Integra Telecom latest to shun small biz, move upmarket

There has been a shift in telecom that small and mid-size businesses should be aware of.

Consumer choice. We love it. That's why the AT&T/T-Mobile merger is an emotional one; why late-to-the market products can still earn our hearts and dollars. Unfortunately, choice is going away for some telecommunications consumers.

Providers are passing up the opportunity to serve businesses billing less than a couple hundred dollars per month in telecom expenditures. Typically, that's any business with fewer than 6 employees (e.g. small design, architecture and accounting firms, doctor practices and start-ups). It's any business that just need basic POTs lines or less than 4 lines in a broadband bundle.

Integra Telecom, the only CLEC that sold basic POTs lines as a stand-alone service (i.e. all the others are resellers), will stop doing so at the end of May. At that time, they will no longer accept new orders under $200. (Although they will continue to serve existing small business customers.)

So forget rapture, an end is coming to telecom in just 4 business days.