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Cluetrain Manifesto

by On Rad's Radar? in December 12th, 2008   
Topics: , Internet, Social Network, Web 2.0, cluetrain, economy     

On Twitter this morning, someone asked about the Cluetrain Manifesto. (I had to look at Wikipedia to remember what the main points were). The Internet will change every business.  “The authors assert that the Internet is unlike the ordinary media used in mass marketing as it enables people to have “human to human” conversations, which have the potential to transform traditional business practices radically.”  We see that happening in quite a few verticals. It has changed the newspaper, music, entertainment, retail shopping, and telecom industries. It will likely change even more.

“The clue train stopped there four times a day for ten years and they never took delivery.”  Certainly, this quote applies to 3 Detroit CEO’s.

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Tampa Bay Connections

by On Rad's Radar? in December 12th, 2008   
Topics: Social Network, barcamp, off topic, tampa     

This has been a busy networking week. Business Buddies holiday party, AMA Tampa Bay Luncheon, and the Tampa Bay CEO Awards dinner last night. The emcee for the event, Brent Britton, is an interesting guy, a lawyer from MIT in Tampa via Silcon Valley. Another person of interest was a finalist for a CEO Award. She worked on Obama’s campaign doing online marketing. She writes for Huffington Post. You just never know who you will run into.

The problem I have with it is how so many intriguing people can live in Tampa Bay - and no one knows it!  So a couple of us are on a mission to cross-pollinate the creatives in town with the techie/geeks in the Tampa Bay area. Find all the hidden gems in Tampa Bay. It started with BarCampTampaBay in October and will continue with Lunch 2.0, maybe Jelly, Dev/Design, some other stuff and culminate at BarCampTampaBay in Sept./Oct.

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The Nortel Tale

by On Rad's Radar? in December 11th, 2008   
Topics: Bankruptcy, Marketing, Nortel, Technology, VoIP, capex, economy     

Nortel is in the news as it weighs bankruptcy. Rich Tehrani has an historic view of Nortel here, as he makes an excellent point:

Sadly, we are learning now (as we do in every downturn) that branding, marketing and “perception augmentation” is something that needs to be done constantly. In good times and especially in bad.

Nortel is experiencing what the VoIP hardware market is feeling: not enough money for everyone to live off. If Cisco is reaping the most benefits, the rest of the hardware companies have to learn to live with a diet of scraps as consolidation and trimmed CAPEX hits the industry.  How many Class 5 or Session Border Controllers do you need before you have maxed out?

Nortel suffers from what many companies do: You cannot be everything to everyone.  You need an Identity that Differentiates you from the pack.

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20 Sites for Job Seekers

by On Rad's Radar? in December 10th, 2008   
Topics: , LinkedIn, Web 2.0, job seeker, job sites, sites     

This may be off-topic but with the number of folks that are getting the pink slip, I figured I would list a bunch of sites for job seekers.

Then there are Web 2.0 sites that Venture Beat and Fast Company wrote about that are turning the job search around (maybe):

Be aware that some folks don’t think much of these sites.  And I am sure that there are more places to look, but I figured this would give you a start.

While job hunting, don’t forget to keep networking and keep your hand in things either by donating your time to a non-profit or grabbing some projects or contract work.  (Look here for project or contract work:  Guru.com, rent-a-coder, eLance, DoMyStuff, Agents of Value, AssistU, iFreelance)

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IT Folks Chatting About Communications

by On Rad's Radar? in December 9th, 2008   
Topics: , IM, Internet, LinkedIn, Security, Social Network, Technology, communications, email, im/chat, organizations, social, tele-presence, telecommunications     

During a discussion online, some interesting items popped up.

Companies ban Instant Message. One IT Security Consultant looks at the irony of it here. Tele-Presence is all about improved efficiency in communicating — no more phone tag, less voicemail, that kind of thing — but how will that be implemented in a corporate environment that locks it down?

Social networking like LinkedIn and Twitter are becoming commonplace among the marketing set. Maybe instead of banning these things in a corporate environment, you embrace it and set policy. Here’s an article from CIO.com on LinkedIn etiquette.

It boils down to tools. Will you give people the tools that they can use to be effective at their position?  If you are that worried about security, do an audit and train your people. Manage by walking around. Most theft is internal or social engineered. You can train against the social engineering, but if someone wants something bad enough they will figure out how to get it. It’s just a shame that can’t get that passionate and creative about the job.

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Microcorp Insite is Insightful Now

by On Rad's Radar? in December 9th, 2008   
Topics: , Insite, TEM, Technology, agents, channel, channel partners, microcorp, services, telecom, telecom asset management, telecommunications     

December 8, 2008 - In its annual twelve day count down of hot telecom and data services that their members should watch in the next year, Telecom Association (”TA”) choose MicroCorp’s telecom inventory management tool “Insite” on the first day.

“In 2009, because of the economy, business owners and managers will focus on getting more out of the telecom and data services they already have”, stated TA Founder Dan Baldwin.

MicroCorp’s Insite is a contract and carrier agnostic telecom inventory management tool that helps telecom consultants, agents, and their business clients answer the obvious question, “What are the telecom and data services I already have?”

Baldwin added, “Few multi-location small businesses have a professionally built online management tool that helps them track the productivity of the telecom and data services they’ve subscribed to. Most simply pay the bills as they come in, forgetting what the services were even ordered for. ‘Insite’ solves this problem by giving an ongoing updated look into all subscribed telecom services that the business customer can view and their telecom agents or consultants can manage from”.

Insite is “contract agnostic” in that it does not matter what carrier or contract term the customer currently has. Whatever the telecom or data carrier, the information from the customer’s current telecom and data bills go into Insite. Once Insite is set up, both the customer and the consultant, agent or channel partner can see what the customer is paying for on a monthly basis so all involved can more easily manage the services to achieve maximum savings.

Insite is very well suited for multi-location businesses that currently try to track all their locations’ telecom and data invoices on manual spreadsheets.

See the links below or visit the following web page to listen to an audio podcast about Insite or view a screen video about how Instie works.

http://www.telecomassociation.com/pubs/12days/1/1_index_press_release.htm

ABOUT MICROCORP - MicroCorp Inc. is a telecommunications convergence company that provides multi-vendor solutions to business customers nationwide. MicroCorp customers receive best-of-breed Telecom and ASP solutions from vendors such as Sprint, Qwest, AT&T, MCI, XO, ACC Business, Internap, Raindance, Level 3, and more. MicroCorp products are distributed nationally via a network of over 1,500 employees, agents, system integrators and VARs.
Founded in 1986, MicroCorp Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1995 MicroCorp Inc. became a graduate member of The Advanced Technology Development Center, which is located on the campus of The Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. MicroCorp can be reached at 770-649-1919 or www.MicroCorp.com.

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The VoIP Channel

by On Rad's Radar? in December 8th, 2008   
Topics: , VoIP, agent, agents, channel, channel partners, effort, sales, sales and selling     

Why doesn’t it get easier?  Why is it so difficult to get agents to sell your stuff?

Over the years I have worked with many VoIP Providers. A good chunk of my consulting is on The Channel, Referral Systems, and Sales Compensation.

