Peter : On Rad's Radar?
Peter
| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

August 2011

You are browsing the archive for August 2011.

Colo Agency is 45th

August 31, 2011

Inc. Magazine has notified Global Communication Networks that the firm ranks number 1,347 on Inc.'s fifth annual Inc. 500|5000. In addition, GCN was ranked as the 45th fastest growing telecommunications company in the nation, as well as one of the fastest growing companies in Florida. (You can read the whole press release here.) I just wanted to take a moment to give props to a fellow agent (and TCA member) and fellow Floridian. Congrats!

A Little Merger Opposition

August 31, 2011

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) held a news conference to oppose the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. According to this report, "At the news conference, Conyers said, "I've never seen a merger that didn't lose jobs." .... At the hearing the next day, Conyers went further, stating, "I have never met a merger that I liked. They always cost jobs, and they create less competition, and they hurt consumers.""

Everyone is Looking to the Channel

August 29, 2011

It's funny that at the same time telcos are screwing channel partners contracts and commissions - InterNAP, Switch&Data/Equinix, Deltacom (before ELNK) - the "Cloud" is looking to the Channel in a big way.

The biggest problem that cloud providers face is how to make sales. There are way too many providers, not nearly enough differentiation, too much vague marketing, and the sales process is challenging. That's right: Challenging.

The Leaked AT&T Document

August 26, 2011

I have been sitting on this story for a while because I wanted to do a long piece about it. I'm just not going to get around to that.

The rumored breakup fee for the ATT-T-Mobile merger is like $6B. At that rate, Ma Bell will do anything to have this merger go through.

What Did I Miss?

August 26, 2011

Besides Steve Jobs resigning from Apple (and tanking their stock), what news did I miss? Sprint is getting the iPhone in October. Won't be a big deal, I don't think.

The TCA added TelePacific, TELX, The Conference Group, NTT Americas, and PGi as vendors in the last month.

3 Weatherman and an Agent

August 26, 2011

At the CPExpo last night I was a panelist for the CPZ, an experiment in doing a talk show at the expo. It was 100 invitees, an open bar and 5 panelists in front of the camera - Khali Henderson, Dave Stewart of Simple Signal, Larry Walsh of the 2112 Group, John Siefert (CEO of Virgo), and me. It turns out that Siefert is a VAR (?) or works with VARs, so it was 3 cloud guys and me.

We started with the theme of the show: Is this the end of Transactional Agents?  The truth is that while the runway may appear to be running out, telecom is mainly an arbitrage business made up of me-too providers, who will extend that runway for a while longer.

Take the case that Bells no longer pay commissions on POTS lines.



The Phone System is Broken (too)

August 24, 2011

The PSTN - America's phone network - is broken. There are two main issues that bring me to say that telecom is broken: number porting and call termination.

I hear complaints from VoIP Providers (and smaller CLEC's) all the time how they cannot port numbers. In some cases both VoIP Providers use a CLEC for LNP, but it is different CLEC's.

3 Reasons that Video Conferencing is Better than Travel

August 23, 2011

I write this from an hour delayed American Air flight to Chicago. I started my 75 day travel schedule last week and sitting on this plane makes me wish I could afford NetJets! The screaming kids in the aisle next to me and the one behind me. (My fault for not buying noise canceling headphones.)

The guy with body odor in front of me.

Does HP Have it Right?

August 18, 2011

So HP made some, what I might call crazy, moves today. Reports are in that HP is going to spin off its PC business. Other reports are in about them killing off webOS products like Palm phones and tablets (here and here).

HP just bought Palm last year for $1.2B -- but it may license the software or put it in other products.

Insight Finds a Buyer

August 15, 2011

Insight cable has been actively looking for a buyer for a while. well, actually, Carlyle Group that owns insight was looking for cash. Carlyle Group is an infamous holding company (backed by powerful politicos in the US and Saudi petrodollars). Carlyle bought Hawaiian Telecom from VZ, but it went BK.

