Featured in this blog article are excerpts from our Competitive Telecom Market Watch publication. Listed below, you will find information from our LEC Watch section and Packages to Watch for the month of September. This monthly newsletter summarizes tariff and pricing guide changes from the largest LECs in every region, as well as major IXC pricing changes. We wanted to provide you with the opportunity to sample some of the data that is included in this month’s edition of our popular subscription newsletter.
The LEC Watch section for September includes a number of price increases made by AT&T across the former BellSouth and SBC regions. Examples of this month’s LEC Watch tariff changes include:
1) AT&T fka BellSouth – AT&T increased the business Remote Call Forwarding monthly charge to $26.05 in all states except North Carolina, which increased to $22.20. In addition, the business Speed Call 30 monthly charge decreased in AL, FL, MS, NC, SC, and TN.
2) AT&T fka SBC (Midwest, Southwest, and West) – AT&T increased the monthly rates for various business custom calling features.
In addition, the LEC Watch included the following:
1) CenturyLink QC fka Qwest – CenturyLink QC introduced a non-telecom monthly surcharge of $1.55 for customers of residential and business maintenance plans or voice messaging service in Minnesota.
2)FairPoint Communications NNE – In Maine, FairPoint increased the monthly charges for business and residential unlimited local exchange service. The Busy Line Verification rate increased to $2.75 per request, and monthly rates increased for the following custom calling features: Three Way Calling, *69, and Call Waiting ID.
The September 2013 edition lists changes to a number of LEC special package offerings that we closely monitor for inclusion in our newsletter. Because we proactively review changes for the largest carriers nationwide, our subscribers are able to make educated decisions regarding needed adjustments to rates or products to maintain competitive advantages in their markets. In the Packages to Watch section of our Competitive Telecom Market Watch newsletter, we feature tariff changes from AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, FairPoint, and more. A key tariff change for this section included the following:
AT&T Amends the Easy Rate Business Package – Easy Rate is an optional business package offer that includes a network access line, customer selected calling features, and optional hunting service. AT&T amended the offering to lower the minimum line commitment from 40 to 10 lines, added an NRC waiver clause, and eliminated the four and five year term plans.
In addition to the features we have included in this blog article, the “Watch” contains sections on Interstate and Intrastate Access changes, IXC changes, Optional Calling Plans, and new Winback promotions. If you need to track competitive tariff filings or would like assistance with monitoring various competitive rates or products, please consider TMI’s Competitive Telecom Market Watch as a reliable resource to help identify your competitors’ market maneuvers.
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