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

March 2010

You are browsing the archive for March 2010.

Independent ISP Wins County Broadband Grant

March 31, 2010

"Rapid Systems, a wireless internet service provider, was selected by the Hardee Broadband Project to deploy Motorola's fixed wireless broadband solutions across Hardee County, Fla. Based on Motorola's PTP 800 licensed microwave Ethernet bridges and PMP 320 licensed network access solutions, the wireless broadband infrastructure will deliver affordable, high-speed Internet connectivity to businesses and residents of the county."

Today, CenturyLink provides DSL in some urbanized areas of the county, but a majority of Hardee County is without a broadband option. Rapid Systems will utilize WiMax from Motorola to supply businesses and residents with a 10MB broadband option.

"The Hardee Broadband Project has emerged as a result of the Federal stimulus focus on bringing broadband services to rural communities.

Covad Acquiring MegaPath

March 31, 2010

Covad announced a merger with MegaPath today. That combines 2 of the 3 independent DSL transport players in the Industry. (The third would be EarthLink's New Edge Networks). Interestingly, MegaPath is a Covad customer.

Ever Wonder?

March 31, 2010

Ever wonder why Hosted PBX isn't sold by telcos? It's the new entrants to the voice game that are pushing Hosted PBX on to the business community.

Comcast is probably the closest thing to a CLEC that sells Hosted PBX; hence, the NGT acquisition. 

Many CLEC's have morphed into tiny ILEC's, because getting to $1B in revenue means changes. The model for most of the CLEC's is the ILEC. It's unfortunate but true. 

The sales force for most CLEC's has the plug-n-play mentality, which to me  means that the sale is wrapped around replacement services.



ATC Assists TCA With Code of Ethics

March 30, 2010

ATC Instrumental in Collaborative Effort to Formalize Technology Channel Association's Code of Ethics

Association's Agent Committee Finalizes Professional Guidelines for Telecom Agents

Advanced Technology Consulting, Inc. today announced its critical involvement in a national, collaborative effort to formalize the Technology Channel Association's (TCA) Code of Ethics.

USF now over 15%

March 30, 2010

Is Hosted PBX Like BPM?

March 29, 2010

Business Process Management was a big concept about 5 years ago. The concept revolved around integrating business processes into systems for consistent execution of routines. (Heh! I can talk marketing speak!)

Today, we have Hosted PBX coming into small and medium businesses mainly as a cost savings factor, but there are business changes that occur due to the nature of the service.

As companies move to Software-as-a-Service, Cloud services or other hosted offerings, business will change as a result.



VoIP Access Ruling

March 29, 2010

"On February 18, 2010, a federal district court stepped in to fill the gap left by the FCC's silence on the issue of whether transmission of Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP")-originated calls is an information service exempt from access charges or a telecommunications service subject to access charges." [from Kelley-Drye]

I spoke with Kris Twomey last week about this judgment. In summary, the judgment of Civil Action No. 08-0397 is as follows: "If the call leaves the customer premise as VoIP and remains VoIP until it hits the tandem, then there are not any LD or toll access charges. VoIP is an Information Service according to the FCC."

HD Voice is Supplied More Buzz

March 29, 2010

Brain Drain and TBTF

March 29, 2010

This is about tech in general and very specific to my current location. Kind of a rant.

There was an article in the St. Pete Times about the Tampa Bay Technology Forum working on a state-wide initiative. State-wide?

SUTUS DEMO 2010

March 26, 2010

Our Economic Survival

March 25, 2010

The FCC's National Broadband Plan suggests that adding 500 MHz of spectrum to the mix will fix most things. HA!

I thought when Julius became FCC Chair we would have some change. Instead, we get the idea that if we give more spectrum to companies that already have spectrum we will improve the current situation.

Somebody please explain how?

Sprint, Clearwire, T-Mobile, VZW and AT&T have spectrum that they have not turned up yet. Giving them more - and varied - spectrum will not make any marked improvement. 

How many radios do you thing we can add to a cellular handset?







VoiceCon and FISPA

March 22, 2010

I'm heading over to VoiceCon at the Gaylord Palm to work with XO interviewing attendees. The question: What does UC mean to you? I'm expecting 25 different answers. (Which will prove my point).

