March 2008 Archives

One thing many companies complain about is the price of bandwidth. The fact is price varies - greatly. Telegeography has a sampling of how much prices fluctuate. Why do they fluctuate?

Older contracts do not have declining prices, so people who bought a 5 year deal are paying more than people shopping now.

Where is the bandwidth? In about 8 cities - NYC, LA, DC, MIA, Dallas, ATL, CHI, and San Jose - bandwidth is really inexpensive (inside carrier hotels) because it is very competitive. In these cities, just about every carrier has capacity and wants to sell it to you. As you move outside those 8, capacity, availability, lit buildings, and competition change -- so too does the pricing.

The loop, the transport, the delivery of the bandwidth is the expensive part. It needs to be factored in.

In some of the examples, customers might have bought transit from companies during a period when they were having a fire sale or just plain wanted to take business away from another carrier. Or one carrier knew that capacity was limited (or the other carrier had implementation issues), so they could charge more.

If you need it now (and you want it in Ethernet instead of TDM (OC-x)) be willing to pay extra.

Looking for bandwidth? Drop me an email let me know what you are seeing.

Telecomweb reports on a study into the lobbying effort behind FISA bills. I'm only peripherally following the FISA bills. (David Isenberg is all over it on his Blog). The main gist is that the telcos want retro-active immunity for wiretapping everyone and everything. (So does the White House). But that kind of goes against the grain. It passed the Senate but thankfully the House is holding strong. (It would have been nice if the 3 senators running for office had voted on the FISA bill.

Microsoft is now ready to jump into VoIP for the SMB space with VoIP trunking and the Response Point phone system. Microsft joins Cisco, Linksys, a multitude of Hosted PBX players, Mitel, ShoreTel, and the rest of the hardware clans in competing in the SMB space.

My question is what space do they mean? Medium business of 500 to 1000 users? Small business of 250-500 employees or 100 to 250 workers? Or the under 100 employee segment that itself is segmented into under 25, 25-50, 50-100, and under 10. That's a huge sector that is heavily divided. Not just in size either. Every segment thinks about voice differently; has different needs; and must be sold to differently. I'll be curious to see what the marketing plan is. (So far I have not seen a plan to get to the SB space. Just the Medium size).

I had drinks with a VP of telecom for an IT distributor and we ended up discussing how the Hosted VoIP players will sell to the small business. There's not enough incentive for the headache. It will require the companies to throw money and manpower at it. Something they have been reluctant to do.

This space has been termed (by Seth Godin I think) the Fortune 5 Million because there are at least 5M small businesses with payroll in the US.

If you are playing in this space, drop me a note at peter at rad-info dot net.

Buzz Broadband in Australia is claiming that WiMax sucks. The WiMax vendor, AirSpan, says that the network design was poor. Others have said that the 3650 MHz spectrum used for this WiMax trial has limitations that you don't see on 2.5 GHz. Telecomweb and DSLReports have more.

You'll notice that Web 2.0 apps like to open to private beta. (I think Google started this with Gmail but don't quote me). Lately, the requests for an invite to GrandCentral (voice management portal acquired by Google last year) have piled in. It's the new viral marketing.

And now come the portals. Aastra's XML developers portal. Simple Signal. Open Social. iPhone SDK. Broadsoft. Lots of companies have decided it is much cheaper to let others develop apps for their platform. It's a form of social networking. You have a community site for users and developers that you get feedback through. It's a corporate marketing decision. As the Web 2.0 dev folks know, having an open API means more uses for your platform.

Now comes the part where we try to figure out the revenue model -- and the IP ownership. In today's patent troll world, who owns the Intellectual Property of what you use, develop, store?? (It's the one big question that was left unanswered at FOWA).

We'll see how it shakes out.

Media outlets are puking with the story that Muni Wi-Fi is dead. From the get go there were factions that wanted this to fail. (ILEC/cellcos and MSO's being just 2 parties)>

But there were groups that needed this to work: Intel, MOTO, Tropos, the Wi-fi Alliance, CityNet, MetroFi. and EarthLink. Unfortunately, too many government officials thought this would be some kind of windfall. And, as is often the case, too many manufacturers blew smoke. It ended up costing way more to build than any theory predicted. It didn't work nearly as well as expected. And the number of paid subscribers was woefully low.

When the bell tolled, everyone was a genius. But people missed some tidbits. It could have worked as a public-private partnership ith public safety as an anchor tenant. It was likely to replace DSL or cable modem, but could have worked for mobile users and casual users.

