Time Warner offers business phone service option

  Another choice for phone service is coming to Yuma-area small businesses by the end of the month.

  Time Warner is getting ready to launch its Business Class Phone service in the Yuma area, making it the 27th market to receive the service, said Christopher Bouchey, project manager who is traveling from market to market to oversee the effort and make sure it will be seamless.

  "We're making a lot of attention to detail," he said. "Business customers can't be without phones so we need to make sure everything is ready before we start installing."

  The work began some time back with Time Warner making a major investment in the local system to ensure it can support the phone service, Bouchey said. Those upgrades have meant good news for cable television and high-speed online customers of Time Warner as well, with better service and fewer outages, he added.

  In the markets where Business Class Phone has been introduced, it has been met favorably, Bouchey said. It offers all of the features of traditional phone service, including rollover lines, caller identification, three-way conferencing, voice mail and call waiting at no extra charge.

  Customers will be able to keep the same phone numbers, which would continue to be listed in the phone directory white pages.

  Best of all, Business Class Phone offers competitive rates that could save business customers 10-20 percent on their phone service, Bouchey said. The price varies, depending on whether the customer has "bundled" Time Warner services and length of the contract.

  The lowest price of $39.95 per line would apply to a customer who also subscribes to Time Warner cable television and high-speed online service and signs up for a three-year contract. A customer who signs up for one year and has only the Time Warner phone service would pay $54.95 per line.

  "We don't discount lines, just products and length of commitment," Bouchey said.

  That one price is for unlimited local calling and free long distance made anytime to anywhere in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Calls to Mexico would cost 10 cents a minute.

   Bouchey said the phone service has been launched in 27 markets since March 2007, mainly in large cities in the eastern part of the country. Now the service is being introduced to western parts of the United States and to smaller markets such as Yuma.

  Residential service already is available and has been "well received," he said. Now that it's coming to the commercial side, "businesses are excited about having a choice. If they're a high-speed data customer, the same infrastructure will allow the phone service."

  Installation of a modem will allow use of existing phone equipment for Business Class service that will be carried over the Time Warner network, he said.

  Initially, Business Class will be offered to small- to medium-sized businesses defined as five to 20 employees. It will be extended to larger businesses at a future date.

  For more information about Time Warner Cable Business Class, call business account executives Suzie Daniel at 343-7123 or Erika Farrell at 343-7122.

  Business Class also will be launched May 12 in El Centro with the same salespeople.

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Joyce Lobeck can be reached at
jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853.