There are a number of landmines that can destroy a relationship with an independent sales agent. These include but are not limited to:

  1. Your quoting system (or time to quote)
  2. How you track the sales and provisioning process
  3. How you track Compensation
  4. How you handle agents calls / issues / sales / payments

All of these mines have subsets as follows:

  • What is your number porting process like?
  • What is your training like for customers? for Agents?
  • What does your marketing collateral look like and say?
  • Issue Resolution

It is no small thing to acquire an Agent. You are asking someone to spend the effort to:

  1. examine your service offering
  2. negotiate and sign an Agreement
  3. Learn all about your service offering to the Comfort Point
  4. Now go market & sell it

It is similar to buying a franchise agreement. Foremost, you are asking for the Agent to trust you and to lend his reputation to your company and its services. Big Step.

You have to ask yourself: Why would he take a chance on me? Here are some things for you to think about:

  1. Do you have a clear USP?
  2. Do you sell to Verticals with a concise ROI or TCO?
  3. Do you know who your best customer is and why?
  4. Do you do any marketing?
  5. How much time and effort can I give each agent to get off the ground?
  6. What happens if he sells something?
  7. What systems do I have in place for that?
  8. Will those systems Scale?

Some companies have a Referral Plan now. (I won’t even call it a system because it isn’t.) What does it consist of? Mentioning that free month if they refer someone? WOOT! Yeah. That won’t cut it. A System is a consistent process that involves a plan, a goal, and how to get there. If you want a Referral Plan to work, you have to work the Plan (as they say in Amway). By that, you have to remind folks that you have it in creative, mentally sticky ways. You have to even give them a script on what to say or a coupon or email link to send to their family and friends network. You have reward them tangibly and thank the best referrers publicly. Then start all over again. (it doesn’t happen automatically).

Now back to the Agent Channel that you want selling your VOIP Service. Why not just hire a Sales person? Too expensive, right? Too time consuming? Don’t want to manage a sales guy? These are reasons that your channel will fail as well. Imagine spending money, time and effort on people you have Zero Control over. Imagine them forgetting to propose your services for months, then call with a White Elephant and not close it. And disappear. Lots of work; little return. Welcome to the Channel. The Channel is a case study in Pareto’s Principle - the 80/20 Rule. About 80% of the sales will come from 20% of the agents. About 80% of your time will be consumed by the least productive 20%.

Stay tuned… more to come

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i3 Networks Closing

by On Rad's Radar? in December 4th, 2008   
Topics: VoIP, closing, i3     

i3 has closed. Website has this notice: 
i3.jpgWe are sorry, but we are no longer operational.

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Crowded and Confused Markets

by On Rad's Radar? in December 3rd, 2008   
Topics: , Mobile, VoIP, Web 2.0, XMPP     

Telecom has some of the most crowded and confused markets. Dial-Up, broadband, cellular, VoIP, POTS. T1 - all kind of flat. Not a lot of Differentiation. It’s filled with “I’ll save you 10%”. The battle cry of the telecom sales dude. It’s no wonder there are price wars — what else do you have to go on?

Now, there is another battle field. A subset of VoIP. The mobile VoIP app. (Like SO many folks want to use VoIP on their cell phone.)  i2, Raketu, Vyke, Skype,  iSkoot, Nimbuzz, mig33, Truphone and so many more. In fact, so many, I can’t keep track. EQO just died. And Fring is laying off 20% of its staff. TalkPlus died. Tpad (who?) and Nimbuzz just hooked up.  VOX hooked up with UTGI for mobile VoIP.

Can they all survive?  What size do they need to reach? Is it a matter of users like Skype (or mig33 with 9M users)? Or today is monetization important?

Even in VoIP, is 900 customers and 28,365 seats significant?

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Fairpoint Rural IPTV

by On Rad's Radar? in December 3rd, 2008   
Topics: , IPTV, VoIP, economy, fairpoint, new england, telco, telecommunications     

Fairport is trialing out IPTV in a New Hampshire town. As DSLR points out, VZ couldn’t (or wouldn’t) roll out fiber to the New England tri-state region, but Fairpoint thinks it can. How when Fairpoint got stuck with such huge debt over the deal with VZ that the PUC offices of the 3 states weren’t certain that Fairpoint could remain solvent.

Fairpoint doesn’t have much choice as TWC has launched digital voice service in region causing POTS line loss for Fairpoint. With the economy, some folks (about 25%) are shutting POTS lines in favor of a cellular only option for voice. This also does not help Fairpoint, Embarq, CenturyTel, and Windstream.

Meanwhile, Jim Crowe, telecom visionary and CEO at Level3, pontificates that the overall industry is healthy at the Colorado Broadband Summit. Just some players are sick.

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Internet Access Stimulus

by On Rad's Radar? in December 3rd, 2008   
Topics: , Broadband, CLearwire, Internet, according, bandwidth, digital divide, economy, stimulus     

According to the WSJ, ” The federal government’s economic stimulus package will include investment in broadband Internet infrastructure and funds to upgrade and repair the national power grid alongside more traditional funding for road and bridge repair, a senior aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday.”

It’s much needed, since Clearwire/XOHM has decided to slow down (cough!*) its deployment schedule because the $3.2B in cash from Google, Intel, and MSO’s, just is not enough to roll out their whole network. Clearwire needs $2B more.

And apparently, VZ only wants to over-build its affluent DSL areas with FiOS. It ignores or sells off rural routes.

TWC and AT&T are moving to tiered broadband pricing plans. Heck, TWC is even raising its rates on stand-alone Internet. TWC is also vulnerable to customer switching. In recent bundles from former BellSouth, I did not see a DSL price under $30. What happened to Naked DSL at $20 and DSL Lite at $10 (merger conditions)?

The next ones to ask for a bail-out will be the wholesale Internet backbone companies like Level3, Cogent, Global Crossing, Qwest and Savvis, according to this report on Circle ID.

According to the CWA (telecom union), it’s all about new jobs.

Mr. Cohen said 100,000 jobs could be created by immediately investing in more high-speed Internet networks across the country. “Jobs is the best single stimulus,” he said.  The demand for services created by broadband Internet access could create another two million jobs, Mr. Cohen argued.

[Editorial note: * As if Clearwire had an aggressive roll out strategy. $3.2B should be enough IF you actual bring in profitable revenue per tower. I know, not a usual business plan for public internet companies.]

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NebuAd and Phorm

by On Rad's Radar? in December 3rd, 2008   
Topics: , DPI, Internet, NebuAd, Privacy, isp     

Ouch! KMPH Fox 26 reports that, “More than a dozen Web users are suing a Silicon Valley startup that created technology allowing their surfing habits to be tracked. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco this week against NebuAd and six Internet service providers that used its product. The 15 plaintiffs are demanding more than $5 million in damages.”  NebuAd used Deep-Packet Inspection (dpi) to gather info of ISP customers to better target advertising. That upset users and it ended up in front of Congress. NebuAd execs jumped ship. So did clients. Same thing happened at the similar UK-based company, Phorm. Execs there jumped ship this week.

