AT&T Launches Landline Texting

DALLAS -- Have you ever spent too much time on hold with a company? Have you left them a voicemail without receiving a call back? That can be very frustrating. Wouldn’t it be much faster and easier to send the company a text message and have them reply? Now you can.

AT&T is launching AT&T Landline Texting, a new service that lets businesses and government agencies send and receive text or multimedia messages using their landline or toll-free phone numbers. They can use a web, mobile, or desktop app to text their customers from a business phone line.

AT&T says its the first major U.S. carrier to offer texting-enabled communication to and from a business landline. Businesses often waste time playing phone tag with customers just to get simple information. This service helps companies reduce calls, voicemails, and back-and-forth with clients. They can also manage several text chats at once rather than spending time talking to one person.

For example, a service department at a car dealership might miss several customer requests, due to high call volumes. With this landline texting, customers could simply text their inquiries. The dealership would be able to send quick, prompt, concise responses. The service department could process their customers faster and be more productive.

This technology will allow millions of business landline or toll-free numbers in the U.S. to support text or multimedia messaging. This will transform how businesses communicate with their customers—text or call, one number does it all.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)