California businesses can tap into Comcast’s Deluxe 100 wideband tier and a switched voice trunk service now that both have been launched in the Golden State.
“Internet speeds this fast are a game-changer for businesses,” said Bill Stemper, president of Comcast Business Services. “100 Mbps provides the bandwidth required for an office full of people to access the hosted, cloud-based services that are fueling business productivity while also reducing costs.”
It’s been a busy week for Comcast’s DOCSIS 3.0-based Deluxe 100 launches. The rollout in California followed on the heels of recent launches in Richmond, Va., and Salt Lake City.
Comcast first introduced the Deluxe 100 tier for businesses in the Twin Cities, which is also where its first DOCSIS 3.0 offering was launched in 2008, two years ago with speeds of up to 100 Mbps on the downstream and 10 Mbps on the upstream. The bulk of the ensuing Deluxe 100 rollouts featured upstream speeds of 5 Mbps, but both the California and Richmond launches came with 10 Mbps on the upstream.
With the addition of California, Deluxe 100 is now available in Comcast’s hometown of Philadelphia, New Jersey, northern Delaware, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Augusta, Ga., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Salt Lake City, Colorado, the Memphis area, Washington State and Oregon.
Comcast mainly competes with data offerings from AT&T in California. The Deluxe 100 tier is up to 60 times faster than download speeds from a standard T1 line.
The 100 Mbps tier is available to Comcast’s business-class customers for $369.95 per month and includes Microsoft Communication Services, which Comcast said was valued at more than $500, and a productivity suite that combines Windows SharePoint and Microsoft Outlook e-mail powered by Microsoft Exchange Server for no additional fee.
Comcast is also now offering its Business Class Trunks service to businesses in California. Comcast Business Class Trunks provides a connection between the customer’s telephone system (their PBX) and the Comcast network. A customer can choose to have any number of voice channels – essentially simultaneous usable phone lines – from six all the way up to 23.
“Our scalable voice trunking solution enables businesses with more sophisticated communications needs or multiple locations to have a reliable phone service,” said Mark O’Leary, regional vice president of business services for Comcast California. “Since our IP network is physically separate and diverse from leased or public facilities, disruptions to other networks do not impact the performance of our network. Plus, when Comcast Business Class Trunks are coupled with lightning-fast Comcast business-class Internet, business owners can save up to 20 percent over other offerings.”
With Comcast Business Class Trunks, every employee in a business has the option of their own direct line as opposed to a main line with extension. As a business grows, Comcast said trunks and employee phone numbers could be easily increased.