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| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

October 2008

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Cogent and Sprint De-Peer

October 31, 2008

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.

FCC Demands VoIP E911

October 29, 2008

$1000 Airfare

October 29, 2008

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?

Logitech buys SightSpeed

October 29, 2008

Call for Telecom Startups

October 29, 2008

from today's HARO:

"The Telecom Council of Silicon Valley is now accepting applications to present to their Investor Forum on December 5th, location in Silicon Valley (TBA).

 Over the past 6 years, 50% of presenters to our Service Provider and Investor Forums have started talks with our members and 20% of those lead to a deal.
This Quarterly Investor Forum meeting attendees include both the Service Provider and Investor members of the Telecom Council who gather for one purpose - to invest in new telecom technologies and companies. As a start-up in the telecom industry, there is no better room to be in, and no better audience to pitch to.




Sprint is at risk of default

October 27, 2008

According to Businessweek, telecom could get squeezed by the credit crunch - and Sprint could get hurt the most.

"To start with, rising capital costs are likely to take a bite out of earnings. In addition, the softening economy will probably crimp demand for such telecom services as land lines, cell phones, and Internet connections."
AT&T sounded the first warning signal in late September, when CEO Randall Stephenson said the telecom giant was unable to sell commercial paper for terms longer than overnight. AT"T is the industry's biggest user of commercial paper, with about $8.5 billion in paper outstanding at the end of June.
Although Verizon is not a big player in the commercial paper market, it does have $7 billion of debt coming up for renewal in 2009. The company also needs to borrow another $22 billion to pay for its acquisition of wireless carrier Alltel Wireless....
Sprint is the most leveraged carrier.

Every Where But Here

October 27, 2008

"Licensed-Lite" White Spaces by WISPA

October 27, 2008

Washington, D.C. - October 27, 2008 - Many Americans, especially those living in rural areas have never had affordable broadband Internet access.  In a letter filed with the FCC last week, WISPA, the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (www.wispa.org), showed the FCC how it can make valuable TV White Space spectrum available for new services.  The FCC is scheduled to vote on November 4 on how this spectrum can be used after the DTV transition occurs in February 2009.

WISPA offered a detailed "licensed-lite" solution for unused TV channels.  Unlike expensive spectrum auctions and "noisy" unlicensed spectrum, the "licensed-lite" approach relies on a spectrum sharing system that enables all users to operate without interference.  It would benefit the public by allowing the development of new and innovative types of unlicensed broadband devices and services.  It would also benefit WISPs by improving the service range of their existing networks, thereby allowing WISPs to reach new customers.  WISPA's proposal also ensures that consumers will continue to receive over-the-air television signals without interference.

Light in the Tunnel

October 26, 2008

Jack Welch was on This Week with George talking about the economic crisis. He said that by 3Q09 we will see the light at the end of the tunnel. There are many pieces of the bail-out that have yet to be put in place. Things will get worse in the next couple of quarters and then improve by 2010.

FCC Doing Heavy Lifting

October 23, 2008

The FCC is holding a meeting on Nov. 4. On the agenda: Inter-Carrier Compensation, Alltel-VZ merger, Clearwire-Sprint merger, and a vote of White Spaces. Lots of heavy lifting on this agenda. Martin wants to give his pals at VZ one more gift before he goes.

Is Nuvox Buying One?

October 21, 2008

Nuvox is out kicking tires to see who they can buy. Rumor has it that Greenville-based Nuvox is looking to buy One Communications in the Northeast to expand their footprint, especially their MPLS reach. (I didn't know Nuvox sold MPLS. I thought they were just a cheap Integrated T1 supplier).

Differentiation Part II

October 14, 2008

When I say that word - Differentiation - in a space like VoIP with 1100 providers, what does it mean?

Marketing is about stories. Not stories about your boring tech, but stories about what the consumer can do with your tech. For the most part, the technology works, but why would anyone use it?

Blackberries were the first prolific smartphone for business users. Execs thumbing away at the airport after listening to voicemails.



BarCamp Tampa Bay

October 13, 2008

BarCamp Tampa Bay was held this weekend at USF College of Business. Over 350 people pre-registered for this Un-conference. (Don't know what a BarCamp is? See BarCamp.org.)

Ours was just one of 4 worldwide this weekend - South Africa, Houston, Little Rock and Tampa Bay.  The whole idea behind BarCamp is that everyone shares, learns, participates.

Sequoia's Message to Start-ups

October 10, 2008

It's been all over the blogosphere this morning (GigaOm, Om again, Bear, Alley): Sequoia Capital is worried. They have given advice to all their portfolio companies. Here's some of it:

  • The Good Times are Over!
  • Cut spending. Cut fat.

IMS isn't Killing It

October 10, 2008

In a discussion on LinkedIn, it seems that IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) isn't killing it in terms of measuring up to the hype. According to Ericsson, an IMS proponent and vendor,

"IMS is defined by 3GPP/3GPP2 as a new core and service 'domain' that enables the convergence of data, speech and network technology over an IP-based infrastructure. It is the operator choice of control and service logic for primarily IP/packet-based person-to-person communication but also for person-to-content communication.

For users, IMS-based services will enable communications in a variety of modes - including voice, text, pictures and video, or any combination of these - in a highly personalized and secure way.

The most widely deployed application on IMS are: Instant Messaging, Presence, Push-To-Talk and Video Sharing. There is lackluster customer appeal so far.

Here's a Tweet

October 7, 2008

Congress joins the Web 2.0 world thanks to a bill pushed by some grass roots groups like this one and that one. There are Congressmen already using Twitter. They are listed here. You can watch them with this widget:

Now there is an open source microblogging service like Twitter called Identica.

Cellular Numbers

October 7, 2008

Broadband Reports discusses NPD Group data about iPhone conversion. "Nearly half of new AT&T iPhone customers switched from Verizon Wireless, another 24 percent switched from T-Mobile, and 19 percent switched from Sprint. iPhone smartphone share jumped from 11% to 17% of the market with the 3G's launch."

T-Mobile can probably keep some folks from switching with their sold out Android G-phone, but what has Sprint got? Actually, they have the Blackbeery Bold, Curve and Palm Centro - the other best selling phones in the summer according to NPD Group.

Other cellular news comes from Gary Kim on his IP Business blog:
More than one fourth of wireless phone customers have replaced their traditional landline connections at home and are now using wireless service exclusively to communicate on a daily basis, according to J.D.





Interviews Coming Soon

October 7, 2008

Online Music

October 1, 2008

The news this week in online music is that Best Buy is buying Napster and now has anti-trust approval from the FTC to do so, according Yahoo news.

Also, Yahoo News  reports that "After approval by the U.S. House and now a nod from the Senate, the Webcaster Settlement Bill is headed to President George W. Bush's desk for his signature. The bipartisan bill will allow copyright owners and artists, on behalf of SoundExchange, to negotiate with Internet radio services.

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