Changing the Name May Not Work

March 22, 2010

Unbelievable Response

March 18, 2010

Let's say that you are ITSP who provides white label Hosted PBX to service providers. Let's say you have issues delivering your service to that service provider. The issues are persistent. The service provider partner loses customers as a result.

2010: The Year for CLEC's

March 18, 2010

This could be the year for CLEC's.

First, the Broadband Stimulus money is starting to be handed out. CLEC's (and ISP's) are starting to get some of it.

CLEC's are getting acquired by ILEC's and Cablecos.

GROWCO Tidbits

March 17, 2010

So I was at INC magazine's GROWCO conference this week. I wasn't too thrilled with the majority of the content - speakers were off-topic or just blowhards. But here are a bunch of ideas:

"Fear is necessary," said George Foreman. It was reiterated by many others because fear means that you are uncomfortable and growth only happens when you are uncomfortable.

Is That a Rebate?

March 17, 2010

VZW was a sponsor of GROWCO. I owe them for bringing in Michael Gerber, since his speech was sponsored by VZW. There were ads all over the show for VZW handsets. The new Droid Eris by HTS is just $99.99.

Ill. Judge Only Smart One

March 12, 2010

Only a single judge in Illinois has the common sense to see that the Frontier-Verizon deal is very similar to the Fairpoint-Verizon deal that resulted in a bankruptcy within 18 months while screwing consumers in three states.

The Herald-Review has a report about "An administrative law judge ruled that the planned sale of Verizon's land-line service to Frontier Communications should not be approved by state regulators.... In her ruling, Administrative Law Judge Lisa M. Tapia says evidence presented in the case in front of the Illinois Commerce Commission doesn't support the sale, primarily because the transaction would leave Frontier too laden with debt to be able to properly manage the lines and other infrastructure."

This was exactly the deal with Fairpoint.

Broadband Speed Test

March 12, 2010

The Gap

March 11, 2010

There's a gap of about 93 million Americas who do have Internet Access (of any kind - not even dialup! I can't even wrap my head around that). The FCC is on a mission to bridge that gap.

Commissioner Clyburn's statement was informative, especially about the proposed "National Digital Literacy Corps in order to help individuals who are unfamiliar with or intimidated by the on-line world develop the skills they need to be comfortable on-line and to take full advantage of all it has to offer." Like a help desk.

Channel Chief Summit

March 11, 2010

A Message from the Fellows

March 10, 2010

I attended the University of Tampa Fellows Forum this morning. Verizon was the presenting sponsor so I got to listen to Michelle Robinson, President, Southeast Region, Verizon, gush about how wonderful VZ is. Point of order, Michhelle. You said that VZ gave a whopping $2M to charity in Florida in 2009.

Hosted versus Premise

March 8, 2010

Point-CounterPoint: Hosted Voice vs. CPE is an open debate between two bloggers: Mike Graves  and Dave Michels (of PinDropSoup).

Personally, I think Dave missed the boat. Two key points: CAPEX and OPEX.

For CAPEX (capital expenditure), there are ITSP's that are offering a leasing package which includes the phones, a router, a POE switch, Internet Access, phone service and monitoring. It is financed and rolled into one monthly charge, eliminating the CAPEX scare. 

There are a number of businesses that just need the IP desk phones that they opt to purchase themselves.



TCA Agents Ratify Code of Ethics

March 5, 2010

Finding Your Best Clients

March 4, 2010

My agent pal, Dave, asked me how I find my clients. My first answer is that I sell only to a very specific vertical -- a Niche. And only to three verticals within that Niche - VoIP, regional CLEC and ISP. 

Look at your client base. Who are your top 5 or 10 clients?

A Pocket MBA for the MSP

March 4, 2010

Blind Items

March 4, 2010

FCC, SBA Discusses Broadband

March 2, 2010

How Not to Sell VoIP

March 2, 2010

Channel Partners Need a Net-Head

March 1, 2010

Arrived in Vegas for the Channel Partners Expo (in conjunction with VoIP Nation).  Seems everyone I speak with is looking for sales. We have at least as many channel agents as we have always had, so why the growing need for sales?

I think one reason is that most of the channel partners are TDM. Plug and play.

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