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 :)
