• AT&T makes final offer to one union
By Brian Santo

AT&T is offering what it says is its final contract offer to core wireline employees in the Southwest Region (Communications Workers of America District 6).

Bargaining continues in all other regions – West (CWA District 9), East (CWA District 1), Midwest (CWA District 4) and Legacy AT&T Corp. (CWA ComTech).

The company and the unions have been negotiating for several months.

• Embarq provides biz customers with MIPT service
By Traci Patterson

Embarq Corp. is now offering businesses its Managed IP Telephony (MIPT) service, a managed IP solution that provides round-the-clock monitoring and alerting solutions, management and support services. The service takes care of a business' entire voice communications system, including call servers, media gateways, voicemail servers, routers and switches, the company said.

"Unmanaged growth could result in problems with speed, throughput, response time and other issues, causing jitter and latency," said Susan McQueeny-Scholes, director of marketing communications for Embarq Business. "Allowing Embarq to take care of these issues can help businesses focus on their core competencies while lowering their costs and needs for internal support."

Embarq, headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., offers local and long distance home phone service, high-speed Internet and wireless services, and satellite TV from Dish Network in 18 states. Embarq Business’ portfolio includes local voice and data services; long distance, business-class high-speed Internet, wireless, satellite TV and data network services; voice and data communication equipment; and managed network services.