I Guess Mobile is the Future

August 15, 2011

There are many in telecom that think mobile is the golden land of the future. Google, Apple and Microsoft are in a championship scramble match for a large share of the mobile market - Win7 versus Android versus iOS.

Microsoft bought Nokia's handset biz for $19B. [As an aside, HP bought Palm and is rolling out Palm handsets and tablets based on webOS, yet a 4th player in the scramble.] Now in a bold move, Google is going all in by buying Motorola's handset, Motorola Mobility Holdings, for $12.5B today.

Google now owns the entire ecosystem like Apple and Microsoft - hardware, software, apps store. All are just missing the Network, which is probably the choke point for all of them.



3 Reasons VAR's Should be in Austin

August 14, 2011

Maybe you didn't go to ASCII Summit or Everything Channel, then Austin is the place for you as a VAR. There are at least three reasons VAR's should be in Austin:

1) MSP World where value-added resellers can hear about how to transition into a managed service provider.

2) Telecom Reseller Week which will teach VAR's how to effectively sell communications equipment and services, with proven tips and best practices for addressing the challenges faced in today's economy.



Lousy Tele-Marketing

August 10, 2011

How does the Verizon Strike Affect Agents

August 8, 2011

From notices from both Netwolves and Microcorp about the Verizon workers strike.

Effective yesterday, two unions - the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - representing 45,000 workers at Verizon announced an immediate strike. The strike involves Verizon field technicians and call center employees from Massachusetts to Virginia/DC. This strike will cause delays in both Installations and Repair in the Northeast.

ABRY, Telx and other Monday Surprises

August 8, 2011

ABRY Partners in conjunction with Berkshire Partners LLC acquired TELX from GI Partners, which also owns ViaWest. (I have to ask why they didn't merge those two together?)  ABRY Partners has been active in telecom, buying RCN/Sidera, but especially in the data center space: spending almost $1.5B on the likes of CyrusOne, Datapipe, Hosted Solutions, Q9 Networks and Sentrum - and now TELX. (Hosted Solutions was sold to Windstream and Cincinnati Bell acquired CyrusOne.)

TELX has 15 data centers (including 56 Marietta in Atlanta, 60 Hudson in NYC, and 111 Eighth Avenue also in NYC) with 900 customers and about $129M in revenue in 2010. It filed for a $100M IPO in March, 2010. 

This is just a change in private equity holdings.



ITEXPO in Austin Will Be Hot

August 4, 2011

Taking a cue from Jon Arnold, here's what I have going on at ITEXPO West 2011 in Austin (a move from Los Angeles in previous years):

While I will miss the chance to hit Manhattan Beach for some beach volleyball, this will be my first time in Austin.

It's also the first time that there will be a CMO Summit at ITEXPO. My company and my pal's company, CR8 Group, in conjunction with a great team at TMC - Dave, Anna and Mike - are bringing in 2 speakers to discuss Online Branding. Rich Tehrani wrote about it today.

Domain-ers M&A

August 4, 2011

Too Much Going On

August 4, 2011

PowerNet Global (PNG) signed a wholesale agreement with LightSquared. This will be PNG's second attempt at cellular. Back in 2005, PNG Mobile was launched as a Sprint MVNO. It didn't pan out.

Are They Reading from the Same Playbook?

August 1, 2011

Are Windstream and CenturyLink reading from the same script?

CenturyTel built up a wireline base from Embarq, Verizon (2001-2002), and Madison River. In 2003 to 2005, C-Tel bought fiber networks - Digital Teleport (which became LightCore), MFON and KMC. Then in 2010 announced it was buying Qwest - federal government contracts, fiber, international, data centers and more wireline.

A Strange Way to Start Monday

August 1, 2011

The party might be over at the PAETEC, as they announced today an $891M stock only sale to WINDSTREAM. USLEC, AllWorx, CavTel, McLeodUSA, Quagga, Xeta, US Energy Partners - all acquired by PAETEC to create a billion dollar CLEC. As if hitting the billion dollar mark was meaningful. Intermedia was the first billion dollar CLEC and HAD to sell itslef to MCI, as short-term debt became due.

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