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Is there any value left to Telecom?

by On Rad's Radar? in December 1st, 2008   
Topics: , agents, channel, duopoly, folks, price war, sales, selling, telco, telecom, telecommunications, value     

Let’s examine today’s telecommunications sales landscape:

Case 1: If the pricing starts discounted at $9000, but ends up being sold at $2700, is there value in Telecom?

Case 2: If Carrier A sells a 1GB Private line for $17K between two lit buildings, how can Carrier B offer the same for $6800? 

Case 3: If BellSouth used to charge a company $680 for their service and now presents a “Winback” offer of $320, what’s the deal?

Where’s the value? Or is there none and it’s just a matter of putting revenue on the books, any revenue?

How do you pay down debt and commissions when you sell underwater?

In Case 3, I just think that the ILEC’s have been overcharging us for years (and still do when they can). Their monopoly mindset does not have room in it to fathom Competition.

Savvy customers play carriers against each other. Then they throw a reseller into the mix to really shake it up. Then they get an agent or account exec involved to really stir up a price war. The only one who wins is the customer, temporarily.

It’s a race to the bottom.

In the real estate boom, many telecom sales folks left for RE careers. (I don’t know how many came back). We are seeing mortgage folks moving into telecom. But how many professional telecom folks have left the industry?

It used to be that if you sold a FastE pipe, it was a good month. But today, you need to sell a couple per week to make a living. Are there that many deals to be had every month?

While price erodes and good sales folks leave, the Industry is training their customers that everything is FREE. From all the VoIP players, widgets, gizmos, to the executives in the ivory towers who just look at quarterly reports.

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2008 Florida New Economy Index

by On Rad's Radar? in December 1st, 2008   
Topics: Florida, Politics, Technology, economic, economic development, economy, education system, eduction, final chapter, innovation, knowledge, state     

Here’s an excerpt, reprinted from the State Science and Technology Institute, or SSTI, was worth sharing to give you a sense of what two very respected institutions, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Kauffman Foundation, are recommending regarding how states approach technology-based economic development going forward. 

While which states top the list in the 2008 edition of the State New Economy Index will capture the attention of the media and therefore the majority of decision makers, the most important contribution of the 2008 Index in the current fiscal environment is its overview and final chapter. The Index, released Nov. 18 by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Kauffman Foundation, goes beneath and well beyond the results of the 29 indicators to explain the need for fundamental change to how states and regions approach economic development. The final chapter goes a step farther and identifies key strategic shifts required to address the challenges of the New Economy.

As state budgets reel from the fallout of the financial crisis, the authors warn:  “If states are going to meet the economic challenges of the future, they will need to make the promotion of innovation a larger part of their economic development policy framework.” 

Based on the report, state legislators would seem well advised to avoid deep budgets cuts affecting those areas required to support and encourage innovation - the fundamental elements of tech-based economic development.

The Index does not mean, however, that the status quo should be maintained for most state economic development strategies - particularly given the current fiscal malaise. That applies as well to current TBED approaches before we get too smug. Innovation within state economic development portfolios - in many cases seismic shifts and unconventional thinking - are also necessary, the authors point out.

“All states and most regions no longer can rely solely on old economic strategies of relentlessly driving down costs and providing large incentives to attract locationally mobile plants or branch offices…Rather regions must look for competitive advantage in earlier-stage product and service cycle activities.”

“In short, regions need to be places where existing firms can become more productive and innovative, where new firms can emerge and thrive, and where locationally mobile establishments want to locate because of the innovation environment.”

To accomplish this, the final chapter of the Index is dedicated to explaining briefly the four current paradigms for approaching state and regional economic development before outlining more than a dozen specific strategies for states to adopt:

Invest in Innovation

- Use targeted investments in knowledge infrastructure as an incentive
- Support statewide broadband promotion organizations
- Help Companies to Be More Innovative

Create a statewide commercialization and entrepreneurship organization

- Catalyze and empower industry clusters
- Use Web 2.0 tools to support open innovation
- Use tax policy to spur innovation

 Extend sales tax parity for manufacturing purchases of computers and IT equipment

- Align state R&D tax credits with the new federal R&D tax credit
- Facilitate entrepreneurship

Provide digital tools that make it easy to start a new business

- Benchmark state procedures for starting a business
- Support angel capital networks
- Link together the array of information resources for entrepreneurs
- Expand entrepreneurship training
- Cultivate Institutional Innovation

Create different and better K-12 schools

Shift the focus of post-secondary education more toward acquiring skills

Take industry-university partnerships to new levels

“Success in the New Economy requires that a whole array of institutions–universities, school boards, firms, local governments, economic development agencies–work in new and often-uncomfortable ways. At the end of the day, this is a challenge of leadership,” the Index concludes. 

My thoughts:

When I look at what our area spends in traffic abatement, I wonder how it compares to Stupidity Abatement. Florida for years has had a reputation for a poor education system. In fact, private schools down here have as competitive an admissions process as Ivy League colleges and a price tag to match. Parents are spending $10,000 per student per year starting in Kindergarten to ive their children a better education. 

We are in a Knowledge Worker World. We still have an education system based around the Industrial World. Florida lacks a Fortune 1000 presence (except for call centers). This means that there is a dearth of executives to help smaller business grow. It also means that smaller businesses need to take an active part in the Education system. Public-Private Partnership is needed to produce quality employees that stay here.  If you need qualified candidates to grow your business, shouldn’t you be involved in helping to create them?

We don’t teach selling, entrepreneurship, telecommunications, management or coaching in schools. Perhaps our Industry could get together and help change that.  (We all know that once telecom is in your blood, there’s no leavingsmile

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Distributing

by On Rad's Radar? in November 30th, 2008   
Topics: Amazon, VoIP, Vonage, channel, channel partners, distribution, ooma     

One thing that the VoIP Providers seem to want is Distribution. How does a VoIP Provider get his device into the hands of the consumer?

Vonage spends millions on advertising and has deals with retail outlets like Amazon and Circuit City. Skype has devices on Amazon and other outlets. (It seems like Amazon has an affinity for VoIP providers, including Magic Jack and Ooma.)

Now Ooma is a strange deal. There has been a lot written about Ooma (here and here and here)  Sharing a PSTN line seems like no way to save money. If you still have to pay for the landline, why buy Ooma? To save on some long distance? Most people don’t spend more than $20 per month on LD. Someone must believe in the deal because even after staff was cut and execs fled Ooma, the company was able to raise $16M.

The key for any of the VoIP players is scale. Distribution is one way to attempt to achieve scale. Some use an Indirect Sales Channel; others try to get inside the distribution network of Tech Data, Amazon, or a bog box outlet. (That’s an expensive proposition.) But how else do you reach the masses except through a multi-million dollar advertising campaign? Or running hundreds of infomercials?

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Follow up to a Typical Situation

by On Rad's Radar? in November 30th, 2008   
Topics: , Cisco, agents, bellsouth, change, contract, direct, indirect channel, sales, sales and selling, telecommunications     

I wrote about a typical telecom sales situation about a week ago. Khali Henderson, editor of Phone+ magazine, has an editorial that talks about this type of scenario in the Channel. The conclusion of the story happened yesterday when the client called me to ask me to meet the direct AE’s rate and send him a contract. My best Indirect rate is $1500 per month higher than the direct rate. Same company. Go figure. This AE just gave away $18,000, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but how many deals like that can a company take? There should be a Pricing Floor.

