All or nothing
More companies are letting go of their hard-wired connections and not looking back.
For small to midsize businesses that can't invest in two telecom networks, going totally wireless is more cost effective. "I wanted something that was fast but that didn't cost what a T1 cost," says Tom McShane, owner of Bimark, a logo goods supplier whose annual revenue was more than US$4 million last year. The company, based in Cupertino, California, regularly sends 200K to 300K logos to clients via email, so it needed something more than a standard modem connection.
In January 1999, McShane signed up with Wavepath, a service provider (bought by Sprint last year) that was looking to beta-test its system. He paid $175 a month for the service with no installation or equipment costs. "We were using a 56Kbps dial-up modem, so I figured we had nothing to lose," says McShane.
During the beta test, he says, the service was down twice within a 12-month period, but since Sprint has taken over there has been only one occasion of downtime and McShane now pays just $199 a month. "It's worked out phenomenally wellâ€"fast, reliable, and cheap," he adds.
Midsize companies are seeing similar results. At the IBM Southeast Employees' Federal Credit Union, Wendell Blakeley, senior vice president of the 52,000-member credit union, found Fuzion more flexible than his local telecom provider, BellSouth.
Two years ago, Blakeley wanted to upgrade a branch office's 56Kbps connection to a T1 line so that it could quickly send mortgage loan information to the main office. Since the lease on the branch office was almost up, however, he was reluctant to sign a long-term contract-â€"but without the contract BellSouth wouldn't offer him any price breaks.
Fuzion agreed to provide a T1-comparable wireless link at a discount over BellSouth's price. "They were so easy and accommodating," Blakeley says of Fuzion. "They were hungry and wanted the business. We took advantage of that. It was refreshing."
When the branch moved closer to the credit union's main location in Boca Raton, Blakeley stayed with Fuzion. He pays $700 a month; installation and equipment cost $1,500.
