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

April 2016

You are browsing the archive for April 2016.

Are You a Good Fit?

April 27, 2016

SD-WAN: the Hype has yet to start

April 26, 2016

We aren't really at the hype stage of SD-WAN yet, but the potential for this technology is pretty amazing. Right now it is early in the game. Companies are still buying PPC o SD-WAN. So real early.

What Channel Are You Watching?

April 25, 2016

One thing I have noticed: UCaaS sales overall are not accelerating. Gary Kim writes how it is becoming a commodity.

The VoIP services market is up 5% to $73Bn in 2015, says IHS. Residential makes up 62% of that.

Telecom Tidbits (Part 2433)

April 25, 2016

You work in Tech. Everyday is a front row seat to amazing. Right?

A pretty good primer on SDN from BI in 2012!

Charter Bid Approved! Only condition, NewCharterCo can't have data caps for 7 years.

Why Are You Calling Me?

April 21, 2016

Facebook Messanger is used by 900 million people in form or another (desktop, laptop, tablet, iOS, Android, Windows). Messenger already rolled out voice and video calls via the chat app. "Mark Zuckerberg announced that Messenger already made up 10 percent of all mobile VoIP calls globally," according to TechCrunch. Now you can "start a group VoIP audio call from any group chat." Conference calls started via group chat.

Musings on the Polycom Deal

April 18, 2016

So MITEL is getting bigger by buying Polycom. It had been rumored for weeks and now finally hits the news.

I wonder if Polycom saw the writing on the wall that the battle is going to come down to Microsoft versus Cisco? Motley Fool thinks that is why the OTT ITSP 3Some - 8x8, RC and Vonage - all had a bad day at the stock market.

TelePacific Rolling Out SD-WAN

April 18, 2016

In this fourteen minute podcast with TelePacific's SVP of Marketing, Dave Zahn, talks with me about SD-WAN and how TelePacific is rolling it out. SD-WAN isn't a product. The deployment of SD-WAN by a carrier allows for service offerings around service delivery and managed services.

As SAAS and OTT (over-the-top) VoIP and video become ubiquitous in today's business environment, quality of service will become an issue.

Velocloud Talks SD-WAN

April 18, 2016

The next chapter in SD-WAN here at On RAD's Radar is a podcast with Mike Wood, VP of Marketing at VeloCloud Networks, Inc..

From a press release when Velocloud was named a TMC 2016 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award winner: "VeloCloud Cloud-Delivered SD-WAN enables enterprises to support application growth, network agility and simplified branch implementations while delivering optimized access to cloud services, private data centers and enterprise applications. Global service providers are able to increase revenue, deliver advanced services and increase flexibility by delivering elastic transport, performance for cloud applications, and integrated advanced services all via a zero-touch deployment model." We go into that during the eighteen and one-half minute podcast.

I don't put stock in these predictions, but here they are: "SD-WAN market will hit $6B by 2020." I will say that a number of carriers will be utilizing SD-WAN as a managed service offering and as a way to improve the customer experience.

Rural Acquisitions Happen Too

April 18, 2016

What if you were a company that long ago was created to be a volume buying group for RLECs and owned by a bunch of IOCs? Then time passes and long distance minutes are declining. The FCC mandates that even RLECs have to transition from TDM to IP for voice. Oh, and that RLEC funding through the Universal Service fund was going to transition from voice lines to broadband lines.

This Might Be Big

April 15, 2016

As I mentioned after Vegas, MITEL is buying Polycom for almost $2B according to Reuters.

Polycom brand to be retained, but the execs at Polycom lost this battle. CEO and CFO of MITEL stay in roles and the combined org is headquartered in Canada, much to the delight of Canada and the tax burdens.

MITEL bought Aastra in 2014 for $400M.

Why Did Google Add Landline?

April 14, 2016

Google decided that they needed to add voice to offer a triple-play. So for $10 you can have a landline equivalent. I have a bunch of questions.

