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

agents

The Derby Capital Play

September 13, 2012

Sherman Henderson, former chair of Lightyear Networks and COMPTEL, has a new gig at Derby Capital.  There were a few events where Derby Capital was explaining their deal, but my pal went and explained it to me.

So Derby Capital will bring new business to a carrier - like Star2Star and Windstream. The agent will be buying in for an equity plan. Not cheap either.

The VAR/Agent Comparison

September 12, 2012

At Channel Partners Expo in Orlando for TCA. Our first member networking event last night went very well with a good sized crowd. Today we have the TCA's 6th Channel Chief Summit with guest speaker John Zanni of Parallels.

The top Channel executives and even the bigger Master Agencies are all chasing VAR's. And this show is so cloud themed an agent would be hard pressed to find a telco element, which I think leads to less Agents, but perhaps not more VARs, since they have their own shows, including DreamForce this week.

While taking with one channel head, he mentioned that the numbers guys always want justification to continuing paying on that line item called commissions.



Channel Moves

September 5, 2012

Zayo decided to keep the AboveNet channel intact with Angelo Germani in charge. Zayo announced that zColo's products and services will join Ethernet, Wavelength and IP products for sale via channel partners.

Windstream is partnering with Lifesize (a division of Logitech) for HD Videoconferencing equipment. Paetec has long offered equipment for lease to SMB to go with services.

The Alternate to Cloud

August 15, 2012

For Agents that just don't want to go cloud, there are some alternatives. In my latest book, SELLECOM 2: Selling Cloud Services, there are a few products that Agents can sell that still fall inside the Replacement services umbrella. T1, broadband, cellular, voice are all replacement services for the transactional agent. That road is bumpy.

TCA Moves

August 9, 2012

The TCA, the only non-profit trade association for the channel partners (VAR's, agents, inter-connects, YOU), has a lot going on in the next two months.

Heading into CPExpo in Orlando, the TCA will hold its fifth Channel Chief Summit. The CCS is an opportunity for the top channel executives of our service provider members to meet face-to-face to learn and share. This time round, Quest CTO Mike Dillon and Parallels SVP John Zanni will be presenting to the participants.

Broadsoft Goes Direct?

August 7, 2012

When I have spoken to Broadsoft customers, there has often been speculation that Broadsoft would have to go direct. The hope at the Cloud Communications Alliance was that all of them would be merged into one retail company. Did something like that just happen?

Broadsoft announced yesterday that they acquired Adaptation Technologies.

The Cloudy Race to Zero

August 6, 2012

There has been an discussion about the Transactional Agent - and his demise. I beg to differ. I think The Cloud will end up being transactional as well.

A couple of months ago, Microsoft lowered its pricing on Office 365 in March to compete with Google Apps at $50 per year per user.

It Isn't Easy Being an Agent

July 31, 2012

Tonight at a networking event I met a former VZ employee - a channel manager for the last 5 years. He told me he was going to be an Agent to put his telecom knowledge to work to fund his life's endeavors. He kept going on about dabbling in the agent thing part-time. Picking up a project here or there.

Verbal One Year Contracts

July 31, 2012

ATT has verbal one year contracts available. New service ordered within a few minutes for clients via an Authorized Solution Provider (agent). [This has to be for really simple stuff like POTS and DSL.]

However, ATT doesn't send any TAC (terms) or even welcome information to the customer. There is also a failure to mention that the verbal contracts auto-renew for 2 additional one year terms; thus, it's really a 3 year agreement!

Comcast Hits 300MB

July 25, 2012

Comcast rolled out Xfinity Platinum service with speeds of 305Mbps down and 65Mbps up for about $295. It was designed to compete with VZ Quantum FiOS, which is 300Mbps down, 65Mbps up, and $205 per month in the Northeast. Xfinity Platinum will include free Xfinity Signature Support (27/4 tech support and a personal consultant), a secure wireless gateway, and the Constant Guard Security Suite.

In some areas Comcast is doubling the speed for its existing tiers.

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