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The cell carriers continue their rush to the bottom, as the long-awaited real competition emerges for customers. AT&T introduced a new calling plan designed for small businesses that lets them pool their employees' phones and minutes, while Verizon Wireless dropped the price of smartphone use for those without an enterprise behind them.The AT&T plan, calledBusinessTalk, ports their family plan (cleverly named FamilyTalk) for small business use. Businesses can start with five users and 700 minutes at $60 per month, which is an incredibly low entry point. The BusinessTalk plan tops out at $1,075 per month with 40 users and 20,000 minutes. There are 10 plan levels with gradations of cost and service, and lines can be added for $9.99 per month (up to a total of 40 users) without increasing the minute pool, too.
Extra minutes are 45 cents a piece for the low-end plans and 25 cents a pop at the high end.BusinessTalk includes either unlimited Push to Talk (the walkie-talkie style intra-group communication) or Mobile to Mobile (calling other AT&T wireless lines) at no extra charge. Both services can be had, however, for $9.99 per month extra per user.For many small businesses, this could be a huge savings over having to either reimburse people for their individual phone usage or plans, or having a variety of separate plans....more
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