With all the buzz about Twitter as a customer service tool and many well known companies diving in, you might be asking yourself, should your company use Twitter to connect with your customers. There are a number of things to consider as you answer this question but the most important (by far) is “are your customers using Twitter?”

If they are not, that will affect how you use Twitter. You can’t connect to people who are not there.

Mashable estimates about 12% of the US population will be using Twitter by the end of 2009 with 18% by 2010.

Consider where you do business. Some states have many more people using Twitter. For example, here is a ranking of the top 10 states in the USA based on their Twitter users

1. California
2. Texas
3. New York
4. Flordia
5. Illinois

With all of this in mind, what Telecom Carriers are using twitter at all, and who is using it as a traditional one way push marketing tool.

Carrier Support Twitter Accounts
@askintelletrace            Intelletrace Inc.
@verizonsupport           Verizon Business
@sprintcare                    Sprint
@talktoqwest                  Qwest Communications

Carriers with Marketing ONLY or unknown usage.
@lvlt                                Level3 – Unused Many Followers no tweets
@attnews                       AT&T – Marketing
@xolearning                  XO – Marketing
@Globalcrossing          Global Crossing - Marketing
@integra_cares            Integra Telecom – Many Followers no tweets
@grandecom                 Grande Communications – Marketing
@abovenet                    Abovenet Communications – Many Followers no tweets

No Twitter Accouts Found at all
Yipes
Electric Lightwave
Cogent Communications
Time Warner Telecom
360 Networks

Do the carriers with no twitter presence even know they are being talked about?  Are the Carriers with only a marketing presence doing a traditional PUSH method or are they actually using it as a tool? For the few Carriers Intelletrace, Verizon Business, Sprint, and Qwest Communications, my Congrats for being a telecommunications leader in support.

A great example is a post recently sent out here.  Are you following yet?  It describes an outage with Level3 and Verizon Business.

I have focused on terrestrial telecommunication carriers.  If you want your information to be added to this post, I will be happy to do it at any time.  Just Tweet me @dzerbe or Post a comment to this blog.

On Monday, Verizon Wireless announced its entry into the market for femtocells, small home cell sites expressly designed to allow mobile phones to place calls within a 5000 Square foot radius.  This creates a Mini Cell Site.

Verizon’s “Network Extender” device is priced at $249.99, a flat fee that will not be supplemented – or subsidized – by any monthly pricing. The device is manufactured by Samsung.

Sprint also provides a similar device, the Airrave, while T-Mobile’s HotSpot@Home uses Wi-Fi to connect its handsets. To date, AT&T has not announced a femtocell offering, but is currently testing 3G MicroCell.

Verizon uses the home’s broadband connection as a backhaul, essentially translating the cellular call into a VOIP connection. Who needs it? People in rural areas that may live on the outskirts of a cell site. One drawback: EV-DO is not supported, including those services that depend on it.

Using the Network Extender doesn’t incur additional monthly charges, however, users will be charged against their plan, in minutes, for any calls they make.

The service is open to Verizon customers as well as Family Share Plan members, the company said. But Verizon customers can also use a built-in management program on the Wireless Network Extender to prevent neighboring Verizon subscribers from placing unauthorized calls.

The Wireless Network Extender will be available from Verizon Wireless stores and through its Web site, the company said.