She will be acting chair until Congress approves the appointment of Wheeler to the Chair. Considering some federal judges are waiting 700 days now for appointment, who knows how long this will take.

As long as she has the chair, Clyburn says that she will regulate with a light touch, but touch when necessary.

I hope so, but I can bull on that. The FCC has been consolidating power in 4 companies for a while.

What happened to the Open Access rules on the 700 MHz spectrum?

Why are there still issues with porting?

The FCC collects outage reports, but what do you do with it?

What is it the FCC really regulates? Seriously. What?

In her first speech at CTIA, she said she was happy with the competition! Okay, mission accomplished. Let's close the FCC and save $346 million a year.

On his way out the door, Genachowski's FCC voted to lift 126 outdated telecom rules. Julius made this statement with the order, " With 126 regulations removed, we're talking about millions of dollars in savings, which will ultimately result in a more dynamic, competitive market and lower prices for consumers." Which just proves what a politician he is. Competition? Dude, you did nothing effective to provide a competitive landscape in broadband or wireless.

I don't see Clyburn or Wheeler doing any better. I guess they don't understand how vital the Internet is to our economy.

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Regulating the Internet - Dec 10, 2012

Mark Sondergaard went to MessageBroadcast. Aric Applefield went to Intelysis.

Peter Keane sold his master agency business to focus on Salesforce apps that can create agencies and brokerages.

Still more to come because it looks like musical chairs out there.

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Is the Channel Too Lazy to Sell Cloud? - Mar 29, 2013

A Spotlight on Women in the Channel - Jan 28, 2013

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"Australian-owned IP PBX systems company, Vixtel, has completed the acquisition of Silicon Valley based glass phone developer, CloudTC, for an undisclosed figure," according to news reports. I really liked this phone when it came out. It was ahead of the curve. CloudTC was a Startup Camp Comms candidate.

"Vixtel CEO, Terry Crews, said the acquisition would enable the company to offer Australian businesses a product that brings smartphone technology to the desktop. Crews mentioned the move is also consistent with Vixtel's strategy to own, develop and maintain all technology within its product offering." Those are some pretty strong arguments for this kind of move. How many Hosted PBX companies can say that? Just the hardware folks.

In other news, another Startup Camp Comms winner, VerbalizeIt, was on Shark Tank.

SolarWinds is acquiring N-Able for $120 million in cash. This adds RMM (remote monitoring and management) to Solar Winds catalog of IT services for the small business (sub-100 employees).

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A Little Bit of Tuesday News - Dec 18, 2012

HT Picks Off Big Competitor - Jul 12, 2012

Masergy Buys Broadcore - Jul 10, 2012

The New VoIP Giant - Jun 07, 2012

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Why check? Because despite a couple of trillion in investment, fiber still isn't everywhere. And in many cases, it is still very expensive to have a 10MB x 10MB circuit.

In the competition for jobs, how many economic developers think about the fiber?

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Tidbits About the GC-L3 Combo - May 29, 2012

EarthLink Acquires Deltacom - Oct 01, 2010

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The full story is in this NYT piece.

VZ is already cutting out the copper -- and the competition with it. How do you cut copper to move to wireless AND complain that you don't have enough spectrum AND have a stockpile of spectrum that you are selling to smaller rural cellcos to build your network for you????

I blame the FCC, Brand-X, COMPTEL and CLEC's for this mess.

The FCC because they never did their job due to politics. No excuses. Most FCC Chairs were puppets of the Administration and laid down on the job.

Brand-X was the dumb ISP that took the landmark case that basically was the end of wholesale in 2004.

COMPTEL for not admitting that their legislative and lobbying efforts were fruitless -- and accepting that to mean that they would have to try other avenues -- but they never did. As I have written before, how does COMPTEL not have a VoIP exchange, NNI's, a lit building database, and an Ethernet exchange??

CLECs who only looked at short term gains instead of a long term plan to dominate a region. UNE-P was supposed to help CLEC's gain a foothold then move to facilities. Did many do that? NO!

Did COMPTEL or any CLEC win any spectrum auctions - or even try to? Sprint if you put them in that bucket.

MDU, MTU, Hotels, campuses - all early opportunities for CLECs that they missed because they were trying to sell T1's any where they could.

Lesson: by buying wholesale for so long, you turned into an addict and your pusher not only doesn't like you, he doesn't need you either.

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Regulating the Internet - Dec 10, 2012

USTelecom Wants Forbearance for all ILECs - Apr 09, 2012

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The best athletes have a team for success - coaches, trainers, mentors, nutritionists, business managers, etc. What do we offer the best developers or engineers or even salespeople?

One other thing sports does is understand a talent pipeline. The NFL didn't get religion on concussions because a few retirees committed suicide. It got religion on concussions because mothers were preventing their sons from playing Pop Warner, which is the farm league for football. When that farm dries up, no new players for the NFL. They had to take drastic action.

That isn't the lesson though. The lesson is that if you want top talent, businesses need to get involved in education, which is the farm for talent.

What happened to Junior Achievement? It was a big deal when I was in high school.

Instead of Internships, how about Apprenticeship (as Cory Foy explains at IGNITE Tampa)?

How about scholarships and summer programs?

