AT&T dives into VoIP

It is a week for the big boys with AT&T finally unveiling its VoIP product to be deployed as part of a tripleplay bundle with its U-Verse service. Detroit gets first dibs on the residential VoIP offering, and AT&T says it will expand the service to other U-Verse regions this year. 

Neither Verizon nor U-Verse could be accused of jumping into the end-user IP-voice marketplace and, like every telco in the world, there are many carrier executives who see themselves as losers in the IP evolution as call margins are slashed and slashed again. While the business services groups for both carriers are busily ramping up their IP product suite and know how, the residential departments have been lagging, hoping it might just all go away. 

Pure plays like Vonage might not survive, but the greatest rivals for the telcos are the big cable companies that all are rapidly transforming themselves into full-suite, digitally-based carriers. Ironically cable digital voice is not bargain basement, and the U-Verse Voice service will come bundled at the not-cheap rate of $114 a month, with the actual voice service beginning at $30.

For More:
- AT&T press release
[1]- AT&T moves into Detroit with VoIP Article [2] 

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Go to our sister site FierceTelecom [3] for detailed coverage of AT&T's Q4 earnings 
AT&T's VoIP, U-Verse plans Report [4]