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

November 2011

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Cell Phones Offer No Privacy

November 30, 2011

Beyond the fact that radio frequencies can be listened to with Radio Shack parts - I'm not even talking NSA spycraft here - two reports out this week show that malware is present and accounted for on cell phones. Awesome, right? I mean, how long did that even take?

One article details how the IEEE has found that as many as 2000 free smartphone apps carry malware.

A Bad Day for AT&T

November 30, 2011

The FCC released its order today declaring that the AT&T-T-Mobile merger was not good for consumer, public good or competition. And AT&T was not pleased that the FCC released the Staff Analysis - all 157 pages of it.

AT&T probably didn't like Commissioner Copps blasting them for wasting serious staff hours and expense analyzing this transaction over the last 7 months.

The findings - in summary - are as follows:

The Cellular Battle

November 28, 2011

I don't mean the AT&T-T-Mobile merger, although that is just one battle in the war for cellular supremacy. (Other battles are Sprint with Clearwire, Sprint with the cablecos and the MVNO model.)

"Former T-Mobile CMO Denny Post says carriers should focus on retention, rather than relentless promotions aimed at new sign-ups." Post says that it is the end of the New-to-Wireless Customer Era and that cellcos must re-think customer care.

Post continues, "It is going to become an absolute competitive scrap battle, [because] any customer is going to have to come from somewhere else."

L3 Sells Coal Mine

November 28, 2011

Not many people knew that Level3 owned a coal mining operation. It was sold off last week. I do not know if L3 still owns the software integration business. (I can't find any indications in the earnings reports.)

According to the earnings, it looks like L3 is bringing less than $4B in revenue at $927M in 3Q2011 and $913M in 2Q2011.

AT&T Sneaks One In

November 27, 2011

AT&T sneaks in a note that says they set aside $4B for a break-up fee during the Thanksgiving break. AT&T withdrew its petition from the FCC as they wait to see what happens with the DOJ and the lawsuit.

UPDATE:

AT&T is in a tiff with the FCC over the merger application withdrawal.

Gratitude

November 22, 2011

3 Things to Watch for in The Channel in 2012

November 21, 2011

2011 has yielded some surprising momentum for the Channel. With the cable industry, cloud providers and so many other companies making more commitments to the Channel. I think that there are 3 things we need to watch for in The Channel in 2012.

In 2012, we will see more M&A.

Frontier Gets Cell Service, Agents Should Too

November 18, 2011

Frontier Communications has inked a deal to be a channel sales agent for AT&T for voice and data cellular plans, as reported by the Fool. "This was a natural extension of a product that we are not currently offering that would fit well with our product suite," Steve Crosby, Frontier's senior vice president of government affairs and public relations. At least they realize that cellular is an important part of the total telecom send. Do you?

FCC's Small Biz Cyber Planner

November 18, 2011

There is a whole lot of truth to this statement from the FCC: "American small businesses are key drivers of innovation, economic growth and job creation. Small businesses employ more than HALF of all private sector workers, and they have generated about two-thirds of net new jobs over the past 15 years. Small businesses drive innovation, producing 13 times more patents per employee than large firms."

The FCC goes on to explain that "Broadband and information technology is increasingly important to the success of our economy, to jobs and to the future of small business.

3 Bills That ISP's Need to Be Aware of

November 18, 2011

In DC, there are bills moving through Congress that will affect the ISP business.

The Protect IP Act and the companion Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and H.R. 1981, the ISP Data-Retention Bill.

The ISP Data-Retention bill would require Internet Service Providers such as Comcast or AT&T to retain the personal information of its users for up to 18 months.

What Will You Be Selling in 2012?

November 16, 2011

Most channel executives will tell you that the 2 biggest products for 2012 will be MPLS and SIP.  It makes sense since the PSTN is being phased out as the telecom infrastructure turns to an all-IP network. It also makes sense that not all traffic can travel (safely, securely or timely) on the Internet, so MPLS becomes the WAN solution for control and privacy.