Some carriers have Rules of Engagement between Direct and Indirect. It’s just paper. What’s the punishment?

A Cisco VAR just sued Cisco over breach of contract. Cisco took a tagged deal that the VAR brought in and handed it to its other partner, AT&T. It cost Cisco $6.3M and a change to the VAR contract. These lawsuits take years and mucho money so they will be rare, but it goes back to my question: What’s a Partner Worth to the carrier or vendor?

AT&T spends millions advertising its partner program, but can’t bother to show up at Channel events. Mixed message much?  Verizon has thrown many agents out of its program over the years. Qwest just revamped theirs again.

I started out working with a BellSouth agency (I have never had a direct relationship with BellSouth or AT&T , which is something they can’t get through their heads). BellSouth would change the compensation plan regularly. But agencies cannot change their own business plans so easily or so quickly. It sometimes feels like folly.

This is a business where you have to trust your vendor even when you know your vendor is going to tramble you at some point.

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Thanks

by On Rad's Radar? in November 25th, 2008   
Topics: economy, going, off topic, thanks, think     

thanksgiving.gif

It’s the last full day of work for many of you. Here are some tips to get through Thanksgiving:

  1. Stop watching / reading the news. It’s going to be more of the same news for a while and listening to it and reading it are not going to help you. It will only increase your anxiety. The Law of Attraction actually works. You get what you think about. If you think negative, you get negative. Think Positive, you gain positive. That’s The Secret.
  2. Remind yourself of the things to be thankful for. It may seem tough with all the doom and gloom that the TV throws at us, but there are still many things going right.
  3. Business is still being done. It’s just taking longer. 
  4. Now is a good time to do more networking and marketing.
  5. Give a little to charity. (You get it back).

Happy Thanksgiving. (The cartoon came from here)

 

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The Pain of The Switch

by On Rad's Radar? in November 25th, 2008   
Topics: , Broadband, Customer Service, Switch, cableco, duopoly, install, satisfied, telco, telecommunications     

Interesting report from Strategy Analytics: More folks would switch their triple play provider if they didn’t have to waste a day or two waiting for the install.  With that kind of stat, will any of the duopoly companies fix their install process?

People often claim to be satisfied with what they already have. 76% of broadband subscribers in the US suggest they are very or somewhat satisfied with their broadband service. But when they are asked if they would be willing to switch, three in every four say they would do so, depending on the price and performance of an alternative service.

Can’t be too satisfied if you would switch.

And really the perception varies greatly. In Tampa Bay, I have used Bright House for broadband for 10 years at home and at the office. Rock solid. Someone on Twitter was complaining today about the Verizon install. In the course of the conversation, she mentioned that she hates BH. Me? I don’t want to give Verizon a dime, but I want that one POTS line for my business - which they keep charging me more and more for - almost as if they were forcing me to switch. (If they would stop mailing me something every single day, they could lower my rates!)

I think the surveys are flawed. Or people don’t understand what satisfied means.

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Internet Will be Full by 2012

by On Rad's Radar? in November 24th, 2008   
Topics: Internet, LinkedIn, Politics, bandwidth, capacity, going, net neutrality, people, traffic     

“Nemertes Research continued to throw cold water on the future of the Internet last week, releasing a study projecting that demand for bandwidth on the Web would exceed its capacity by 2012.” [PCWorld.com]

I just don’t see how that can be. With 40G pipes starting to emerge. With Content Delivery Networks (CDN’s) popping up every where.  The CDN’s make most traffic local.  The CDN’s are getting closer to the edge. Does that report mean that the backhaul traffic will overflow? Or the CDN network will exceed capacity?

Nemertes analyst Mike Jude says, “More and more applications are coming online that will drive expectations for service quality even higher,” he said. “I’m not saying that the Internet is going to crash in 2011, but that people’s expectations are going to be throttled. People will stop going to the Internet for those services.” [PCWorld.com]

Jude goes on to say that people expect more reliability and real-time traffic from the Internet (which it was not designed for). And to get thta ISP’s will have tiers of packages to deliver it. That’s where the Net neutrality debate unhinges.

My skepticism tells me that it is just the Duopoly wanting to make as large a buck as possible from consumers to continue to get their 40% margins, despite the fact that their actions stall innovation and the economy. And the capacity can be made available, it is just more expedient to create a supply issue.

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Qwest Referral Changes in 2009

by On Rad's Radar? in November 24th, 2008   
Topics: Qwest, agents, changes, compensation, referral     

QWEST REFERRAL DESK - Effective January 1, 2009 there will be significant changes to the Referral Desk Program.  Qwest will no longer be paying up fronts for any sales. Also Agents can sign up new customers to Qwest and only re-term their own existing customers.  Lastly there has been a slight modification to commissions when teaming with Direct Reps.  We know these changes can dramatically effect how you sell Qwest.  Qwest is making these changes so that they can remain fiscally responsible.

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AIS is San Diego Collocation

by On Rad's Radar? in November 24th, 2008   
Topics: , Switch, center, collocation, customers, data center, diego, growth     

Back in September, American Internet Services announced a CEO change at the Grand Opening of their Tier 4 data center in San Diego. Alessandra Carrasco was promoting from EVP and COO will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer. I interviewed her in October.

ME: What verticals are you chasing?

AC: AIS specializes in any business that requires high availability solutions for their technology platforms. These include companies in vertical markets such as medical, financial and pharmaceutical, among others.

ME: Why choose AIS over Switch and Data?

AC: Switch and Data, while operating as a data center facility, runs on a completely different model than AIS. I’ll highlight two of the key differences between our models. Switch and Data offers carrier neutral bandwidth only, which means that they don’t personally offer bandwidth - connectivity is left up to the customer. AIS offers two different versions of our own premium blended bandwidth to our customers, along with the option to select their own from one of the 260 carriers we work with.
Secondly, most of Switch and Data’s space currently resides in what we call ‘carrier hotels.’ These are large, usually multi-level facilities where Switch and Data has a presence, but do not control the premises and systems. Because AIS owns and operates its own data center facilities and mechanical systems, AIS is able to specialize in custom configurations such as high power requirements and 24/7, on-site ‘remote hands’ support. This means that instead of competing head-to-head with us under the Seaport Capitol umbrella, our companies can work side by side.

ME: Where is the growth coming from?

AC: The rapid expansion into new facilities by our company is driven by a few factors, i.e. our abundance of power and multiple bandwidth carriers. Due to our proven track record, up-time and flexibility to provide custom-crafted solutions for our clients, our customer growth and retention rate has increased with each year in business. The organic growth by our customers, coupled with their own customers’ growth, has catapulted AIS past our competition in the San Diego market. With the addition of our 80,000 square foot Lightwave Data Center, AIS has established our dominance as a data center provider and, based on consumer demand, is expanding into other regions.

ME: Will AIS’ growth be affected by the economic situation on Wall St.?

AC: Colocation is no longer a commodity, but a necessity. Because of this, AIS doesn’t rely on temporary fluctuations taking place inside the economic market, negative or positive, to affect overall company growth. Bottom line: our customers, from small to Fortune 5 businesses, require the most reliable and best performing colocation and connectivity business solutions, regardless of market conditions.

