Regional wireless carrier C Spire is spreading its wings and targeting the small and medium business (SMB) sector with a new business services unit. C Spire Business Solutions will offer bundled wireless, HD Voice phone services and fixed-rate dedicated Internet access services to SMBs “…throughout Mississippi as well as areas of Tennessee and Alabama.”
Offers will include C Spire’s wireless services, a hosted PBX service featuring HD Voice, and dedicated Internet access from 1.5 Mbps to 1 Gbps. “Our teams can develop and implement personalized, complete communication solutions for businesses that are tailored to their needs and designed to ensure success in the marketplace and an improved bottom line,” said Craig Borncamp, director of business sales for C Spire Business Solutions in a press release.
C Spire will use HD Voice solutions from Polycom. Customers will be able to port existing numbers or gain new ones. The hosted PBX service will also feature “… dialing features that seamlessly integrate with existing wireless services.”
For C Spire, the move illustrates a strategy to tap the lucrative SMB business sector with services beyond their core wireless offer. It’s a strategy that their larger competitors are already quite active in. Carriers of all shapes, sizes, and colors are increasingly turning to the SMB sector as a source for growth, particularly when core business lines are declining or flat at best. It makes for a very robust and competitive marketplace, as telco, wireless, and even cable companies fiercely compete for the hearts of SMB clients.
C Spire has not revealed how it will provide wireline Internet connectivity for this new SMB offer, but I would assume they will leverage the network of their sister company Telepak Networks. Telepak is a facilities based CLEC, operating a 1,780 route mile fiber network throughout Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida. They offer both business and residential services throughout their footprint. Both C Spire and Telepak are subsidiaries of Telapex, which also owns a couple independent telcos in the southeast.
C Spire, formerly Cellular South, is headquartered in Mississippi and has approximately 900K wireless subscribers across its southeastern U.S. footprint. They recently launched 4G LTE services and will soon launch the iPhone 5.
