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  <title>Comments for <![CDATA[AT&amp;T CallVantage Small Office Plan]]></title>
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    <id>tag:blog.tmcnet.com,2005:/blog/tom-keating//4.1486</id>
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    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://blog.tmcnet.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=4/entry_id=1486" title="AT&amp;T CallVantage Small Office Plan" />
    <published>2005-02-09T18:59:29Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-10T21:35:28Z</updated>
    <title>AT&amp;T CallVantage Small Office Plan</title>
    <summary><![CDATA[AT&amp;T CallVantage announced their CallVantage Small Office Plan yesterday..Here's the release in case you missed it...February 8, 2005 - BEDMINSTER, N.J. – AT&amp;T announced today the immediate availability of its AT&amp;T CallVantage® Small Office Plan targeting Small Office/Home Office (SOHO)...]]></summary>
    <author>
      <name>Tom Keating</name>
      <uri>http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/</uri>
    </author>
    
    <category term="VoIP" />
    
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      <![CDATA[<p>AT&amp;T CallVantage announced their CallVantage Small Office Plan yesterday..<br /><br />Here's the release in case you missed it...<br /><br />February 8, 2005 - BEDMINSTER, N.J. – AT&amp;T announced today the immediate availability of its <br />
AT&amp;T CallVantage<sup>®</sup> Small Office Plan targeting Small Office/Home <br />
Office (SOHO) workers with a broadband phone service that delivers tremendous <br />
calling capabilities and cost benefits to help them grow their business.<br />
<p>This feature-rich, two-line offer includes unlimited local and long-distance <br />
calling throughout the U.S. and Canada, plus the ability to send and receive <br />
faxes for $49.99 per month.</p><br />
<p>“The Small Office Plan is a robust solution for small-office communications, <br />
providing substantial savings over traditional telephone services and increasing <br />
productivity through advanced features,” said Cathy Martine, AT&amp;T senior <br />
vice president for Internet Telephony. “Most home offices will find they can <br />
keep their existing telephone numbers and expand their community or geographic <br />
visibility by purchasing additional numbers in other areas.</p><br />
<p>“And, it’s loaded with features strengthened by the introduction of our <br />
industry-leading sub-account capabilities that we delivered to users late last <br />
year. Called AT&amp;T CallVantage<sup>®</sup> Plus, SOHO workers can receive <br />
calls when and where they want, providing each member of their business a <br />
completely customizable telephone experience. No other broadband phone provider <br />
delivers this unique control.”</p><br />
<p>At the heart of the offer is the AT&amp;T CallVantage Service platform that <br />
provides the ability to subscribe to as many as nine distinctive telephone <br />
numbers on the primary line. For an additional monthly charge of $7.49 per <br />
number, each additional number’s inbound call experience can be managed <br />
independently, even though all the numbers share the same line. </p><br />
<p>In this manner, it’s possible for users of the AT&amp;T CallVantage Small <br />
Office Plan to receive multiple calls by using AT&amp;T’s powerful ‘Locate Me’ <br />
feature while sharing two lines. ‘Locate Me’ makes it possible to ring up to <br />
five phones, all at once, or sequentially. If the primary office phones are <br />
busy, calls would be automatically redirected to alternate locations such as <br />
employee home phones, cell phones or voicemail.</p><br />
<p>“Now the SOHO community has the ability to economically assign each of their <br />
workers or departments with their own individual telephone number without the <br />
investment of dedicated telephone lines or the installation of expensive PBX <br />
equipment,” explained Martine. “Imagine running a small home-based business with <br />
the ability to assign separate numbers to each of your virtual workers. By using <br />
features like ‘Locate Me,’ those workers can receive calls at home or while <br />
traveling at no additional expense.</p><br />
<p>“These additional numbers can be local to the SOHO or be assigned area codes <br />
that are strategically located throughout the U.S. It’s a great way to look like <br />
a much larger player in the marketplace, with minimal expense.”</p><br />
<p>The AT&amp;T CallVantage Small Office Plan also includes all of AT&amp;T’s <br />
standard and advanced VoIP services with access to all of its premium features. <br />
An example of a premium feature would be the recently introduced ‘Call <br />
Filtering’ capability that, when combined with other service features, provides <br />
the ability to direct calls based on who is calling. ‘Call Filtering’ carries a <br />
monthly recurring charge of $1.99.</p><br />
<p>Workers might elect to use ‘Do Not Disturb’ to send all calls directly to <br />
voicemail when meeting with clients, while allowing calls from the boss to <br />
always ring through.</p><br />
<p>A small-office worker might use AT&amp;T’s ‘Record &amp; Send’ feature to <br />
update as many as 20 key clients or colleagues at once with important product <br />
availability or pricing information with a single message delivered by phone, <br />
rather than making repetitive calls.</p><br />
<p>AT&amp;T also delivers this market segment its popular ‘Conference Calling’ <br />
feature that enables callers to establish a 10-line conference call. The account <br />
holder is charged a very affordable flat rate of 35 cents per minute, regardless <br />
of whether four conference lines are used or all 10.</p><br />
<p>“Based upon IDC's view of the market, AT&amp;T’s latest offering will meet <br />
the needs of the small business customer,&quot; said Will Stofega, Senior Analyst at <br />
IDC.  “IDC believes that there is no substitute for experience, given the <br />
potential that VoIP holds in reshaping the telecom ecosystem. The AT&amp;T <br />
CallVantage features move AT&amp;T to the head of the class in terms of product <br />
flexibility and enhancements that accommodate ease of use.”</p><br />
<p>According to a Small Business Administration office automation study by <br />
TeleNomic Research in March 2004, smaller businesses spend more per employee on <br />
telecommunications than do their larger counterparts. The study cites the <br />
typical small office comprised of four or fewer employees using two telephone <br />
lines spending, on average, $153 a month.</p><br />
<p>“A typical four-person business might spend $65 a month for unlimited service <br />
giving each user their own telephone number which represents rather significant <br />
savings over traditional business calling,” said Martine. “It’s a no lose <br />
proposition for those ready to take the plunge into VoIP.”</p><br />
<p>Introduced in late March 2004, AT&amp;T CallVantage Service is now serving <br />
customers in more than 170 markets in 39 states and Washington, D.C.,with a <br />
customer supplied high-speed Internet connection such as cable or DSL. It’s <br />
estimated that about a third of all small offices maintain a broadband <br />
connection</p><table width="390" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" class="planDetailFeatures"><tbody><tr><td width="195" valign="top" style="padding-top: 10px;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />
</p>]]>
      
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