AIS announced it has acquired Complex Drive, a well-established San Diego data center provider known for its advanced technology, expertise, and excellent support for the past 10 years.

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Are You The Next Sue Crawford?

by On Rad's Radar? in November 23rd, 2008   
Topics: Broadband, Internet, NTIA, OSTWG, Politics, crawford, fcc, information, organizations, telecommunications     

If you can’t get a position at the FCC, perhaps you can put your talents to use at the other governmental telecom agency, which is looking for a few intelligient people like Sue Crawford help shape the broadband policy of the US:

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is seeking nominations of individuals to represent the business community, public interest groups, and other appropriate groups interested in serving on the NTIA Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWG) for a single fifteen (15) month term to commence in January 2009. At the conclusion of the working group’s term, the OSTWG will provide a report to the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator and to Congress on ways to promote and to preserve a safe environment for children using the Internet.

DATES: Nominations must be postmarked or electronically transmitted on or before December 12, 2008.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On October 10, 2008, the President signed into law the ”Broadband Data Improvement Act” (the Act), Pub. L. No. 110-385. Section 214 of that Act directs NTIA to establish the OSTWG to review and evaluate:  READ here…

Who is Sue Crawford? Read her bio here. Besides being a law professor, she is on the board of ICANN. Her writings are very articulate and logical - until the ramblings you read from me. I understand that she is part of the Obama transition team, but I can’t confirm that.

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Doing Extra Business

by On Rad's Radar? in November 21st, 2008   
Topics: Internet, TEM, agent, agents, audit, money, telecom, telecommunications     

Most people that know me know I am a Follower of Seth Godin. No one else that I read regularly makes me re-think how I view business and the world more often as Godin. IN his post, How to make money from the Internet, he writes:

Connect organizations spending money with ways to save money.
During the last recession, plenty of entrepreneurs scored by selling businesses on doing a phone bill audit. They took 30% of the first year’s savings and did the work for free. Today, there are countless ways businesses can save money using technology and outsourcing, but few take full advantage. You can train them to do this and keep a share of the savings.

If you are in telecom and do not work with an auditing firm, you might be missing out on some opportunity. Telecom expense management and telecom asset management and cellular tracking (both asset and expense) will be big ways to make revenue while saving folks revenue. (They are also expensive Google key words to buy!smile

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Is the $100 Triple Play viable?

by On Rad's Radar? in November 21st, 2008   
Topics: ARPU, Broadband, Internet, LinkedIn, Marketing, Triple Play, Video, Wi-Fi, Wireless, bandwidth, cableco, duopoly, economy, lower, mso, network, profitable, services, telco, telecommunications, triple     

So on Linkedin, Neal Lachman, asked if the $100 Triple Play was Viable in today’s economic molasses. Neal writes:

Bundling voice, video, data services for a higher ARPU was an obvious, great move when broadband services and advanced digital services were first introducded……  However, the market is moving more towards a lower ARPU for the triple play services. This is especially going to play a big role in future operations. The time of high ARPUs is going, and soon it will be history.

I believe operators have to lower their ARPU estimates from 2010 onward, simply because the customer won’t be willing to pay as much. Today operators generate $100+ revenue per month on their triple play services. In 2010 and later, they should be happy if they can reach ARPU of $50. One example is the FTTH service in Holland, where people do not even want to pay more than €50 for their triple play bundle.

My thoughts on it are here:

Telcos like AT&T and Verizon are actually losing money on triple-play. Think about the fact that they were getting $35 for a phone line and $35 for DSL (averages for consumers 2 years ago). Now they have to upgrade the network to offer TV, which is the least profitable service. And do that for $30.

Install and maintain the network that they will be capping. Install home equipment like ONT and STB. To give it away for $100. Now usually the telcos will add taxes and fees on that to increase their profit.  But its the MSO’s who are making out. They went from the least profitable service (TV) to the more profitable services of phone and Internet.

With all of the CAPEX for DOCSIS upgrades as well as FTTx and WiMax build-outs, these companies won’t be able to lower ARPU for triple play.

The cost of TV content is increasing. Must carry TV channels are now asking for a bite of the pie. You have seen the battle that NFL Network and the other sports networks are having to get carried by the systems — and to be carried in the most popular packages.

I can see how the MSO’s and telcos would have to lower ARPU averages in the face of the economic tsunami we are experiencing, but they won’t be offering triple play for $50.

Remember that for the Bells, RGU’s include security, cellular, and now tech support. Cablevision rolled out a $350M wi-fi network in NY. The duopoly knows that to keep churn down, they have to get sticky with ubiquitous Internet Access and to get close to a quad-play. Surprisingly, while Verizon has the quad play in my town (Tampa) - FiOS TV, Internet, phone and Cell - that is not the package that they advertise to my house Every Single Day.

 The cost of customer acquisition, retention, advertising, tech support, customer care, bad debt, security, upgrades, and maintenance are too high for the triple play ARPU to drop below $99.

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DISH Get’s DRM

by On Rad's Radar? in November 20th, 2008   
Topics: DISH, Privacy, dbs, dvr. drm, movie, satellite     

So DISH Network keeps upgrading my DVR software without my asking. Tonight, I go to record a pay-per-view movie and the dialog box says, “You only have 24 hours to watch this movie before we remove it from your DVR.”  Well, that stinks. We used to buy them and watch them at our leisure - usually within a week.

DISH has increased prices across the board. They will lose AT&T as a distribution arm in February of 2009. Will AT&T take its 1M subs to DirecTV? DISH has been  losing subscribers. (Are they the Sprint of TV?) And Echostar lost the patent suit against TIVO. They also have the DTV conversion coming. All this and they add DRM? Do they *want* to chase away subscribers?

Sure, adding MPEG-4 and 1080p content is great. (I just got an HDTV), but I don’t want them messing with my DVR. I paid for the movie, what do they care about my time shifting it?  It’s time to look at Bright House digital TV packages and save some money.

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Typical Situation

by On Rad's Radar? in November 19th, 2008   
Topics: agent, agents, bidding, buyer, carrier, price, price war, sales, sales and selling, telco     

Typical Sales Situation: So I meet a prospective buyer. We exchange cards. A couple weeks later, he has a circuit need to be quoted. We have a conversation. It gets complicated. Next thing you know I am competing against the inside sales team and the Reseller.

So why is an Agent in a price war with the direct account exec? No idea, but it happens more and more. Who loses? The carrier usually. Why? Because they are losing margin with each pitch and counter pitch. At some point - like in the beginning - Siebel should flag that client and a floor should be established. That way the carrier makes a profit; the sales cycle doesn’t spin out of control; and the conversation with the buyer can move beyond price to solutions and value.

Who else loses? The agent. Why? Usually direct can get lower than indirect. Also, the agent is spending a lot of time on a deal that may not close, but one that certainly has diminishing return.

I can understand it from a Buyer’s perspective: get in a bidding war and I win. Short term, certainly. You win lower prices. Long term you get poorer service. Less profit equals less service. Period. The next time you want a deal, word is out. It’s going to be the low price RFP bidding war again. Not everyone wants to get into that. As an agent it is a waste of my time and effort, because people only interested in price, are a PITA.

