wah@zach.fit.edu (Bill Huttig) (12/06/90)
A few weeks ago some wrote about resellers of SDN's where AT&T does the billing. I was curious if anyone out there is a reseller using SDN's and what the legal and financial requirements are. Bill
mark@uunet.uu.net (Mark Oberg) (12/07/90)
In article <15255@accuvax.nwu.edu> Bill Huttig <wah@zach.fit.edu> writes: >A few weeks ago some wrote about resellers of SDN's where AT&T does >the billing. I was curious if anyone out there is a reseller using >SDN's and what the legal and financial requirements are. There are still a few companies left who have reseller contracts with AT&T for SDN service, but as I understand it AT&T is not providing any new contracts of that type and is not renewing any of the old ones. The company that I work for is a reseller of Long Distance services and was originally trying to get that sort of contract, where we sell the service and AT&T does the billing. MCI and US Sprint also do not have that type of contract available. What you *can* do is to become a reseller that does their own billing. I can tell you from personal aggravation that it is not an easy thing to do. AT&T and MCI do not have reseller programs. You may find that other carriers offer you the ability to resell their services but that the minimums and deposits required may be excessive depending on the scope of your venture. Then, you have to come up with a billing system ... not exactly off-the-shelf. Still, it can be done and if you are persistant and resolute you may find it to be an interesting business. Good luck! Disclaimer: I suppose there ought to be one, so here one is! Mark Oberg uunet!hadron!lsw!grout!mark
macy@fmsystm.uucp (Macy Hallock) (12/08/90)
In article <15255@accuvax.nwu.edu>: >A few weeks ago some wrote about resellers of SDN's where AT&T does >the billing. I was curious if anyone out there is a reseller using >SDN's and what the legal and financial requirements are. AT&T SDN (and their Tariff 1 services, too) can be resold. In fact AT&T offers the billing services required to bill users of aggregated or resold services directly. There are several companies in this program at this time. This has been a controversial offering from AT&T. Even AT&T's own employees don't much care for it. I'm told it was intended to allow AT&T to capture the lower end of the market where their own marketing might not overcome the price competition. I'm also told that a minimum commitment of $ 3,000,000.00 per month must observed, along with a subatantial cash deposit, unless you are able to show very strong creditworthiness. Many of these resellers are called aggregators. They then contract with agents to sell their services around the country. There are specific tariff and contract requirements that they must observe to comply with the program ... which some of the agents, in their zeal to make a buck, sometimes forget about. If you call your AT&T business office or service rep, you will be told that resale does not exist, or is, at best, done by dubious organizations. AT&T major account reps greatly fear aggregators because they will lose sales credit if a client signs with at aggregator. You will sometimes hear account reps utter half truths about the service. Since AT&T has trained almost noone inside AT&T about the resale and aggregation programs, factual information is hard to find...kinda like AT&T Mail, but this threatens the account reps, so you get a negative response. AT&T also had considerable difficulties with the billing system in the early stages of the program, which gave it a bad reputation both inside and outside AT&T. Those problems are now solved. (Sounds a little bit like Sprint, eh?) If the aggregator uses AT&T billing services, and most do, AT&T billing reps work directly with the end users in resolving problems. No sweat here. I have worked with one aggregator recently. I still do not understand all the tariffs, politics and legal issues involved. My personal opinion thus far is cautious optimism. The single largest problem has been the continuing reluctance of AT&T staff to cooperate with us on service, configuration and support issues. AT&T staff members do not receive any credit, strokes or support from management when dealing with an aggregator. The message is something like: "Well, its AT&T, but its not real AT&T, so we won't help you.", as if a stigma is attached to resale aggregation. My impression that the fundemental financial and marketing concepts upon which the resale/aggregation program is built are quite sound. AT&T could litterally be selling on both sides of the street if they manage this program well. So far, they've done about as good a job on this program as they have done with AT&T Mail, though. Poor aggregator performance and AT&T's undermining of the program have contibuted to the low visibility of the program. This may eventually change. I would tell someone who is approached by an AT&T reseller/ aggregator to deal with them like any other long distance vendor: Listen to the pitch, but get the rates, tariffs and promises in contract form. If the aggregator shuts down, or fails, AT&T will not interrupt service. In fact AT&T will happily return the customer to one of the standard plans handled directly my them ... usually at higher rates. So the risk is neligible. The fact is there are real savings for the end user under the program. And AT&T's SDN and tariff 1 services work very well. I will update the Digest on this topic as I become more knowledgable. Macy M. Hallock, Jr. macy@fmsystm.UUCP macy@NCoast.ORG uunet!aablue!fmsystm!macy