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

June 2015

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What Do These Deals Mean?

June 30, 2015

Vendor channel execs understand that partners will put a bundle of best of breed services together for their clients from various vendors. It is the ultimate in solution selling. However, with the need for integration mixed with consumerized software, some vendors are stepping into the mix with bundling via partnerships.

We saw Netwolves do it earlier this year with IBM and Palo Alto Networks.

What Do You Do When Gigabit is $70?

June 30, 2015

There has been a flurry of announcements about Gigabit broadband around the country - in Detroit, San Antonio, and so many major cities by the Duopoly.

So what does a channel partner do when Gigabit is just $70?

You can try to sell it, but who wants to even do the paperwork for a $70 circuit?

Usually there is a triple-play bundle (even to businesses) for no more than $300.

What Do the Security Hacks Mean for the Channel?

June 30, 2015

It seems every day this month there was either an announcement about a security hack or another note about the NSA spying. Although most people think "It won't happen to me", with the constant news, even the most ignorant, I mean, confident person would have to start to worry. Factor in that many breaches aren't detected for months.

So do you start selling managed security based on FUD?

One Way to Privately Differentiate

June 29, 2015

The FCC recently ruled that phone companies CAN block robocalls - all types - if a customer requests it.

Did you know that there was an FTC Robocall Challenge in 2013. (Thanks to M. Leblanc for filling me in.) Nomorobo came out fo that challenge.

Are You Offering Solutions or Products?

June 26, 2015

I was looking over the website of a company that approached me this week. Aside from the 2005 design of the website, I found it hard to tell what the company did. That is not unusual. Many companies don't clearly spell out what they do or how they can benefit their desired customers in their marketing.

Different Ways to Skin a Cat

June 26, 2015

Most companies in the telecom sector just copy what other companies do. Before 2003 though, ISPs were primarily small businesses providing dial-up and then DSL to mainly residential markets in the US. Post 2003, it became a game for the Duopoly, with the smaler providers in the shadow just reselling what was offered.

Step into 2015 and FTTX is huge.

Phones and TV Are Disappearing

June 24, 2015

During a CEO Exchange at the FISPA Live event last week, the discussion among the CEOs turned to TV service. Many in the room were primarily residential ISPs or CLECs, all of whom offered Internet. The discussion was about the cord-cutting's effect on the TV model.

As I have explained before, cablecos have it the best - they went from TV service, which is the least profitable to Internet and voice, which are the most profitable services to offer consumers.

Cloud, the Desktop and Sales

June 19, 2015

At the ISP and CLEC show I just spoke at, there was a lot of talk about cloud services and desktop as a service. It would appear that a good chunk of ISP business in the US is residential. Selling to residential is different than to business. Business bundling is easier.

Are You Frustrated With MPLS?

June 17, 2015

When I read press releases like this I laugh: "Despite the mounting frustration with MPLS connectivity costs and inflexibility, many customers still do not believe the Internet can provide the security and performance needed for today's business-critical traffic." MPLS is inflexible? It isn't inflexible; it is just complex.

Over the last seven years, I have watched many network admins try to wrestle with MPLS. Virtual pathways on a private network have been around since the days of frame relay.

The WalMart Effect on the Duopoly

June 17, 2015

As pricing on bandwidth declines, it is having a ripple effect on the whole system. Bandwidth prices have been in decline but the last couple of years the megabits per dollar has really dropped. The more you buy - 1GB or 10GB - the less it costs now. [Which makes the whole inter-connection fight that Comcast and Verizon have had with Level3, Cogent and Netflix seem like nothing more than posturing with consumers caught in the middle per usual.]

Why Be Cagey?

June 11, 2015

"On EarthLink's Q4 earnings call this morning, the company talked pretty frankly about its intentions to sell off network assets to focus more tightly on the managed services side," reports Telecom Ramblings. So I contact them about a specific territory. I get a soft shoe tap dance.

"We are choosing who we will sell them to.

Demystifying the Cloud

June 9, 2015

Is the PBX Dead?

June 9, 2015

"Global enterprise PBX revenue fell 6 percent in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15) from a year ago, according to the IHSInfoneticsEnterprise Unified Communications and Voice Equipment report from IHS," according to IHS press.

Worldwide PBX revenue (TDM, hybrid and pure IP) totaled $1.6 billion in 1Q15. And PBX line shipments were up 3% in 1Q15 from 1Q14. Yet there is a headline of SMB: Is the PBX Dead?

Merger Noise in June

June 9, 2015

BroadSoft gobbled up mPortal, which "designs and develops customer experiences across mobile, web and other connected devices." [Marketing noise for app and portal.] It turns out that BroadSoft Design is actually mPortal. It has something to do with BroadSoft's UC-One.

The IOCs and RLECs are in the midst of a tempest due to USF Reform and other legislative changes taking place. A consortium of (unnamed) Independent telcos bought Codero.

The Trend Toward Global Expansion

June 9, 2015

We are seeing an interesting trend. The ILECs are going global. AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink are looking to other global markets to make up for a decline in revenue in the US.

AT&T made acquisitions in cellular in LATAM.

Factors in Channel Program Success and Sales

June 4, 2015

If your channel program is white-label or is dependent on MSPs and other channel partners, let us take a look at the economics for a moment.

First, white-label gets some up-front money for customization. But then there is this lag while the white-label partner (hence called WLP) works out the kinks in pricing and deployment; puts billing and workflow in place; trains salespeople and internal folks; orders CPE then tests CPE; trains tech folks for support, implementation, configuration; then launches the product. Sales trickle in (maybe) 90 days later.

3 Cable Stories That Are Good Reads

June 2, 2015

As I wrote previously, our industry hasn't really applied the technology that we push on our customers. Don't you ever wonder Why Your Cable Company Doesn't Always Know If Your New Address Gets Service?

One reason is simple data logic. "That database suffers from the classic, timeless data-management problem of "garbage-in, garbage-out" -- they can't give accurate info if they don't get it to begin with.

What Happened to e-Sig?

June 2, 2015

5 Things You Might Want to Read

June 2, 2015

My feed has produced some good reading recently. Here are 5 you might like.

5. Is your cloud provider HIPAA compliant? An 11 point checklist via GCN.

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