Is AT&T Going Out of Business?
With AT&T announcing that it is getting out of the residential marketplace in many states,
AT&T local and long distance users will need to find a new carrier. While AT&T is not canceling
the service of existing customers, they are no longer accepting customers in Arkansas, Missouri,
Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Tennessee and Washington. While this will only affect
new service to residential customers and not to business or government customer, it should make
AT&T users a little leery about the stability of this 109 year old company.
Both ExchangeMag.com and Forbes.com have more
extensive articles on the subject, But, If I were an AT&T customer, I would look at moving my
local and long distance service away from ATT and move it to one of the telephone companies
below. These companies all have a good track record of innovation, customer service and all use
digital lines for great sound quality. And, best of all, they are all a lot cheaper than AT&T
Long Distance.
- Covista Long Distance
2.5¢ per minute:
Covista offer 6 second billing with 6 second rounding and now monthly fees for customers who
sign up using a credit card. An excellent long distance plan with great prices.
- OPEX Long
Distance 2.7¢ per minute:
Opex has the best customer service around. Combine
that with their great rates, and they are the company I recommend most. I have been recommending
there long distance service for years to my customers, and once a customer chooses Opex, they
never switch to another company. To me, that proves how great their products and customer
service really are.
- Powernet Global 3.9¢
per minute:
Powernet Global has 4 pretty good plans to choose from, they also have 24 hour customer service.
- Pioneer Telephone
Company 2.7¢ to 3.25¢ per minute:
Pioneer Telephone is a good company with 3 plans to choose from. They have good customer service
which is open from 9am to 8pm eastern time.
- Total Call International
3.9¢ per minute:
The 3.9¢ plan from Total Call International offers 6 second billing with a 6 second minimum. TCI
has a monthly minimum of $20.00, with a $2.50 billing fee if you don't use that much
service.
- FonVantage Starting at $24.99 per month:
This Unlimited Plan offers Local and long distance bundled service for one flat rate monthly
fee as low as $24.99 per month and includes the most popular features such as caller ID, call
waiting and 3-way calling at no additional cost.
After looking at the above plans and comparing them to long distance plans offered by ATT
long distance, you can see why AT&T's residential service is going down the tube. It is hard for
AT&T to compete with phone companies offering service for less than 3¢ or 4¢ per
minute, especially when they charge more and their customer service offers less.
Another reason ATT might be going down is because of their irritating habit of calling
customers during dinner time, Or, maybe it's because of some of the money ATT has had to
pay for breaking the FCC's Do-Not-Call-List Rules.
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