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

January 2016

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The Gist of ITEXPO

January 29, 2016

ITEXPO just ended in Fort Lauderdale, where it was for quite a few years. (The Miami Beach Convention Center is being renovated.) Here are a few things I saw at ITEXPO:

SD-WAN is a better term than SDN (software defined network) and dynamic bandwidth is a better way to talk about it to your customers.

The data center is a pivotal part of any network - VoIP, Enterprise or Service Provider.

Channel Partner Take-aways from CVX

January 29, 2016

Channel Vision Expo is collocated with ITEXPO. This year MSP Expo was also collocated and Microcorp's Partner learning experience was down the street. (Telarus had an event the week before and Metro Connect for carrier execs was in Miami Beach the same week. It was Telecom week in South Florida, although I didn't see Sam Levine and a few other agents I usually run into.

A Shift from CLEC

January 27, 2016

The CLECs have always been channel friendly. It was a mutual love fest because they both needed each other and were being pushed around by the ILECs. Today, the CLECs look ill. All of them are a rag tag collection of acquisitions and mangled integrations.

Sprint wireline business annual "Revenues were $581M, dropping another $18M sequentially" over the total annual revenue of $8.1 Billion.

Telecom Disruption

January 24, 2016

You read about disruption in other industries with household names like Dropbox, Uber, AirBnb and Netflix. Telecom is being picked apart the same way Craigslist started the revenue decline for newspapers.

No one makes voice calls any more. It is all text and chat.

The Storming of Canada

January 22, 2016

Last week, Zayo bought Allstream from MTS. Allstream was a Canadian B2B telecom with a lot of fiber.

Shaw Communications in 2014 bought data center company, ViaWest. There has been a few large transaction across the northern border in the last two years.

Birch is making a move into Canada too.

Broadsoft's UCaaS Predictions

January 21, 2016

Broadsoft did a global survey of UCaaS penetration.

"The survey of 129 global service provider and industry leader respondents revealed cloud UC market penetration could grow 3x in the large enterprise segment, 7x in the mid-market segment and almost 5x in the small business segment by 2020."

Globally they surveyed 129 providers, which is less than half of just its base of US customers, about a third of its global clientele and about 5% of Hosted VoIP providers in North America. A small sample.

Competing in SaaS or VoIP

January 19, 2016

In this growth hack article, there a number of good points about SaaS companies that can be extended to the VoIP space as well. (Voice is just an app today, right?)

"SaaS is getting increasingly competitive." You think? Look at all of these marketing apps.

How Do You Choose a Marketing Firm?

January 18, 2016

I find it interesting that most service providers treat marketing as separate from the business as a shed in the backyard is separate from the house. Service providers would not hire someone off fiverr or elance to configure routers or phones, but would use any platform like that to hire people to manage their brand or marketing.

At the very least, when hiring a marketing firm, check their track record. Do they have any home runs?

2000 Blog Posts!!!!!

January 15, 2016

Uh Oh, Microsoft is Closing the Gaps

January 15, 2016

Some folks think I am picking on the VoIP space (see this post). Maybe I am. Hosted PBX started for me in 2003 when Broadsoft's second customer rolled out its platform and signed me up as their first agent. It has been a struggle ever since.

Is There Anything Impressive About VoIP?

January 11, 2016

I am getting peppered with email invites to lunch-and-learns, webinars and other events to learn about "impressive" companies. Is there anything impressive about VoIP? Is anyone doing anything really unique? I am having a hard time thinking so.

Data Center M&A to Start off 2016

January 11, 2016

Verizon put its Terremark division up for auction. Windstream sold its data centers to TierPoint. Rumor has it that CenturyLink and AT&T are looking at selling their data centers.

The market for data centers is at a high - and the telcos need cash, so a sale makes sense.

On the Channel Hamster Wheel with PlumUC

January 11, 2016

Data Center Outlook for 2016

January 6, 2016

CTI Group Acquired

January 6, 2016

Telco Troubles, Clec Version

January 6, 2016

You forget how many CLECs there are in the US until you check a PUC list like Texas.

The big names in the channel are Birch, Level3, Zayo, EarthLink, TelePacific, XO, WIND, Integra, Mettel, Granite, Bullseye, C-Link, AireSpring, Broadview, GTT. Lot of varying business models in that list alone.

The copper retirement issue is front and center for CLECs (see this Fierce piece).

Are the Telcos in Deep Trouble?

January 6, 2016

When you bet the farm on cellular things may not go as planned, especially when you are spending $9B a year on the network alone.

"Verizon ended the fourth quarter with 108.2 million total retail connections and 102.1 million total retail postpaid connections," according to Fierce. At an ARPU of $51.55 according to this site. That is $5.58 Billion per month!

The US VoIP Market 2016

January 6, 2016

In most topics there are 1 or 2 clear-cut winners (see here). In email, it is Gmail. In Office suites, it is Microsoft. In desktop O/S, it is still MS, despite a flood of Macs. In phones, it is Apple and Android.

On Success and Salespeople

January 4, 2016

Interesting viewpoint on Success and Salespeople from David Kahle on LinkedIn: "The vast majority of mankind, including the vast majority of sales people with whom I work, really don't want to be successful. They understand that success only comes as a result of the investment of time, money, and emotional energy. And, they don't want to make the investment. They are motivated to just get by, instead of succeeding."

And Start the New Year Now (Tidbits # 2427)

January 4, 2016

ITEXPO is in Ft Lauderdale in 20 days. Will you be there?

Our ITEXPO panel on Open Source for Service Providers will be using Dialogic's study, which is examined in this blog post by Jim Machi of Dialogic.

Some good reads to start off the new year.

Saying No and Quitting Stuff

January 4, 2016

Women in the Channel is sharing an article about under-scheduling. My CMO friend in the Great Northwest has been overwhelmed with work, wedding, family and life. Being pulled in too many directions is a common problem.

Over-scheduling is a common problem.

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