One point that escapes many people is that Handsets sell cellular. The more you can do with a handset, the more you pay the carrier. Period.

Muni needed Nokia to help push the Muni Wi-Fi/obile market. It also needed more dual-mode phones. And let's face it: EarthLink did an awful job marketing this and bundling this (Hello: Helio dual-mode phone?! DSL and cable modem users having access??) And since ELN isn't exactly a network company, the build was a mess too. It's unfortunate.

BTW, ELN is for sale if any private equity people are interested, please call me.

This is the tale of one guy trying to activate one handset on Sprint. My current cell phone is on Nextel. My EVDO card bills on SPrintPCS. They have not been combined in 2 years. So after 20 minutes trying, I email Sprint and get this reply:

I understand that you wish to activate your handset to the current plan. As your account is on the Nextel network, the handsets with the Sprint logo cannot be activated on the Nextel account. Therefore, I request you to activate a handset with the Nextel Logo or a power source handset.
Further, as you wish to share your plan, the current plan National Free Incoming Plan will not be compatible as it is the individual plan. It need to be updated with a plan compatible with the family plans.

I call today and spend 40 minutes talking to 8 different people as they shunt me from department to department until the VoIP calling falls apart and the CS rep hangs up on me because he can not hear me. Eight different people. Three couldn't even see my SprintPCS account. Even when I tried just to activate the PPC6700 on the SprintPCS account, there were issues. This does not bode well for Sprint. You can't even activate handsets for existing customers. How do you raise ARPU? More importantly, how do you retain customers?

I am currently locked out of my SprintPCS online account. No idea why. One person said it might be due to an update.

This is telecom. Broken. Like the economy. Just when we need communication services to be strong.

Amidst the FISA bills in Congress, rumor has it that cellular companies gave open access to the US government for wiretaps, just like the little room at AT&T's San Fran CO. That's swell.

According to this article, the list of folks listening to your VoIP calls, reading your email, tracking your location, tailing your web usage, tapping your cell and landline calls, and other nefarious acts is long. It includes Ma Ball, VZW, law enforcement (LEA), governments around the globe, your boss, and criminals.

This week we also have the FBI's VoIP documents leaked to Wikileaks.

In the face of all this, what happened to PGP? You know, the little encryption program. I can't believe in today's environment there isn't easy to use encryption. (If there is, please point it out).

How far has Speech Recognition software come since Dragon Speak? Voice to text is picking up some momentum. Rich Tehrani writes about Visual Voicemail with SpinVox, SimulScribe and GotVoice as ways to get voicemail as an email.

I would think that mobile people would rather have voicemail as an MP3 or WAV file. It is easier to listen to voicemail while driving or running through an airport than reading it. Also, a hot button for UC for small business is the ability to forward the whole voicemail message with vm attached to co-workers to handle tasks while out of office.

SimulScribe already has some traction with smaller phone companies including FreedomVoice, M5 in NYC, and Hunt Telecom in Louisiana as well as with the Big Boys (Alltel, Ma Bell, VZW, T-Mobile). All 3 small carriers have found success with SimulScribe (i.e., it works). I only have a trial I did with SpinVox to say that it works better than Jott. SpinVox is from the UK and has US carriers, Alltel and Cincinnati Bell.

Jott is a note taker. You dial a number; give the name of the email addressee; then clearly speak the message you want texted. Luckily, Jott also offers a link to your original recording because for my telecom notes it is frequently wrong. (But that might be an unfair test).

It looks like we are getting to the point where we can have text or voice (which is a plus for the visually impaired). It just depends on your preference. I wonder when the reading will improve. You know, that mechanical voice that "reads" the words aloud. I would suggest a British or Southern voice

I'd like to point out that these services were brought to you from a third party, not your "Innovative" carrier. While Bell Labs may be in the rebuilding stage (and the US lacks the necessary PhD's required to do all the research), it is the start-ups that are driving innovation and creativity. So the next time you read how Ma Bell or VZ proclaim to the FCC or Congress that they need deregulation, please write the governing body about the lack of invention. (No R&D budget but a hefty lobbying and legal budget?? What's with that?!)

Podcasting is all the rage right now. I use Power MP3 Recorder on my laptop with a Y-connector to my phone to record. While I thought the recording was the challenge. It's not. The challenge is in wrapping the podcast is a professional package with lead-in music and intro as well as closing music and notes. You can tell the difference between a polished podcast and the amateur kind.