One, if you only have 120,000 subscribers*, do you think that not having triple-play was the problem?

SD-WAN Mid-Month Overview

April 14, 2016

Rich Tehrani's blog post about his interview with Talari Networks is good info about SD-WAN.

What is the big deal about SD-WAN? Good question because you are going to be hearing a lot more about it. Smart carriers are already testing it.

The INCOMPAS Mission

April 13, 2016

INCOMPAS still has a mission in DC. At the east coast show in Washington, FCC Chairman Wheeler came to talk to the association and its members with a message that we still need Competition.

He says that as Charter is set to eat two cablecos to become almost as large as Comcast. After AT&T just bought DirecTV.

Telecom Tidbits (Part 2432)

April 11, 2016

VoIP and QoS

Patton started embedding PacketSmart into its SmartNode VoIP CPE. Considering the quality issues on broadband, this is a good move.

Crappy call quality on cell phones lowered the bar enough that VoIP was able to take over on the wireline side.

The Channel Target Cycle

April 8, 2016

In 2006, the shift in targeting went from anyone to a master agent model, where smaller agents rolled up into a larger master agent. The resources were allocated to the masters (and their sub-agents).

In about 2008, the target became VARs. Agents just weren't selling any of the new carriers or new services. Agents weren't selling cloud.

Why Do You Look at an iPhone That Way?

April 7, 2016

The promise of the iPhone wasn't that you could make HD voice calls. Actually the original promise was a beautifully designed cellphone. Then it became more with iTunes and the app store and the ecosystem.

The ecosystem is the environment around software like Apple, Amazon, Google or Microsoft.

Can You Say More M&A?

April 7, 2016

I think I left off with this week with CenturyLink buying NetAura. There's more.

Have not heard this brand in a while: BROCADE. Where have they been? I guess they needed to make some noise, so they are buying Ruckus Wireless for $1.2 Billion.

The SD-WAN and Why You Should Care Podcast # 1: Ecessa

April 6, 2016

In the first podcast of the SD-WAN series this month, I talk with Ken LaMere, Director of Channel Sales, from Ecessa as we begin the discussion on SD-WAN and why agents should care.

Ken was on the Convey Cloud Convention explaining SD-WAN and why should anyone care earlier this year. You can catch the webcast here.

Here's a link to an SD-WAN Technology Comparison Brief. It looks at the various forms SD-WAN is taking, whether virtual, cloud-based or premise-based, and gives the pros and cons to each.

The First Fax Machine

April 6, 2016

What did the guy do with the first fax machine? Who did he fax?

He probably told everyone he had one because it was the latest and greatest, a status symbol. That was part of what the fax (and tele-type) was sold as - a status symbol, luxury good, latest gadget.

The M&A Train Rolls Along

April 5, 2016

In the UCaaS space, "Fusion has completed the acquisition of the intellectual property and assets of Technology for Business Corporation (TFB), a provider of contact center solutions," reports Channel Vision magazine.

In a different kind of merger, Genuity Networks in New Hampshire is merging two diverse broadband sources together. It is "based on technology from Mushroom Networks that enables the company to bond together landline or wireless connections from multiple network operators to create a single higher-speed and more reliable connection," reports Telecompetitor.

CenturyLink acquires netAura, an IT security services firm that specializes in engineering, developing and consulting on managed security technologies.

SD-WAN Coming Soon!

April 1, 2016

The latest buzzword to hit the industry is SD-WAN. It comes out of the SDN, software defined network. Many carriers have implemented it -- and more are on the way. April is SD-WAN month here on the blog.

Frontier Takes Over in Tampa (Cluster)

April 1, 2016

So folks in Tampa Bay woke up to no bars on AT&T cellular service. Hmmm... is it because AT&T back-hauled some towers or small cell sites with Verizon FiOS perhaps?

Verizon FiOS business customers scattered throughout the Tampa Bay area this morning are without service as the IP Address re-numbering begins.

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