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

December 2009

You are browsing the archive for December 2009.

Visit Me at ITEXPO at a Discount

December 30, 2009

The curriculum for ITEXPO East has been assembled, and I am so enthusiastic about what you'll take away from this conference. It's simply a great program focused on today's most powerful communications technology!
  SPECIAL RATE FOR YOU AS A READER OF MY BLOG - SAVE 25%
And because you're a loyal reader of my blog (at least I hope you are), I am able to offer you 25% savings off any paid conference plan. This discount applies to ITEXPO - or any of the collocated events at the show including: 4GWE, M2M Evolution, Smart Grid Summit, Digium|Asterisk World, and Cloud Communications Summit.
  Your paid conference pass gives you unlimited access to all conference events, sessions, keynotes, meals, workshops, receptions, and the exhibit hall on the days you choose.
  To take advantage of your special rate, use this link to Register Now, and enter the code BLOG.
  Come see me moderate three panels:
 
  1. How to Leverage Social Media for a Successful Marketing Campaign (E-05) on Wed., 1/20/2010 @ 1:45
  2. Winning the Battle for SMB VoIP on Thursday, 1/21/2010 @ 8:30 AM
  3. Making Money in IP Communications (RES-01) on Wed., 1/20/10 @ 10 AM for the RESELLER DAY TRACK
Can't make one of these sessions? A dinner gathering is being scheduled on Wed., 1/20/09 at 8 PM at a nearby restaurant.





Fostering Broadband Competition

December 29, 2009

One of the Broadband Stimulus grants (at $33M) went to North Georgia Network Cooperative. ComputerWorld is all atwitter because this grant means that NGNC will compete with Windstream, which already offers 10Mb to 100MB Internet Access in that region. And "Windstream covers about 70 percent of the area that North Georgia Network Cooperative proposes to cover using government money".

The irony is that pundits are criticizing the FCC's new National Broadband Policy precisely because it does NOT include any measures to increase competition for broadband. Now one of the few grants approved actually will increase broadband competition in Dawsonville and the surrounding area and one media outlet is upset.

Deltacom Terminates Referral Program

December 22, 2009

Deltacom has elected to discontinue the Referral Partner Program in its current structure.

This letter serves as formal Notice of Termination of the Referral Partner Agreement for Recurring Commission, as amended, between Deltacom and your company. Per the terms in Section 13 - Termination of the Agreement (copy attached), Deltacom has enclosed final commission payment, if any payment is due, in accordance with the terms of the amended agreement.

I wish to express my appreciation for your support of Deltacom as a valued partner.

Why You Are Going to Need The Channel

December 22, 2009

Hello, VoIP Providers. How are the sales going on your Hosted PBX? I'll bet you are selling SIP Trunking -- at a savings on regular PRI pricing, right? Nice. Lower the revenue while fixed costs increase.

Broadband Stimulus in the Middle Mile

December 21, 2009

What is the Middle Mile? It's the feeder system that delivers fat pipe to America outside of the top 8 metros - Dallas, Chicago, DC, Atlanta, LA, NYC, San Jose, Miami. Many of the top 70 MSA's have multiple fiber runs connecting them back to these 8 Internet hubs. It's the rest of America - outside the top 70 cities - that need some fiber in the Middle Mile. This is the fiber that will light up some POP's, NOC's, wireless towers.

New Year's Resolutions Going Social

December 21, 2009

In reading about Pat Phelan giving up smoking, I saw his mention of the Philips DirectLife is making exercise and weight loss a social thing. If you like the NordicTrac, the social piece is the "iFit® Live allows you to experience trails all over the world. Work out with Jillian Michaels, race against your Facebook® friends and receive automatic workout downloads every day!" 

By sharing your goals to quit smoking and lose weight with your friends and family, you can get support. Not everyone can afford a coach or personal trainer.

What Matters Now

December 16, 2009

Seth Godin released a free e-book titled What Matters Now. It is a collection of thoughts from many folks. Rich and I didn't get tagged to submit, but I'm following Seth's advice to add my thoughts here.