I've noticed that recordings of conference calls have poor quality as well. Lots of things affect the quality of a conference call. For example, if you call into a conference bridge via a cell phone, Skype or a VoIP line, there tends to be a quality issue, especially if the bridge is VoIP. I have had people dial in to a bridge while driving with the window down. People have put the conference on hold resulting in a soundtrack for the call from that company's on-hold music (or worse recording). When the sound quality of the recording is poor, it affects the product.

After you get through post production of the podcast, there are 3 factors left: hosting, distribution and marketing.

Get on iTunes. Utilize an RSS feed. Take advantage of the 20+ podcast directories. Blog about it and list it on your website (use a text link). Add it to your newsletter. Marketing is telling people about it. From the podcasts I have heard, a couple of hundred listeners is medium sized. Just get your story out there.

Hosting requires a lot of storage and bandwidth. The average podcast I have seen is about 40MB. One hundred people listen weekly you have pushed 16GB in a month.

There are a number of companies that can help you podcast including Podworx, Podgarden, Podpress, and Podbean. If you want a little intro into Podcasting, go here or here.

BTW, you can thank the iPod for making podcasts more mainstream. WIthout the advent of the MP3 player going mainstream, podcasts would still be by and for geeks.

What a whirlwind week in telecom. Just back from the Agent Expo in Vegas. It started Monday with the surprise announcement that Level3 had fired its President, Kevin O'Hara. O'Hara was Pres and COO and co-founder. But Integration has been a Nightmare. It has cost the company millions in lost business and opportunity. Jim Crowe stepping in as President and Neil Hobbs has been appointed as executive vice president, operations. The CFO, who resigned in October, is now staying. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of the fix.

IN other related news, Time-Warner Telecom is re-naming itself (because its license of the name ends in May). Instead of using the Xspedius moniker when they bought the former e-spire last year, CEO Larissa L. Herda announced the new name: tw telecom (duh!)

In DSL, Verizon announced a 7MB retail service. (Previously, ISP's sold the 7MB DSL). But I guess the marketing is out past the implementation. Read this story..

As long as I am piling on VZ, here's a blog from one of thier tech support folks at the Consumerist.

Ericsson says that it has gear ready for the 700 MHz spectrum. So finish the auction and come get some. (Unfortunately, in the US, the spectrum won't be available until after the DTV (digital tv) migration empties those channels.

The one thing noted is that most people and businesses need broadband -- and more every 2 years. So the thinking is telecomm may be recession proof. (Ha!)

AOL, who can't decide what they are, have spent $850M to buy Bebo, a social network site. Bebo has a stronger presence outside the US. I don't know how this helps AOL. This company had millions of subscribers, ad revenue, walled garden, and all that content from Time Warner -- and look at it. Waste.

Bill Gates is in sync with the Wireless ISP Association (WISPA). Gates urged the FCC to free up more vacant television airwaves to be used for wireless services such as broadband Internet access. (It's called white spaces and Microsoft had a device that was supposed to use this spectrum. The device sent to the FCC for testing failed. I don't know if it was a blue screen or a dead battery

I am off to Vegas to moderate a panel discussion on Virtual Office. Unfortunately, the discussion will really be about Hosted VoIP, not Office 2.0. Office 2.0 is the concept of the Virtual Office. At IT Redux, they have pushed the concept to the edge. In their rules for Office 2.0, software apps can only load in a web browser. And files must be stored online. That way you can work anywhere. Access "your hard drive" anywhere. (I would suggest that sensitive files be saved on a 4GB flash drive that can be carried with you. It certainly solves the synchronization problem many people face. This concept is not quite there yet. (Even with Google pushing hard).

The drawback is control. Who controls the access? How good is the security? What if these apps (webistes or companies) are bought out or close? What happens to your data then? What about privacy breaches? If they are free, they will be ad supported and that usually means targeted, so how private is your stored data or online activities?

IT Redux has a pretty thorough list of Web 2.0 apps that can be used to create the Virtual Office space.

I have a small list here.

I don't know about you but I get a decent amount of email from LinkedIn and other networking sites. It seems like a new one pops up every day. (Thanks to sites like Ning which make it easy to build one coupled with the gold rush mentality of the web entrepreneur, its no wonder).

MySpace and Facebook still get the most traffic according to Compete.com. Linkedin is a lowly number 8. I don't see Spoke or Jigsaw on the list. I didn't know Twitter was considered a social network. (I thought it was a micro-blogging platform).

