U.S. telecom behemoth AT&T Inc. T recently launched an innovative WiFi-Small Site service for small and mid-sized businesses (SMB). AT&T will provide the enterprise a dedicated self-installed access point using which the business entity will offer free public WiFi connectivity to their customer’s.
This network will be completely separate from the enterprise’s internal WiFi network set-up. The business entity will be able to gather useful information about customers from the dedicated WiFi network which will help it to boost future business prospects. The WiFi-Small Site will run on the enterprise’s existing connections with a minimum speed of 6 Mbps.
Large telecom operators are yet again eyeing the SMB service market to reclaim their long-lost glory. Over the last 6-7 years, the SMB segment has become a major growth driver for cable MSOs (multi service operators) and regional communications service providers, who sidelined telecom operators using high-speed metro Ethernet link over the traditional T1 and DSL links.
Meanwhile, significant improvement in business data and video traffic is expected to act as a future growth catalyst for the overall telecom industry. Various industry researches estimate that the SMB segment may offer a market opportunity of $20 – $30 billion over the long-haul. This massive market opportunity may encourage telecom giants to restructure their SMB market strategy.
Recently, T-Mobile U.S. Inc. TMUS unveiled the "Un-Carrier for Business" plan. Subscribing to this plan, small businesses can add up to 10 lines for $16 a month and over 20 lines for a reduced price of $15 a month. In the enterprise adds over 1,000 lines then the price will further drop to $10 a month.
Sprint Corp. S has also strengthened its SMB services by offering a Workplace-as-a-Service (WPaaS). Notably, WPaaS is a fully managed service provided by Sprint which includes WiFi, wireless, mobile device management and unified communications.
In the meantime, Verizon Communications Inc. VZ, which is rolling out its fiber-based FiOS Internet service, has decided to offer a free SpeedMatch for SMBs who opt for the FiOS service. AT&T is also rapidly expanding its fiber-based U-verse network and has announced a new high-speed asymmetric 25 Mbps service for $50 a month to all SMBs located within its U-Verse footprint.
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