimited calls for $250 a month. The bottom line with
Unity, like the bottom line with any boutique telecom plan, is that you
can only fully take advantage of it if you are intimately familiar with
your calling patterns and your calling patterns don’t change.
How AT&T Wins with Unity
O.K., so Unity’s not the Holy Grail of small business
cellular but AT&T will still win by getting more new business than Unity
likely deserves. Why? Bundles of unlimited “something”. Deride buckets of
minutes as an inefficient way to buy telecom but small business loves it.
Buying telecom minutes by the bucket is like playing the lottery – most
know they’re going to loose – but they might win because they’re at least
playing the game. And any bigger bundle of telecom services necessarily
means fewer business telecom bills to pay. Unity likely won’t save small
business owners much money but it does give business owners more of
something they want – convenience and hope. And for small businesses that
don’t make money studying phone bills, convenience and hope is the next
best thing to real savings.
Good luck & remember
– TA's rooting for you!
AT&T Unity in the News
AT&T: My Community Is Bigger than Yours 1/19/7 BusinessWeek.com
Fresh from closing the BellSouth deal, the biggest
U.S. telecom provider is beginning to show why size matters in telecom
more
AT&T Unity Does Bundles of 'Free' January 19, 2007 EarthWebNews.com
The company said the new "AT&T Unity" calling plan, slated to begin
Sunday, allows AT&T Unity customers to call or receive calls for free from
any AT&T wireless and wireline phone numbers nationwide without incurring
additional wireline usage fees or using their wireless Anytime minutes.
more
AT&T Unity unifies wireless, wireline calling plans Jan 19, 2007
TelephonyOnline.com
The AT&T Unity plan is available to new and existing
AT&T residential and small business customers, who subscribe to both AT&T
unlimited local and long distance calling plans, on a combined bill, and
sign up for AT&T’s wireless service.
more
New AT&T Unity Plan Appealing For High-Volume Callers Only 1/26/7
TRAC.org
Mark A. Winther, a telecommunications analyst with IDC, a technology
consulting firm, says the package would probably appeal to high-volume
customers, both in the consumer market and in small businesses, not to the
shopper looking for the lowest monthly rate.
more
Links
AT&T’s Unity Web Page
|
