Small businesses are treated like the last child picked for a baseball team in the broadband world. Too small to afford connections faster than DSL, which might be inadequate for their needs, and too large to find plans acceptable that, while affordable, don't provide them necessities like static, public IP addresses and business-level support. They're standing there with their ball and glove, waiting to play.

The AT&T U-Verse for Business service should therefore be of great interest to firms that want the fastest service with the least fuss. Cable providers have been offering business cable for some time, typically at just a slightly higher cost than residential service, but AT&T is pairing free hotspot office with very high-speed download rates, which could hit their offer out of the park.

The company is offering tiers from 1.5Mbps downstream and 1.0Mbps upstream for $40 per month up to 10Mbps/1.5Mbps for $100 per month. This includes providing a single Wi-Fi gateway for the office, and unlimited use on the AT&T Wi-Fi Basic network, which is Starbucks, McDonald's, Barnes & Noble, and airports that AT&T operates, but excludes hotels and roaming airports.

The service, initially offered in 40 markets served by AT&T, is enormously cheaper than what a T-1 line typically costs in the same place: usually hundreds of dollars per month for 1.5Mbps/1.5Mbps. T-1 lines can come with extremely high-level service level agreements, like 99.999 percent uptime, something that's not mentioned in today's announcement for U-Verse for Business.

That's part and parcel of this offering, though, which is focused on business users, not business servers. There's no mention on monthly data transfer limits, whether servers are allowed, or other similar issues. But for offices that need more oomphf and less expense, this should lower your bills, either through a switch to AT&T's service, or through increased competition from currently higher priced offerings.

For more PC news, visit PC World. Story copyright PC World Communications, Inc.

Whitepapers

• Best Practices for HP Servers and HP Enterprise Virtual Array in a Microsoft Exchange
• Network-Wide Change Management Visibility with Route Analytics
• REMOTE CONTROL: How to Reduce the Cost, Complexity and Risk of Managing Your Distributed IT Infrastructure
• Steal This Script: Hands-On Tips for Service Impact Network Management
• The Case for an Untethered Enterprise
• Best Practices for WAN Optimization with Data Replication

View more LANS & WANS whitepapers

Webcasts

• WAN Optimization Editorial Webcast
• Best Practices for Deploying WAN Optimization for Disaster Recovery
• Tips and Techniques for Remote Data Backup and Delivery
• WAN Optimization Landscape
• High Availability for SQL Server 2005 Using Array-Based Replication and Host-Based Mirroring Technologies
• Technical Overview of Exchange Server 2007 with HP Servers and Storage

View more LANS & WANS webcasts

Special Reports

• Network World Executive GUide: The Virtualization Equation
• Get More From Your WAN
• Learn how to Keep your Mobile Workforce Connected
• WAN Optimization: How to rev up sluggish applications
• The Wireless Explosion
• Network World Executive Guide: Perfecting Application Performance Management

View more LANS & WANS special reports