CallVantage Customers in Limbo

Several months after AT&T Inc. (T) confirmed it’s no longer taking new customers for its CallVantage VoIP service, customers of the four-year-old offering are still in limbo, with the telco yet to post any news updates on its Web site.

While consumer users seem to be directed by AT&T to its nascent U-verse VoIP service, and medium-to-large enterprises directed to a line of premises and hosted VoIP offerings from the carrier – the future seems most uncertain for small businesses.

AT&T’s VoIP page says only: Thank you for interest in AT&T VoIP service. Currently we are not accepting new orders for AT&T CallVantage for Small Business Voice over IP Service for 1-4 line small business customers.

The message only referred visitors to its Web site’s home page.

The small business segment of the enterprise market is arguably the most fiercely competitive, with cablecos continuing to aggressively package, sell and promote VoIP and other communication services to a group they contend big telcos have forgotten.

The roughly three months of radio silence seems like risky business, especially given news last week that Vonage Holdings Corp. (VG) is offering its current customers $50 for each friend they sign up for the company’s VoIP service that stays with the offering for more than 31 days.