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Momentum Builds for CLECs
Tuesday July 22, 2008,
07:08 am ET
BATES COUNTY, Missouri, Jul. 22 /Jerome Jones/ --
Business broadband, its price, and who can afford it, are changing. Every day an increasing number
of business are finding the new broadband services made available to them by the "new" telecommunications
companies that are emerging from the latest round of mergers and acquisitions. Overlapping networks
are being consolidated into bigger and leaner footprints, lowering the cost of dynamic integrated
digital signal 1 (DS1) service to the price range of about five regular phone lines. Small to medium
size business can now afford services once reserved for the Fortune 1000 companies.
"Like Forrest Gump said, finding the right phone service for your business is
like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get" joked
Elizabeth Forest of Detroit, Michigan. "Before finding Cavalier Telephone
through my Telarus agent, I was mislead into signing up for services that weren't
a good fit for my business. Add to that the billing inaccuracies and the hassle
it was to get everything straightened out. My new integrated T1 works flawlessly,
I am able to get full T1 data speeds when no one is on the phone, and I don't
fear opening the bill when it arrives in the mail each month."
The Missouri area is one place in particular where the analog to digital
revolution is gaining traction. One business owner we interviewed about
his recent decision to become a digital convert, Peter Anderson, explained
that "my biggest hindrance was my ignorance. Had I known that there was
a solution that would allow me to increase the number of voice lines,
get a full T1 (1.5 MB) of high-speed Internet, all for less than I was paying
for my POTS/DSL configuration, I would have made the move a long time ago."
Many others like Mr. Anderson are coming to the same conclusion.
"For years I've played tug-o-war with the phone company who provided voice and data
service to my toy manufacturing company" commented Troy Bergfeld of Houston Texas.
"They kept trying to sell me services I didn't need, it took them months to finally
send me a correct bill, and I wasn't able to recapture bandwidth from my T1 line
when nobody was using the phone. Now that has all changed - my Telarus product
specialist recommending I give XO Communications a try. Now I use their FLEX T1
product and I pay less and get exactly what I want. I have even add another T1
seamlessly when the time comes for my business to expand."
But how much longer will we continue to see improved technology, services, and prices?
It's all in the hands of the Federal Communications Commission, as they have the power
to sqwash the CLECs by proxy. No wonder AT&T and Verizon are the two biggest lobbying
powers in Washington. It makes you wonder what kind of services they would be able to
offer had they plowed that money into R&D instead of politics.
Looking in the crystal ball of the future, it is clear that new an innovated services
being offered by the few super-CLECs remaining will drive innovation higher and prices
lower. New technology is being pressed to the forefront by lower prices that the mainstream
of small businesses everywhere can comfortably afford.
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