Finance Q&A

Alternative to Bellsouth for business phone service?

Q. Does anybody know if there is a company that provides local business phone service in Atlanta aside from Bellsouth? Did business phone service get deregulated and opened up to competition as well as residential?

A. Media One (now called AT&T Broadband) offers phone service, but I don't recommend it based on it taking them 10 visits to get mine working correctly. But if you can put up with initial hassles, it's cheaper than Bellsouth. There are many phone cos in Atlanta. Most of them except for AT&T however still use Bell South's plant from the Central Office to the end user so when a cable is damaged- such as what happened at several places this week, those companies lose service as well as BellSouth's customers. As for the other companies, how important is your business service to you? BellSouth places a very high priority on business phone services-especially digital circuits like T-1s and such where they have a 2 hour response time 24 hours a day. I doubt that you would be able to call another company at 3AM Sunday morning and have a tech on site by 5AM. Can we talk about money? My monthly bill in Gwinnett -grinding teeth, and it ain't about phones - My phone bill runs about $24/mo. Same as everywhere for basic usage (the net :-) Can anyone beat my basic rate for Gwinnett? Or anywhere else, for that matter - I NEED to move. People in this area do not know how lucky they are. Having moved here from a city with one phone co (Ameritech) that starts at $25 a month PLUS charges time and distance for EVERY local call (usually 5 cents for the 1st minute to call across the street), being able to call from Austell to Lawrenceville for free is great!