Comcast Business Services recently announced the regional rollout of its chamber referral program in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia.
The program, which Comcast launched in August of last year, gives local chambers of commerce organizations the ability to offer discounts to their members on select tiers of Comcast Business Class Internet and Comcast Business Class voice products.
“Small businesses are the heart and soul of our community, and we remain dedicated to helping them increase their productivity through our business class suite of products,” said John Whalen, regional vice president for Comcast Business Services. “By partnering with Comcast on this program, local chambers of commerce are able to offer valuable savings to their members on the advanced business class products and services needed to achieve and surpass their goals, while also helping to strengthen the local business community.”
In Comcast’s recent year-end earnings conference call, CFO Michael Angelakis said business services were the second-largest contributor to cable revenue growth in 2011, with revenue increasing 41.4 percent to $1.8 billion. While Comcast has been moving up into the medium-size business sector over the past few years, Angelakis said virtually all of Comcast’s commercial service growth last year was from the small end of the market or businesses with less than 20 employees.
Through the chamber referral program, customers who sign up through their chamber of commerce can receive a 16 percent discount on Comcast’s Business Class Premium service and get speeds of up to 22 Mbps download/5 Mbps upload for $85 per month.
They can also choose Comcast’s Business Class Deluxe Internet service, which provides speeds of up to 100 Mbps download/10 Mbps upload for $160 per month, which is a discount of 15 percent off of regular pricing.
As part of the program, businesses can also receive business class voice full-featured phone lines for $29.95 per month (minimum two lines required).
A number of local chambers of commerce in Maryland and Virginia have signed on to use the program, including: the Greater Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Catonsville Chamber of Commerce, Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce, Prince William Chamber of Commerce, Frederick County Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce, among others.