As an agent for 9 years, I provide value to my clients. One way is as their advocate to the carrier - if they have billing, provisioning, or other issues that need resolution. In provisioning, I interface with carrier and coordinate the installation times with all parties - hardware vendor, buyer, tech guy, carrier and installer. Another way is in the information I provide - beyond who the carriers are that I can quote. Maybe I need to do a better job with messaging this to avoid the Price War later.

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Big Failures

by On Rad's Radar? in November 19th, 2008   
Topics: Video, failures, off topic     

In case you feel bad about things not going well, here’s a video of other failures to give you hope.  (It can’t be embedded sorry). Then there’s my short list of telecom failures that I am certain will be updated in 2009. And then one last hopeful video: Did You Know? / Shift Happens by high school teacher Karl Fisch.

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Bandwidth Caps

by On Rad's Radar? in November 17th, 2008   
Topics: , Broadband, FTC, Internet, Web 2.0, bandwidth, cableco, caps, companies, customer, duopoly, preserving, telco, telecommunications     

Bandwidth caps have more to do with preserving TV revenues than network management business. Yes, there are issues of last mile and node congestion for both telco and cableco networks. It is also a function of the band-aid approach that these companies take. instead of one huge upgrade (like say Verizon with FiOS), there have been baby step fixes.

It’s also about preserving revenue. If you switch from watching Broadcast TV to just downloading Netflix and Amazon, how do the TV Providers make money from VOD (video-on-demand)? If you are watching shows via Joost and Hulu (and the coming network to replace Showtime), how does the big upgrade get paid for? The duopoly is preserving its content revenue - plain and simple.

Personally, the FTC should be investigating false advertising by the carriers - both on cellular data and broadband. In many cases, it is sold as Unlimited, but isn’t. That’s false advertising.

This will present an interesting challenge as people will switch. The duopoly is doing everything it can to compete on price and not value. Neither company is trying to court customer loyalty.

The ripple effect on this may be to stymie Internet business growth. Software and Application companies (SAAS, ASP), Web 2.0, and entertainment companies will find it hard to maintain customers and grow revenyue under a bandwidth cap.

I wonder how AT&T’s partner, Apple, who makes the Apple TV and owns iTunes, feels about a cap, which will eventually flatten its revenues.

Not for nothing but these companies can’t bill correctly anyway. There are certain to be many folks billed for overages where there are none. An even bigger erosion of customer satisfaction is coming.I guess we forget about Customer Acquisition costs and the lifetime value of a customer.

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The IP Resale Tumble

by On Rad's Radar? in November 17th, 2008   
Topics: Internet, alphared, bandwidth, reseller     

As prices of IP bandwidth sink to new lows, resellers - like Bandcon, AlphaRed, and the rest - are facing pressure. In fact, AlphaRed has apparently closed its doors, which could create problems for other resellers that it buys from and sells to, like BandCon who is the CDN for AlphaRed.  For every reseller that closes, a new one opens up.

(Please note: the other reason that AlphaRed may have closed was that the Washington Attorney General is suing AlphaRed CEO for scareware.)

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Spam Response Rate

by On Rad's Radar? in November 17th, 2008   
Topics: Internet, Marketing, profitable, spam     

1 in 12.5 Million responses to spam — but it is still highly profitable. If the spam was just selling products with $10 profit per sale, it would still be highly profitable. But when you are stealing credit card numbers and identities, it makes spam hugely profitable.

Spammers usually run off of botnets of infected computers. Why people don’t update (and run) anti-virus programs regularly is beyond me. Why we haven’t defeated spam yet is another issue.

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Fiber Lit Buildings

by On Rad's Radar? in November 17th, 2008   
Topics: Level3, bandwidth, buildings, fiber, quarter, telco, twtelecom, wonder     

Rob Powell has an update to his fiber list on Telecom Ramblings blog. What is interesting about the chart is that TWT and L3 have about the same number of route miles - 26,000 - but TWT has way more buildings lit that Level3. TWT has 10,700 buildings lit and L3 has about 7550. TWT lights about 250 per quarter. That’s an impressive number. I wonder how TWT does that because 250 buildings times $7000 minimum build comes to $1.75M per quarter of CAPEX.

I also wonder how much overlap there is in lit buildings. For instance, much of XO’s fiber is an IRU on L3, so likely they have a lot of overlap on lit buildings. Cogent is mainly in telecom hotels so that is a redundant lit building. (It’s rare that just Cogent is in a building).

I also wonder how TWT can sell 250 new buildings per quarter, since their channel is not as active as Level3’s. Maybe they have a highly motivated sales force that is told where to sell (as close to the fiber route as possible).

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Obama and NAB

by On Rad's Radar? in November 17th, 2008   
Topics: Politics, communications, fcc, localism, profit, radio     

I don’t know how this ended up in front of me this morning, but it was an interesting piece about Obama and Radio Localism. Obviously, conservatives don’t want localism because it gets in the way of profit. You can’t profit if you have to pay a DJ in each market AND report some local news. Sheesh! Why do you think we get these licenses anyway - Profit. The guys at NAB are ready to fight Localism.

Unfortunately for NAB, word is getting out that license renewal is NOT automatic and even one complaint can derail the process and cost you money. (This was news to me). And during the media ownership workshops, despite broadcasters trying to fill seats, too many folks showed up to report about the total lack of local news in their communities. Even though Martin had a pre-determined gift for NAB, the workshops were too powerful to allow the steamroller to work.

NAB needs to realize that the FCC’s job is not to insure that some businesses have a profit or even stay in business. The FCC’s main duty is to protect the consumer and to mandate the spectrum equitably.  (Congress needs to remember this as well).  If TBO.com companies started going backrupt, I am certain that another entity would take its place.

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ISPCON this week

by On Rad's Radar? in November 10th, 2008   
Topics: Conferences, Marketing, channel, ispcon, san jose     

ispf08_125x200.jpg I’m at ISPCON in San Jose all week so the updates will be few and far between.  Jack Brandt and I will be doing The Marketing Spotlight - Q&A from the audience on how to market your services. (Differentiate and Delivery). Then I am moderating a panel with Google, Optenet and IKANO about How to Build Successful Channel Partnerships.
If you are in San Jose, let’s grab some coffee. Susan Bowen at DIDX is having a blogger’s breakfast tomorrow at 8 AM. See you there!

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Telecom Peek

by On Rad's Radar? in November 10th, 2008   
Topics: , Earthlink, economy, isp, mergers, telco, telecommunications     

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JobVent

by On Rad's Radar? in November 10th, 2008   
Topics: Web 2.0, XO, jobvent, telecommunications, web apps     

By accident, I ran across JobVent today. On first examination, it’s just one more Web 2.0 forum for employees to complain about their bosses. AT&T has 5 companies - 4 are rated as bad. Cbeyond and XO are on there. Verizon is on there with 6 listings - VZW gets good marks. How is your company doing?

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Where Does AT&T Get the Money?

by On Rad's Radar? in November 10th, 2008   
Topics: , AT&T, channel, mergers, telco     

Fresh off of buying Wayport for global wi-fi expansion, AT&T buys Centennial Wireless - $944M for 1.1 million cell subs.  AT&T is either at the point that they have to keep buying to keep the growth going or they have Monopoly Madness.

