New mobile solution allows small businesses to cut the cord and save at least 40 per cent off their monthly bill

Adoption of new solution could generate nearly $1 billion/year¹ to be reinvested in Canadian businesses

TORONTO, July 19, 2016 /CNW/ - Starting today, Rogers is offering small businesses Rogers Unison_TM, a new mobile solution that brings the features of a traditional landline phone to their mobile phone. As the first telecommunications provider in North America to launch such a solution, Rogers is eliminating the need for small businesses to stay tethered to their desk phone. This means that businesses will have the ability to connect with customers and employees regardless of location, increasing their productivity while also saving dollars previously spent on landlines.

"We're bringing a North American first to Canadian small businesses by making it possible for them to use their mobile phone to connect their entire business and team, eliminating the need for dated desk phones," said Nitin Kawale, President, Enterprise Business Unit, Rogers Communications. "We think it's about time Canadian businesses have access to a mobile solution that not only lets them improve productivity and truly operate business on the go, but also realize significant cost savings."

Small businesses today spend an average of $25-50 a month for each landline² and with Rogers Unison, customers can save at least 40 per cent of those costs by cutting the cord to their traditional desk phone. This could amount to at least $300-600 a year, on average, for every landline they eliminate. Customers can keep their landline number, and the solution can be set up within minutes, no application or software installation is required. It's powered by BroadSoft, the number one global provider of Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) services³, and as of today is available to small businesses across Canada on an existing Share Everything_TM for business plan. A Rogers Unison solution for larger businesses and the public sector will be available later this year.

Rogers Unison offers small businesses a simple web portal to change or modify features such as:

• Look professional with 'Auto Attendant': A fully automated answering system greets customers and directs calls to the appropriate live person based on a directory of options.
  
  
• Never miss a call with 'Hunt Groups': With Hunt Groups, incoming calls are routed from team member to team member until a live voice answers. This ensures a small businesses' customer is never left on hold and can always reach someone live.
  
  
• Create local identities with 'Dual Persona': Now customers can keep their existing local phone number and also use it on their mobile device. They can also appear to have a local presence in multiple regions by adding and routing 'local' numbers from multiple regions to their mobile device.

"Canadian businesses increasingly rely on mobile devices to conduct business and they need access to more solutions like Rogers Unison that give them the breadth of services traditionally only available on office desk phones" said Mark Goldberg, a telecom industry consultant and founder, Mark H. Goldberg & Associates. "It's good to see Rogers offer a solution that brings all the features of landline phones to mobile devices, delivering the opportunity for significant productivity gains to small businesses."

For more information on Rogers Unison, visit rogers.com/unison and the Rogers Business Forum.  

About Rogers

Rogers is a leading diversified Canadian communications and media company.  We are Canada's largest provider of wireless voice and data communications services and one of Canada's leading providers of cable television, high-speed Internet and telephony services to consumers and businesses. Through Rogers Media we are engaged in radio and television broadcasting, televised shopping, magazines and trade publications, and sports entertainment. Our shares are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:  RCI.A and RCI.B) and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RCI).

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1} Rogers internal research
² Rogers internal research
³ Frost & Sullivan

SOURCE Rogers Communications Canada Inc. - English