Ethernet will be the product of choice. No more T1.

Lesson from the Penn State Scandal

November 9, 2011

Companies make mistakes. For instance, Netflix goofed on how the new pricing plan was introduced to customers. Or Google killing the Gmail app for Blackberry. Even HP killing the tablet.

Juniper, TWC Have a Bad Day

November 7, 2011

TW Cable had a nationwide outage this morning as reported on twitter and TheVerge. Internet slowdowns and outages were still being reported by Noon Eastern time.

According to the NANOG chatterbox, Level3 & TWC are having the same problem: it appears that Juniper routers are doing a core dump due to a BGP advertisement that triggers a bug.

Presidio, Best Buy Make Acquisitions

November 7, 2011

Big day at Best But as they buy out the stake in Carphone UK and pick up an MSP.

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Bloomberg reports, "Best Buy Co., the world's largest consumer-electronics retailer, agreed to buy Carphone Warehouse Group Plc (CPW)'s stake in their U.S. mobile-phone joint venture for 838 million pounds ($1.34 billion) and close the U.K. stores it opened less than two years ago."

So Best Buy goes deeper into mobile retailing (well, not sharing profits on its Best Buy Mobile stores).

Do You Need an Audit?

November 4, 2011

The FCC wouldn't have spent so much time this year on billing problem is cramming or third party billing to your phone bill. Again so big that the FCC had to workshop the issue after three dockets - 09-158, 11-116, 98-170 (from 1998!!).

Members of the Society for Telecommunications Consultants perform audits, assessments and even TEM (telecom expense management).

So Who is Going to Buy XO?

November 3, 2011

I got asked this question again today: Who is going to buy XO? I think we can almost all agree that Carl Icahn would like to sell his company.

XO had 2010 revenue of $1.5 billion, only $8 million more than 2009. So that's flat.

E-Solutions for Sale?

November 3, 2011

Can I Have Siri Without the iPhone?

November 2, 2011

In this TMC article, Tammy Wolf writes about a few hot tech trends. This one is surprising.

The iPhone 4S' Siri and IVR technology: One of the most talked-about features on the all-new iPhone 4S, the virtual assistant application Siri makes it possible for smartphone users to perform everyday tasks only using the sound of their voice. Using interactive voice response (IVR) technology, which has long been used by contact centers and enterprises for customer assistance, applications like Siri are designed to remind you about important meetings, help you draft e-mails and place calls, and basically function as your "co-pilot." With similar applications continuing to pop up, the recent emergence of an Android knock-off called "Iris, and Siri's potential functionality on the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch, it's looking like IVR may become a permanent staple in the design of smartphones.

EarthLink Buys Some Synergy

November 1, 2011

EarthLink is buying two divisions from Synergy Global Solutions: its IT Solution Center, a 24-7 help desk and network operations center, and its cloud-hosted application business, according to Buffalo News.

EarthLink gets relationships with about 120 VAR's that laready sell the Solution Center and hosted application services. That's probably as valuable as the NOC itself.

"In addition to the Solution Center, EarthLink is acquiring Synergy's cloud-based application service which provides end-to-end hosted IT capabilities for the environmental services vertical market.

Channel Ethics: Part V

November 1, 2011

Recently, I learned that a Channel Manager is also an Agent. I asked him about it and his reply: Who better to manage agents than an agent. It makes sense on the surface (like partison). And it is not uncommon.

Agents Need Training

November 1, 2011

According to David Byrd of Broadvox, agents and VAR's need more training when it comes to SIP. As he wrote in his Wild Mushroom post, "Too often we encounter a situation where an agent sells a SIP Trunk with no understanding of the difference between it and a PRI. This can lead to a disastrous situation. First, an agent needs to understand that the bandwidth require per phone call is more with G.711 not less than a PRI.

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