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Best VoIP Commercial Ever

by On Rad's Radar? in November 10th, 2008   
Topics: Internet, Marketing, VoIP, im/chat, oovoo, skype, telecommunications     

Saw this commercial on TV yesterday for oovoo, which is a Skype replacement.

Why did I like it? Because it demonstrated what it does while doing what Ma Bell used to do in the old days with its Reach Out and Touch Somebody ads.

It makes a connection with the audience. The connection is an emotional bond. No talk of features or benefits. Perfect.

Luca says that there isn’t room for any more players. To an extent that is true because the market is full and it will be a zero-sum game of take-away. But with marketing like this, I can see how oovoo could take market share — but how do they make money?

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Gaboogie

by On Rad's Radar? in November 7th, 2008   
Topics: Web 2.0, conferencing     

Conferencing is growing and there are so many players in the field. Not much differentiation that I can see. But Gaboogie has at least one differentiator: It calls the participants!

Another differentiator is Dimdim, which states that “When they wanted to share what was on their computer screens they discovered that existing web conferencing products were all either too expensive or too complicated (or both).” Dimdim is free for up to 20 attendees.

I use Freeconference.com and pay for the recording ability. I handed 2 calls off to my podcast folks and it turns out that the call quality was too low. Not good because you can’t re-do a call.  Skype is good for one to one call recording (or podcasting) but I don’t have an inexpensive fix for this. Do you?

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One More Race: Wi-Fi

by On Rad's Radar? in November 6th, 2008   
Topics: Wi-Fi, Wireless, mergers     

Well, AT&T wanted to be known as a wireless company, so that explains AT&T buying Wayport today for approximately $275 million in cash.  Wi-Fi is the new battle ground between Sprint and the Pivot posse and the RBOC’s.  Wayport manages about 12,000 hotpsots including McDonald’s.

AT&T figures with millions of devices utilizing a wi-fi signal, they should own that transit. Before cable does or Sprint/Clearwire/Xohm does. 

If you want the snarky post about this, go here.

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Glaxo Cutting Salespeople

by On Rad's Radar? in November 5th, 2008   
Topics: Marketing, follow, off topic, pharma, sales, sales and selling     

Pharma is having troubles anyway. Patents expiring on the Billion dollar drugs like Viagra. A trickle in the pipeline of new drugs. So today’s announcement that  GlaxoSmithKline plans to reduce its U.S. sales force by about 12% is a big WOW.  Even though it is eliminating 1800 sales positions, it will have about 7500 left in the US!!!  Pharma sales isn’t really sales; it’s marketing. It’s touching the procurement officers - physicians, HMO’s, hospital admins, pharmacists - to get the drug on the formularies (in to the inventory).

Here’s hoping you are actually in Sales and not just marketing. It’s great to do the networking, the touching base with current customers, but don’t forget to prospect, qualify, follow up, follow up, follow up, and close with some new customers. It’s just a reminder, since it is far easier to do the marketing stuff.

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It’s Going to be Limiting

by On Rad's Radar? in November 5th, 2008   
Topics: Broadband, Congress, Internet, Wireless, bandwidth, digital divide, duopoly, fcc     

AT&T is testing broadband caps in Nevada. First, cable now Ma Bell. In both cases, the reason may have to do preserving TV revenue than anything. There is concern. It even popped up as a LinkedIn question.

DSL Prime is outraged over the cap and has a different view of what it means. (See here)

This is just further proof that duopoly competition doesn’t work. The TIA is begging Congress for a Broadband Stimulus bill that they say will generate $1B in economic growth. Meanwhile, WISPA lobbied for a license-lite proposal for the “white spaces” spectrum, which was granted. WISPA members (mainly wireless ISPs) wouldn’t mind some largesse from the government either to build out more towers and wireless links to actually bring broadband to places without it (you know, crossing the Digital Divide) — or to offer a third pipe. (The Clearwire-Sprint-Nextel merger was approved today as well, but that company is funded to the tune of billions. Give th

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Hostoric Moment

by On Rad's Radar? in November 5th, 2008   
Topics: Politics, off topic     

Well, we just witnessed a historic moment in US politics: our first black president was elected. McCain gave a very good concession speech. The heavy lifting starts now.

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FCC Voted Today too

by On Rad's Radar? in November 5th, 2008   
Topics: Broadband, CLearwire, Sprint, Wireless, alltel, cableco, cellular, fcc, inter-carrier compensation, mergers, telco, usf, vzw     

The FCC voted today too. They took the Inter-Carrier Compensation and USF off the agenda, much to Martin’s dismay.

“Federal regulators have approved a plan to open up unused, unlicensed portions of the television airwaves known as “white spaces” to deliver wireless broadband service.” [Y! news] [fcc.gov]

FCC approved, with conditions, the mergers of Sprint-Nextel/Clearwire and  Alltel-Verizon. [fcc.gov]

FCC opened an investigation into the pricing policies of major cable operators and Verizon. “The agency wants to ensure the companies’ customers are getting treated fairly, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in an interview with The Associated Press.” [Y! news]

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The Rotten Apple in the Channel

by On Rad's Radar? in November 4th, 2008   
Topics: , AT&T, agents, bellsouth agent, cellular, channel, channel partners, iPhone, pricing, telecommunications     

In its latest financial filing AT&T claims that they sold 6.9M iPhones and added 1M new cellular customers in the quarter due to the iPhone 3G. (Apple says that 39% of quarterly revenues were due to pushing out 200M iPhones so far.)  Here’s the funny part: Agents can’t sell the iPhone. Agents can sell Blackberries and other phones but not the iPhone.

Once again AT&T spends money to create a “Solution Provider” Alliance Channel that demonstrates preferences to AT&T sales employees over its Channel agents. On its Alliance website, AT&T writes “Targeted customer sets to minimize channel conflicts” That’s some messaging there.

Speaking to the Channel Champions, more than one is worried about what the new year will bring. One never knows what the RBOC Channel will look like year to year.

Not being able to sell the hottest phone to business execs is just one example of how the direct side is treated preferentially over the Indirect Channel. Another is on pricing. Last week, I received a phone call from AT&T about my posting pricing to my client blog. They wanted it removed immediately. Well, I am a sub-agent of a Solutions Provider; I am not direct. (Been there done that; have the scars to prove it). But the pricing did not come from an AT&T website. The pricing came from one of my customers who got it from his account exec. At that point, it’s public domain. Just another example of AT&T and its control issues.

AT&T is a wireless company. If that was really true, agents would be able to sell all of its wireless products.

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Deep Dive on Blogging

by On Rad's Radar? in November 3rd, 2008   
Topics: Blogs, Marketing, Social Network, Twitter, Web 2.0, ama, blogging, customers, tribe     

On Wed. night, I am moderating a discussion at the American Marketing Association - Tampa Bay Chapter (New Media SIG) on the Deep Dive into Blogging. 

In a Biz Journal article, the author notes, “It is a new world for business. Embrace the opportunities. Open your mind to a new way of connecting. It is a great way to prosper in any economy.”

