Cox, Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, and CableVision showed up for a panel at the Channel Partners Expo in Boston today. As you can imagine the agents let them have it. The question the panel asked is Why Cable? Why, indeed. It sounded like the program is temporary or "in trial". MSO's don't really know the SMB market. Cablecos don't know the channel either.
Currently, they are selling basic voice and data packages with security, hosted email, and backup/storage. So What Wins?
Quality of Service. Fair compensation (20% plus spiffs). NNI and inter-connection of the 5 top networks, which hit 92% of the US land mass. The cable execs handled some of it well until Macario had to halt the conversation as it neared collusion and anti-trust.
All of them have a Business Broadband product. Twelve phone lines and less. Hosted PBX in the pipeline. Managed Services with Response Point and Cisco CallManager. TWC is launching PRI. Cox is rolling out SIP Trunk. Some programs are referral only.
It was an interesting talk. I appreciate them for showing up and being forthcoming. ILEC's better look out.
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