Seth begins by writing:

It's The Customer Experience Stupid

December 14, 2009

I'm flying today on AA. They will charge your credit card for everything -- even the unfiltered, warm, smelly air if we could - airline. You can speak to a human at the airport gate who will tell you to call the 800 number, who will tell you to do it online. 

This same airline will charge you for snacks (no free peanuts, but $4 for a bad cookie <-- who makes a bad cookie?!) and for checked baggage. And they still lost $359 million - while pissing off their customer base.
 
I watched as they told a passenger he was going to have to check his bag at the gate for $20 because his wheels put it 4 inches outside the box.



Why Should an Agent Rep Your Stuff?

December 13, 2009

Many telecom execs think that agents are a free sales staff. I get calls all the time from people that want me to rep their services. I'm certain other agents do as well -- and master agents more than anyone.

Here are 5 things to think about before approach an Agent:
  1. What is your Value Proposition? As an unknown brand, why would an agent sell your stuff instead of a branded quantity like Level3, XO, Packet8, New Edge, etc.?
  2. Do you have the marketing available to support an agent?



Cellular Blues

December 12, 2009

It's a blue holiday for the cellular networks. Apparently, AT&T would like you to use your iPhone way less than you are. It's abusing their already tired network. The funniest response to this was by Fake Steve, who also happens to point out that the only innovation is in financial engineering.

VZW has doubled early termination fees for smartphones. The FCC is looking in to that.

Sprint is raising fees (that look like taxes but aren't) because they need some profit.



Is Cable-like TV Almost Extinct?

December 11, 2009

According to Qwest (via GigaOM), Pay-TV won't be around in 5 years. With the tech  crowd, Hulu, YouTube, iTunes, NetFlix and other streaming media services are replacing TV. (NYTimes has an article about someone doing that here.) One of my ISP clients has a fat pipe to his house, an HDTV antenna for local channels, and then just uses AppleTV and online content for entertainment.

Why are we reading about this? (Why am I writing about this?) Because the music business was too slow, stupid and greedy to catch on to the Napster craze.

Will You Be Extinct?

December 9, 2009

Yesterday I had lunch with XO's Tom Gorey and Peter Davis. We spoke about the fast changes taking place in the channel space. Tom used to work for Ingram Micro, so he understands the VAR space as well. 

The big issue for both VAR's and Agents is that the price pressure on hardware and telecom services is shrinking margins and commissions fast. We all remember when Internet T1's were $1500.

A Few Words with ACC

December 3, 2009

While at the Microcorp One-on-One event I had a chance to sit down with the president of ACC Business, JD Baker.  We talked about the changes in the portfolio in 2009 (now that all the Baby Bells have transformed back into Ma Bell).

Baker thinks that the second half of 2009 will be stronger, since the first half of 2009 was kind of soft.

The next strong service will be Ethernet. EaMIS utilizes Ethernet transport to establish connectivity for a customer for managed internet service. This was rolled out in 2009 - at very competitive pricing - at a time when businesses were looking for Ethernet in place of TDM. (Businesses growing out of Broadband are used to a Cat5 hand-off and inexpensive switches).



Why is selling Hosted PBX so hard?

December 3, 2009

Talking with VoIP Providers most are just selling SIP Trunking. Why do I say Just? Where's the value in that? PRI replacement service while shaving revenue off the customer bill is the reason that the telco industry is sinking.

A Few Words with COLOTRAQ

December 1, 2009

Dany Bouchedid is not only the President of the Technology Channel Association, the only not-for-profit association for channel partners, but he is the CEO of COLOTRAQ. Colotraq is a sort of master agency for collocation worldwide, that has direct agreements with over 400 facilities globally. I asked Dany a few questions about colocation, since I think it is an area that some agents (channel partners) are mystified about. However, with worker mobility and the significance of always available data (reasons cloud computing, SAAS and virtualization are buzzing), colocation becomes important to businesses.

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