I say that in today’s business world, you have to be connecting with your customers and prospects - even your employees, vendors, and prospective employees. Reward programs are old school. Social media - in the form of blogging, Facebook groups, YouTube channels, Twitter, etc. - is the way to really form a bond with your customers.

For years, we heard about WOM (word of mouth). We read books about turning Customers into Evangelists and BuzzAgents and Sneezers. But how do you do that? According to Seth Godin’s latest book, you build a Tribe. You lead people. One way is to be a Thought Leader in your industry. Blogging helps.

If you have an authentic dialogue on your blog whereby you give value to your readers, you will eventually build a tribe. (It may not be a big tribe, but a tribe of followers nonetheless).

Here is a sneak peek at my presentation:

 

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Frontier Adds a Cap

by On Rad's Radar? in November 3rd, 2008   
Topics: , Internet, bandwidth, caps, telco     

Frontier Communications has added a download cap to its Internet service. It will charge folks for heavy usage.

The company caused confusion and some dismay among customers earlier this year, when it said it would charge for Internet use above 5 gigabytes per month, starting next year. [tbo.com]

What’s most interesting is the comments. People are not happy about caps.

Caps are not new. We had time limits in the dial up days. (When you can only access at 33K, time is the limiting factor.) Satellite has always had bandwidth caps on its Internet service. It will become more pervasive as revenues for ISP’s decline in this economy.

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Delisting Notices to Vonage, Circuit City

by On Rad's Radar? in November 3rd, 2008   
Topics: Circuit City, Technology, Vonage, economy, nyse, should     

Neither campaign is discussing how important technology is to the US economy. Two companies received delisting notices from the stock exchange. The NYSE sent Vonage notice. That should be a fun discussion at the shareholder meeting today. Vonage also has a refinancing deal on the table. It should be an interesting week for Vonage.

Circuit City was given its stock warning notice on Oct. 24. WIth only 10 days to fix it, CC better move fast. It announced that it is closing 155 stores - as we hit the holiday shopping season.

It seems that it is always about cost cutting. Layoffs. Closings. It should have been about efficiencies, connecting with customers, profits, and rewards.

When you have an economy powered by tax rebates that are used to fund toy purchases, it eventually catches up with you.

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Cogent and Sprint De-Peer

by On Rad's Radar? in October 31st, 2008   
Topics: Cogent, Internet, Sprint, bandwidth, peering, telecommunications     

According to Alex Muse, DSLReports and GigaOm, Cogent and Sprint de-peered this morning in a tiff of some kind.  Cogent claimed this year that it was settlement free - coupled with its roots in the PSInet backbone network made it a Tier 1 provider. Cogent has had issues with other backbones including Level3 and Telia.

Cogent is incensed at the move,saying it violates a contractual obligation to exchange internet traffic on a settlement-free peering basis, and is taking legal action. It wants Sprint-Nextel to re-establish the link on the same basis.

So Cogent decided to make an offer:

Cogent is taking the moral high ground, and offering every Sprint-Nextel wireline customer that can’t connect to Cogent’s customers a free 100MBps internet connection until Sprint reconnects, though it says it can’t do the same for wireless users. [IT examiner]

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FCC Demands VoIP E911

by On Rad's Radar? in October 29th, 2008   
Topics: E911, VoIP, commission, fcc, service     

The Federal Communications Commission issued regulations this week for voice-over-IP service providers to offer Enhanced 911 emergency call services to all customers. The rules were required under the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008, which was signed into law in July.

DUTIES.–It shall be the duty of each IP-enabled voice service provider to provide 9-1-1 service and enhanced 9-1-1 service to its subscribers in accordance with the requirements of the Federal Communications Commission, as in effect on the date of enactment of the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008 and as such requirements may be modified by the Commission from time to time.

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$1000 Airfare

by On Rad's Radar? in October 29th, 2008   
Topics: Customer Service, airlines, flight, flights, going, off topic, telecom     

USA Today has an article about airfare for the holidays hitting $1000 for domestic coach (plus fees). As a frequent traveler, I can say that the airlines need to go under - no more bail out. We gave them billions after 9/11 and they ended up in BK court anyway. These companies do not understand business nor customer service.

Why don’t they just charge what the seat costs? It’s a basic math equation. Southwest can do it. Why can’t the bailed out bloated legacy carriers? I thought only in CLEC-Land did people price underwater.

Almost 75% of my flights in the last year have been delayed. Some was weather; some mechanical; and others who knows. It’s always something. Again, a lot like an installation date in telecom.

Then there are schedule changes. Three of my last six flights changed, including Delta changing a direct flight to LA to a 1-stop (with no chance to get a refund). AirTran and JetBlue changing my flight times as well.

The airlines have tacked on so many fees*. (You have no idea what the final cost of the flight will be until it is over and you add it up - curbside check-in, baggage fees, etc.). Why would you charge to check bags? You should be encouraging it so that you can turn the planes around faster.  However, you lose a lot of luggage and people can’t risk that. Plus when you do lose the one in 138 bags, airlines just don’t care — and have no responsibility or liability.  We taxpayers have forked up billions to keep these dinosaurs alive without getting any improvements. Why? Every hear of RFID tagging? How about plain old logistics and tracking?

(*Again, telecom has a ton of fees. More and more clients are asking me what the total bill will be for a circuit including taxes and fees. I actually have no idea. there are thousands of rate centers and taxing bodies. Plus some of VoIP has taxes and fees; some doesn’t. Some of Internet is taxed and some is not. No way to know.)

If I want to switch flights, but checked a bag, it’s a no-go. So you can track that, but not my bag? Makes no sense.  Passengers rights? HA! Hardly. Look here and here.

The concept of customer service is so lost on these unionized employees that it galls me. But dare you say anything and they will call security. It was annoying at $400 per coach ticket; but at $500 or higher, they better re-think their attitude because they may be standing in line next to a lot of former financial or telecom  folks soon (in the unemployment line).  (In telecom, it doesn’t matter which Duopoly you choose, many folks consider the customer service horrible. CS reps may not be able to be helpful, but they will try to upsell you.)

Like a monopoly, the airlines have you in a gotcha situation. But why more passengers don’t plan ahead is beyond me. When you procrastinate, it costs more. If you go home to family at Thanksgiving, why wouldn’t you have bought your ticket already? If you are going to ISPCON, why haven’t you booked that ticket already?

Video conferencing will take a bite out of travel. Logitech just bought SightSpeed. Video conferencing will see an uptick.

Conferences are in trouble. How many small business owners are going to drop an additional $600 for the cost of a trip? Not many I know. The shows are going to have to adopt. There are way too many shows in telecommunications. It isn’t just the show owners, but exhibitors. Companies that are going to exhibit need to become creative. Make product announcements. Do roll-outs. Add value. Make appointments ahead of the show. Double down at the show - maybe a sales meeting at the conference. There are a lot of ways to drive booth traffic and to showcase your company at a show, but most companies have not made the effort. A big, loud booth only goes so far. Don’t hire former airline personnel to man your booth. You need excited, passionate people to engage the audience.

That’s enough ranting for one morning.

Notice I didn’t even mention the annoyance of the worthless security lines?

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