It seems the buzz creates its own news about this sector. Earlier in the week the story was about social networking going mobile. (see NYT here) This weekend it was about Fubar and Zivity. Fubar is the online bar and happy hour. (Is this a remake of AdultFriend Finder?) Fubars traffic is climbing the charts. Zivity is an adult content site where models and photogs can hook-up. Zivity just caught $7M in VC.

After FOWA and a number of invites, I am looking for a single place to create one profile and export it to new sites (or sync it with existing profiles). There are 2 possibilities: one is SocialURL. "SocialURL is a social community platform enabling you to organize your online identities. Connnect to all your social network sites with one URL." I signed up this weekend, but I did not like giving my zip code and birthdate. Just one more way they collect advertising data on you.

The other personal portal point would be Zoolit. "Zoolit is a shareable Web page that lists all your personal sites. Your Zoolit Landing Page is always current and up to date, providing the world with all of your personal Websites, Social Networks, Blogs, contact info, and Photo and Video Sharing sites." (I have not signed up to do this yet).

This will all be ad-supported, but I just don't see how that will happen. Social Networks will go long tail -- smaller niches will do well, because it will be focused both in content and in ads. I can see the Gen Y crowd using mobile apps more than say me. I like a screen I can read without squinting. I also like a full keyboard. But you never know. Imagine waiting while a MySpace with all its widgets and slideshows and crap loads?? Imagine the network bogged down as everyone on the train does it? I'll wait and see. (And of course blog about here).

On LinkedIn, one of the LinkedIn Answers (actually a question) from Steve Griffin at T-Systems was: Will data / voice convergence be a main IT cost saving driver in 2008?

While writing my answer, I figured I would share it with you:

I think the market is tired of hearing how they can save money in telecom. Internet pipe, voice costs, and now mobile expenses have driven up the telecom budget line items.

As to CLEC's selling the Integrated or Dynamic T1 as a converged data/voice solution, we are fast approaching where the 1MB limit on these pipes is insufficient for video conferencing when piled on top of the current uses. (And Cisco is driving that train too).

When selling a Hosted VoIP (PBX) Solution, the TCO needs to be integrated with the productivity gains as well as the communications needs of the whole business (like tele-workers, mobile salesforce).

The only CLEC giving guidance to its investors is Cbeyond, who has warned its investors through its SEC filings that a slow down may be coming. Cbeyond sells Dynamic T1 with a cellular component, so if any telco should be driving sales, it is them. Even the Big Boys (Sprint, AT&T and Verizon) are starting to see the credit crunch. (T-Mobile seems to have a handle on the credit and the churn based on its latest figures).

Certainly, salespeople will be chirping about "Cost Savings" but that doesn't mean businesses will BUY it.

The IT cost savings MAY be seen in SAAS as IT talent becomes either scarce or too expensive. Medium sized businesses will look for managed solutions for software and Voice.

In the coming crunch, many salespeople will be swinging the "savings" pitch, we'll see how many people bite. I don't think it will be effective.

Right now, businesses are worried about 3 things:

1. How do I keep my business efficient and productive;
2. How do I continue to bring in (enough) revenue;
3. How do I retain talent.

Verizon (VZ) has been given approval by the FCC and the state PUC in VT, ME, and NH to sell its landline business in New England to Fairpoint. The sticking point is that Fairpoint is a company too small to acquire VZ's assets -- a company that is 5x the size and scope. Plus as Alltel/Windstream discovered in Eastern KY, most assets in this region have been neglected.

So how does a smaller fish buy a bigger fish AND expand the broadband network in that area? Mainly marketing. Just keep telling everyone things will be fine. Repeat the message often. Eventually, you win. That's marketing.

The details on the financials is the fun stuff, As TechJournal South reports:

FairPoint Communications Inc. has commenced a $540 million bond offering. The notes are being offered for sale by certain selling security holders to qualified institutional buyers. The notes will be initially issued to Spinco Inc., a subsidiary of Verizon, and subsequently exchanged by Verizon for outstanding indebtedness of Verizon held by the selling securityholders. Spinco merges into FairPoint immediately prior to completion of the offering.

It's a great deal for Verizon. It's a lousy deal for just about everyone else - consumers, the states, the workers. Even the businesses in this region will suffer because lack of a solid communications network means they will lag behind businesses with big pipes.