Thursday, April 03, 2008

Contract Expiration Means Opportunity

Business telecom services are usually sold on 1, 2 or 3 year contracts with monthly leasing fees for the service. While the contract is in force, the price you pay is locked in. You don't have to worry about your rate going up every month, but then you don't have an opportunity for cost savings either. It's when your contract expires that opportunity exists.

So isn't the potential for rising rates more of a threat than whatever cost savings you might negotiate? No, it's just the opposite for most businesses. Your fear of getting stuck with regular percentage increases is really a function of your service provider having you over a barrel. Or at least thinking they do. Once you have other options, you'll be counting the days until you can get out from under that oppressive contract.

How can it be that there are better service options out there, when you thought you negotiated your best price two or three years ago? There are a couple of good reasons. First, did you really negotiate the best possible deal? Or did you work your local ISP or telco for a package that represented a savings over what you paid on the last contract? You may or may not have gotten the best rates they had available. How much they'll come down depends on the competitive situation. If they are the only provider or are going up against someone with obviously high prices, they only need to offer a modest savings to land the contract.

The way to get dramatically better deals is to change the competitive landscape. Are you aware that there are probably several and perhaps many competitive service providers that are not listed in the phone book? Yet, they provide telephone trunk lines, dedicated Internet service, fiber optic bandwidth, and wireless or satellite delivered services.

Many of these carriers will contract with your local phone company to get last-mile access via telco lines to your business. They may just least the copper connections but use them to provide advanced services such as Ethernet Wide Area Networks. Or they may construct their own fiber optic lines to your location if you are close to one of their Points of Presence. Satellite Internet connections for retail stores, gas stations, theaters and other businesses with multiple locations is available just about anywhere.

You could spend a lot of time researching alternative service options, but that's not necessary. Not since there is a service already available that does this for you with a team of experts and a lot of proprietary technology. What would you say if I told you that you can use this service for free and you'll get prices as good or better than if you negotiated with each carrier yourself?

I hope you are saying "I'll take that service." OK. Go ahead and use the online telecommunications service inquiry form we have available at T1 Rex. Or call the toll free number posted there. If you use the form, it will take only a couple of minutes and you'll see online search results for service and prices available at your location. These include T1 lines, DS3 line service, ISDN PRI telephone trunks, bonded T1 lines, and more. Other services, such as Metro Ethernet, OC3 and other fiber optic SONET services require a little more effort by the staff and don't show up immediately. Neither do special limited time offers, so it will be worth your while to have a chat with one of the expert consultants.

Once you have a printout with 3 to 30 competitive quotes for the voice or data services you need, you'll no longer have to fear contract expirations. You'll likely be looking forward to them. Some companies have even found savings so great that it makes sense to pay cancellation fees on their old contract because they can make it up quickly with the dramatically lower prices of their new contracts. That might not be your situation, but you'll never know until you try. Take a few minutes and check competitive voice and data service pricing now.

Click to check pricing and features or get support from a Telarus product specialist.




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