DIA options for businesses run the gamut from DSL to integrated T-1 to full T-1 and larger. As a business owner, how do you decide how much DIA is enough? When are you not spending enough and when are you spending too much?

Who's complaining? If you've read this far it's because you, the business owner, are complaining to yourself that you're paying for more Internet access than you need or your employees and/or customers are complaining that you're not buying enough decent Internet access to conduct business in a timely fashion. In any event your current situation is your point of departure for saving money, improving performance or both.

Save more to buy more! If you've had your current DIA service in for a year, it's highly likely that the price for the same or similar service has come down. When quoting out the same DIA service after a year, many business owners are surprised to discover they can save as much as 30% - savings that can be kept or re-invested in more DIA if needed.

Router hostages no more!  Many business owner feel they can not switch DIA providers because their DIA provider has provided their DIA router and the business owner does not want to fool around with installing or configuring their own router. As most business owners know, the trick to getting the best technology solution pricing is to break the technology solution into its core components. With DIA, when you separate the DIA service from the carrier-provided "managed router" that makes the DIA work you save even more money. But where do you get the cheaper "managed router"? Many firms now specialize in providing "carrier agnostic" routers. One example is TelNes Broadband. Just tell TelNess which carrier you're ordering your DIA from and they'll drop ship a router to you that's ready to "plug and play".

Next Step? Click or call now! Nothing's simpler than pricing out DIA. All you need to know is your physical service address and/or a working phone number at the address. Call me or click the link below and I'll get you several DIA quotes within 24-hours from the industries best DIA providers - and at the best current price.

Click here to get 5 DIA quotes in 24-hours.

Is AT&T’s “Unity Plan” The Cellular Solution” Small Business Needs? 

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.

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