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

February 2014

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Channel Disruptions in February 2014

February 27, 2014

So as I understand it (I will confirm with Telx next week), Telx has revised its channel program. So Telx has over 300 agents of which maybe 100-120 have sold a deal. Those other approximately 200 are being given their walking papers. The top 25 partners will be business as usual.

Speculations in the Hallway

February 27, 2014

A bunch of speculations running rampant through the expo hallways.

Will the FCC approve the Comcast-TWC merger? Two items. One, after Comcast forced Netflix to pay for transit, how does that affect how the FCC views Comcast and Net Neutrality?

Open Note to the Hosted PBX Crowd

February 27, 2014

I was asked yesterday why I don't like Alteva, by someone who just went to work there. I don't like or dislike Alteva or 8x8 or any other Hosted PBX company. Alteva is public - like 8x8, RC, CBEY and a few others - so I get to look at the numbers they post quarterly. It's a measuring stick.

Elements of a Kick @ss Team

February 24, 2014

Tommy Norman is a scrum master, who leads the Agile User group in Nashville when he isn't doing dev work for Holland Square Group. His keynote at FISPA Live in Nashvile was about Building Kick Ass Teams. Here are the 7 essential elements to a kick ass team.

The top qualities of a team include: Trust; no egos and complimentary skill sets.

The Fight Between Verizon and Netflix

February 23, 2014

It seems to be all over the news (like here) that Verizon (and Comcast) aren't happy with Netflix. Netflix has too many users and eats up too much bandwidth.

Users buy bigger pipes and FiOS just to get faster (they think better) Internet access to enjoy Netflix or Hulu without buffering. Surprise!

The Channel is Shrinking

February 20, 2014

According to a study reported by Channelomics, "A new report by the Kauffman Foundation, a non-profit economic think tank, finds the number of U.S. technology companies five years or younger has fallen precipitously compared to the peak level in 2001."

One reason cited is consolidation. No kidding.

What to Do When Revenue is Flat?

February 20, 2014

Lots of Questions About CLECs

February 20, 2014

At a CLEC event yesterday, many regional CLEcs were asking me about EarthLink, Windstream, the Comcast-TWC merger and Cbeyond.

Will EarthLink get bought? It's a single billion dollar company that is slowly trying to become an MSP from years as a dial-up ISP. With the recent CEO (and other personnel chair shifting) and $1.2 billion in debt.

Channel Sales is Like Dating

February 14, 2014

As exhibitors get ready for the CP Expo in Vegas this week, they need to remember that selling through the channel is like dating.

And the first date is everything. That first date is the first order that the channel partner places. He trusted you enough to make the sale.

If I Was Starting as an Agent Today

February 14, 2014

Yesterday the TCA launched "The Voice of the Agent" Webinar Series to provide advice for channel partners by agents. It was good content from the panelists - Michael Bremmer of TelecomQuotes.com; Evan Gillman of TransitBroker.com in NYC; and Jeff Sumner of Corporate Technologies Group. TCA board member, Nick Enger of ATC moderated the panel. [BTW, these are free to members and are archived on the TCA website.

Seriously? Comcast Wants TWC

February 13, 2014

The FCC just finished telling Softbank that buying T-Mobile would not be likely. So Comcast outbids Charter for TWC. This will mean that the Top 2 MSO's will combine.

Comcast is already more than twice the size of TWC with 22 million subs and the NBCU division.

Personal Brand

February 10, 2014

Ring Central and J2 are Popping

February 10, 2014

Ring Central saw a bump in the stock price in Wall Street's response to RC's earnings report. Quarterly revenue increased 37% year-over-year to $45.3 million. Total revenue was $160.5 million for the full year of 2013, up 40% from the full year of 2012.

CEO Vlad Schmunis announced that "TELUS, a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, has selected RingCentral's cloud-based services to deliver advanced communication solutions for its business customers." RC has a similar deal with AT&T.

Google Enters the Video Conference Space IRL

February 10, 2014

So Google is bringing Hangouts to your living room or your office. Google has launched a hardware package for video conferencing that is $1000. TechRepublic breaks it down, but simply it is Intel i7 processor in an ASUS computer with an HD camera, a combined speaker and microphone, and a remote control.

The service costs $250 per year and has connections to Vidyo and UberConference.

We Don't Have a Polycom or Dropbox Problem

February 7, 2014

To all the folks in marketing in the IT and telecom industry, get better!

Get better at telling the story. Work really hard at crafting the Positioning story. Sweat over the unique value proposition.

Is Verizon Warring on AWS, Netflix?

February 5, 2014

A bunch of articles that were forwarded to me today -- Mashable, GigaOm, and a blog -- all about the consumer experience with FiOS, Verizon's fiber-to-the-home service, is throttled to certain destinations like AWS.

The blog post shows a chat session where a VZ tech confirms the limiting bandwidth for home users to cloud providers like AWS and Netflix. (Netflix utilizes AWS.)

I don't have FiOS.

Tidbits and Things Part 134

February 5, 2014

On December 16, 2013, Littlejohn & Co., LLC, a private investment firm based in Greenwich, CT, announced the acquisition of Hostway Corp. a leading provider of hosted information technology solutions to over 500,000 small and medium-size businesses and enterprise customers. Littlejohn will serve as an active shareholder and board of directors in support of the Company's plan to capitalize on the tremendous demand for hosted IT solutions. [via Hostway pr]. Hostway announced a new CEO today, Robert Boles.

Does Broadsoft Have a Problem?

February 3, 2014

M5 Networks before being purchased by ShoreTel migrated from a Broadsoft platform (M6) to its own software. Sure, they had to hire 100 developers to replace the Broadsoft but still.

The biggest noise out of the Cloud Comm Alliance is that the licensing fees for the platform are like paying vigorish to a loanshark. RingCentral execs used that vig as a reason that some CCA members should migrate to the RC platform instead.

The Chatter is that 2 CLECs are Combining

February 3, 2014

Chatter on Atlanta Biz Journal and on stock boards is that Cbeyond is prepping for a sale. The last month has seen many CLEC jobs get axed - 100 at Cbeyond, 400 at EarthLink and a bunch at XO. Also, CBEY fired a banker -- that's always a sign of M&A. (The only signal they didn't give was to hire Andy for PR.)

AT&T To Take on OTT

February 2, 2014

AT&T and Beats Music rolled out a music service during the Super Bowl. AT&T is taking on Pandora, Spotify and Apple iTunes.

Bloomberg reports that "Music-streaming services need 5 million to 10 million paying customers to be profitable after paying licensing fees to rights holders, according to Roger Entner, an analyst with Recon Analytics in Boston."

The cellcos are losing ground (and margin) to OTT (over-the-top) companies like Spotify, WhatsApp, Snalchat and more. AT&T has been funding hack-a-thons for a couple of years to get an app store off the ground.

Banking Today (facts)

February 2, 2014

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