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

December 2008

You are browsing the archive for December 2008.

Level3 Financial Update

December 31, 2008

Following this story and my own, a couple of master agents called me to get an opinion on the viability of Level3 and if I thought that they would file BK. My response was that I didn't think it was likely and that L3 has been leaning on the Channel to bring in more revenue every year. But I pinged some people I know and this showed up in my inbox: A press release from Standard & Poor's.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Service said today it lowered its issue rating on Broomfield Colo.-based Level 3 Communications Inc.'s 6% convertible subordinated notes due 2009 to 'D' from 'C'.

Level3 Stock in Trouble

December 31, 2008

Rocky Mountain News reports that Level3 "remains unprofitable, mired in more than $6 billion in debt, and shares have fallen to less than 70 cents. Ordinarily, Level 3 stock would be delisted, but Nasdaq has suspended the $1 minimum requirement until April 9 because of the country's economic turmoil."  With revenues flat, L3 is looking to give itself time to repay all of its debt to forego bankruptcy.

Fox and MarketWatch reported that "Level 3 Communications Inc. had its corporate credit rating cut to SD, or selective default, from CC by Standard & Poor's. S&P also lowered ratings on Level 3's convertible subordinated notes due 2010 to D from C."  In addition, Level3 changed its stock buy back plan -- and is having trouble getting takers.

IT Industry Groups Announce Membership Agreement

December 30, 2008

MSP Partners, an alliance founded by Cisco, Ingram Micro, Intel, Level Platforms and Microsoft, and supported by Autotask Corporation, EMC, HP, Kaseya and Xerox, with the active participation of over 15 other leading IT vendors, and thousands of solution providers offering managed services today announced a cooperative agreement with The ASCII Group, Inc. (ASCII), North America's oldest and most established community of independent computer integrators, solution providers and resellers. The agreement allows members of MSP Partner and ASCII to expanded access to the many benefits offered by these two major IT industry groups.

MSP Partners, with a membership base of over 3000 solution providers, provides independent vendor-supported education for solution providers delivering managed services. Their comprehensive program includes the latest market research and education, valuable insight by means of solution provider success stories, and collaborative vendor solutions, all demonstrating a path to success in managed services.

5 Soft Phones

December 30, 2008

Business Advice

December 29, 2008

It seems that as 2008 comes to a spiraling end, everyone is giving business advice. If you run a small business, here's some of it:
Other Best Of lists for Business books in 2008:
I vote for you reading Seth's best blog posts.  And my own thoughts for businesses in 2009 is: Differentiate and Sell. Not be everything to everyone. Be Unique and actually sell services. Especially in 2009, although I have elected not to participate in the recession at all.

It's Official: Sylantro Bought by Broadsoft

December 29, 2008

Today BroadSoft announced we have acquired Sylantro Systems Corporation. As one of our most formidable competitors of the last ten years, we have both succeeded in delivering high-quality products and superior customer satisfaction.

We believe the Sylantro acquisition is a tremendous opportunity that will allow us to continue our tradition of developing comprehensive solutions for hosted telephony and multimedia services. We will retain Sylantro's Synergy Multiplay Application Feature Server platform, and will begin to immediately integrate Sylantro's development team into our current engineering organization.

RapidLink Data Center Opens

December 22, 2008

Working By Committee

December 22, 2008

I am on quite a few committees that meet mainly by email and the occasional  conference call. Neither email nor conference call are highly effective collaboration tools for an ongoing committee. So I have been looking at other ways to work.

One idea that comes up is Yahoo! Groups (and Google Groups). It's basically email but with the message archive.

Broadsoft Buys Sylantro

December 19, 2008

Agent Association on the Move

December 18, 2008

On a Qwest for Less Comp

December 18, 2008

What's With Apple?

December 18, 2008

tidbits

December 17, 2008

Why tidbits?  There is just SOOO much going on right now that I can not keep up.

You probably read about all the telecom layoffs, right? Especially the 12,000 that AT&T let go. But PAETEC and Level3 also had layoffs of 222 and 450 respectively.  Some of the cuts came from the Indirect channel. Most noteworthy is that Level3 hired a new COO, which kind of confirms the story that Neil Hobbs was let go.

Cluetrain Manifesto

December 12, 2008

Tampa Bay Connections

December 12, 2008

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.

The Nortel Tale

December 11, 2008

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.

20 Sites for Job Seekers

December 10, 2008

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)




IT Folks Chatting About Communications

December 9, 2008

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.



Microcorp Insite is Insightful Now

December 8, 2008

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?"

The VoIP Channel

December 8, 2008

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.

i3 Networks Closing

December 4, 2008

Crowded and Confused Markets

December 3, 2008

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%".

Fairpoint Rural IPTV

December 3, 2008

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.

Internet Access Stimulus

December 3, 2008

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.



NebuAd and Phorm

December 3, 2008

Is there any value left to Telecom?

December 1, 2008

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?







2008 Florida New Economy Index

December 1, 2008

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.







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