Peter : On Rad's Radar?
Peter

On Rad's Radar?

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

CLEC

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What Twitter Told Me This Week

February 10, 2012

I get a lot of articles off twitter. Too many to write about all of them so I am just going to drop some on you here.

Please be advised that the FUSF rate for Q1 of 2012 has increased from 15.3% to 17.9%. For further information regarding FUSF Fees and rates please see the FCC website.

RebTel is #2 behind Skype with 15M users doing 2 billion minutes of international calling. [venturebeat]

Both Florida state and federal lawmakers are trying to overturn the NFL blackout rules.

Posted in CLEC, FCC, mpls, twitter, unified communications, voip
FCC

FCC is Busy!

February 7, 2012

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The FCC is really busy!

The FCC is still working on Inter-Carrier Compensation. It ordered Rural Call Completion.

It approved TWC's $3B bid for Insight. "Time Warner Cable last August agreed to buy Insight for $3 billion in cash. The nation's No.

Posted in CLEC, FCC, broadband, cableco, compliance, politics, spectrum

Agents Have to Transform in 2012 (or So I'm Told)

December 28, 2011

It seems that the channel execs - including master agents - are betting on VAR's to be the salvation for sales in the future. I can see a piece of that perspective. The tradition agent is transactional and slow to adopt new services. The VAR's are used to selling solutions - or so the view goes.

One thing that VAR's like is control.
Posted in CLEC, VAR, agents, channel, cloud computing

Birch is Scooping up AstroTel

December 23, 2011

AstroTel, a Sarasota, FL based CLEC,sued Verizon for anti-trust in March this year (2011). Apparently, this case is going as well as its management predicted, because AstroTel just announced:

"AstroTel has entered into a definitive agreement with Birch Communications, Inc for Birch to acquire AstroTel's operating assets, including our state-wide Florida network. You'll be receiving a formal announcement in the coming months from the two companies as we progress with regulatory approvals. ....

Posted in CLEC, mergers

Lying Will Kill the Sale

December 22, 2011

One of my coaching clients asked me how to dig deep into a service providers knowledge base to insure that they can actually deliver on what they say. I had to chuckle.

In most cases, only a few people at any service provider really know what is under the hood in any detail.  Two examples for you follow.

I ordered a PRI from a CLEC. I asked numerous times if it was TDM PRI or not.
Posted in CLEC, agents, channel, sales and selling, unified communications, voip

11 Top Stories in Telecom in 2011

December 15, 2011

Here's my take on the Top 11 stories in telecom of 2011.

1. Shane McNamara being named VP of the Indirect Channel at XO. It was a shock pick for many in the industry.

2. TNCI Bankruptcy! I understand that the reseller model has been taking a huge beating in the last 3 years, but when you start off hawking "Agent Equity", you need to be better fudiciary stewarts than this.

3. WIND-PAETEC merger - I just didn't see that one coming.

Posted in CLEC, PBX, TCA, agents, channel, cloud computing, jobs, mergers, xo

What Will You Be Selling in 2012?

November 16, 2011

Most channel executives will tell you that the 2 biggest products for 2012 will be MPLS and SIP.  It makes sense since the PSTN is being phased out as the telecom infrastructure turns to an all-IP network. It also makes sense that not all traffic can travel (safely, securely or timely) on the Internet, so MPLS becomes the WAN solution for control and privacy.

Ethernet will be the product of choice. No more T1. Everyone is going to want an Ethernet hand-off at 10MB, 100MB or a GigE.
Posted in CLEC, agents, broadband, cellular, channel, cloud computing, ethernet, mpls, privacy, security, sip trunking, voip

So Who is Going to Buy XO?

November 3, 2011

I got asked this question again today: Who is going to buy XO? I think we can almost all agree that Carl Icahn would like to sell his company.

XO had 2010 revenue of $1.5 billion, only $8 million more than 2009. So that's flat. XO just laid off 400 employees - probably to make the numbers look better.

Who would buy them?

WIND just received approval to acquire PAETEC, so that takes 2 names out of the running.

Level3 didn't win Paetec and just grabbed Global Crossing, but I could see L3 making a pitch to Icahn, because it would be revenue for L3 and a good portion of it is VoIP revenue.

Posted in CLEC, cloud computing, fiber, mergers, telco, voip, xo

EarthLink Buys Some Synergy

November 1, 2011

EarthLink is buying two divisions from Synergy Global Solutions: its IT Solution Center, a 24-7 help desk and network operations center, and its cloud-hosted application business, according to Buffalo News.

EarthLink gets relationships with about 120 VAR's that laready sell the Solution Center and hosted application services. That's probably as valuable as the NOC itself.

"In addition to the Solution Center, EarthLink is acquiring Synergy's cloud-based application service which provides end-to-end hosted IT capabilities for the environmental services vertical market. This service already utilizes the EarthLink Cloud framework for hosting its cloud-based application service and features SuccessWare21® software." [marketwatch]

The fastest path to Cloud and Managed Services is via acquisitions, so expect more of them. If the company has a NOC or data center, contracted customers, and a channel (VARs or Agents selling services), it means gold.

CLEC, ILEC and some cable companies are realizing that just selling pipe isn't going to be enough.

Posted in CLEC, VAR, apps, channel, cloud computing, data center, mergers, msp

Will Paetec End up in the Wind

October 11, 2011

PAETEC has a bid on the table from Windstream for a stock swap. The board of PAETEC will vote on it at the end of October. Some shareholders are so not happy with the bid value that lawyers and analysts have been hired to evaluate the deal.

Meanwhile CNBC reports that Level3 will be putting in a competing bid for PAETEC despite the fact that L3 is currently in the process of acquiring Global Crossing. (Congrats to Mike Jerich on being named head of channel for GC/L3.)

Other sources have said that EarthLink was actually a higher bidder.

Posted in CLEC, mergers
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