How about getting involved with home schooling programs?

The thing about apprenticeship, internship, JA and other such programs is that it is about coaching talent or mentoring talent. People need coaches. (Bill Gates says that especially teachers need coaches.)

Either act like a coach to get your talent or be prepared to run your business without much talent/

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10 Lessons from Volleyball - May 20, 2013

Big Changes at Broadvox - Apr 14, 2013

TCA Moves - Aug 09, 2012

Channel Manager Best Practices - Feb 17, 2012

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I've played volleyball for over 25 years. I have traveled around the US to watch the pros live - both indoor and outdoor. I have even gotten to train with a couple of the greats (like Misty May and Karch Kiraly). There are at least 10 lessons I have learned in volleyball that work in business.

The first lesson is to understand Team Work. Volleyball teams range from 2 to 6 players. The team has to work as a unit in order to win. Everyone has to know what their position and role is. Some players have to cross-train for other positions, like setting. How often to we even talk about a department or a company as a team?

Every team has a coach. The best CEO's have coaches. It is important to have a coach, mastermind group or mentor in order to steer your success.

TopGrading is a hiring process to recruit and on-board "A" Players. This is a way to build a world class or best of breed team. Ask any pro team if talent isn't important to winning. Learn to pick top talent. (Topgrading is just one method for that.)

Here is the thing about top players: "A" players make everyone better. When Karch Kiraly was on the US Indoor Volleyball Olympic team, no matter which practice squad he was on, they would win. Your best employees should make the organization better. Think about the best sales person or developer: How do they prepare for their day, their meetings, their projects? PREPARATION. No winging it. They plan and prepare to win. The "A" players are an example of preparation and attitude that others can follow.

The best players work on their skills. They practice. (Others see them practice, too.) In sales, if you increase your prospecting or your closing, you sell more. In programming, do you do Pairing or some other activity that will allow you to sharpen your skills? You don't get paid for your time in most cases; you get paid for your value - your value to the organization. Work on yourself, so you won't get picked last.

Karch has a rule: It's called "Better the Ball". No matter what, with every contact of the ball in the play, leave the ball in a better position for your partner to make a play. Every contact, better the ball. Such simple advice. How does that apply to business? Stephen Covey said to leave this place better than you found it. Same thing. Better the Ball - don't bitch, complain, moan, blame.

This is the first 5 lessons from the ten. More tomorrow.

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Serving the Volleyball - May 02, 2013

Big Changes at Broadvox - Apr 14, 2013

Two Disruptive CEO's - Apr 09, 2013

Smaller is Better - Feb 25, 2013

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Most CLECs have an extensive catalog of services. Maybe too extensive for the average sales person. Opportunities get missed.

What companies want from the consultative salesperson is someone who LISTENS, not just for buying signs, but about the outcomes the business needs and how the solutions will affect the business.

Cloud services are not just replacement services. Cloud changes the way information is stored and accessed. It many cases, cloud services mean a change in how employees work. Are you able to explain these changes? Will there be training? Is there online help? Will there be a project manager or point person before and after the sale?

"It's not enough to "connect the dots" between customer needs and your company's offering. You must also connect with the individuals who will be affected by your offering, and understand how buying from you will satisfy their personal needs, like career advancement and job security." Well said, Geoffrey James.

BTW, sales training live in Atlanta on July 22, 2013.

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It's All About the Customer - Mar 11, 2013

Monday Motivation - Mar 11, 2013

VoIP in 2013 - Jan 17, 2013

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"Private equity firm GTCR has acquired NewWave Communications from Pamlico Capital." NewWave is a cable company in the Midwest with 90,000 subs.

Iotum acquired FreeConference.com when it bought the assets of GCP. Calliflower is a conferencing service owned by iotum.

Evolve IP now calling itself the trademarked Evolve IP, The Cloud Services Company™, has "announced that it has completed the purchase and customer integration of iPiphany of Chicago, Illinois and Semperon of West Chester, Pennsylvania. All three companies are on Broadsoft, so integration should have been easy. I wonder if this is the start of the Broadsoft service provider consolidation.

Infonetics announced its US Hosted VoIP winners. Comcast came in first again. Comcast is likely Broadsoft's largest customer in the US for Hosted PBX. (XO is supposedly its largest US customer, but XO mainly sells SIP Trunking.)

Think about this: in 2003, Broadsoft's second customer started up with Hosted PBX, which means it has been 10 years for Hosted PBX. Ten years, 1000 providers, and only $1.5 Billion in HPBX revenue - that is sad.

In the same vein, ten years means that the VC and PE firms have been sitting on big investments for 10 years without cashing out! That is like wearing a cast on a broken limb, having an inch that you can't scratch, and counting the minutes until the cast comes off.

I wonder when Verizon and its VCE with Google integration will kick in and start taking names. I know it will take time. I mean, it took this RBOC 8 years to hit 50% penetration in just one market - Dallas, according to Fierce. BTW, 50% penetration is what it needed to be financially successful, according to the VZ CFO.

The Hosted PBX space has a couple of big problems: the big guys - VZ, Comcast, Cox, Bright House - are now in the game. They have a brand advantage and deep pockets. I am already hearing about many deals that are going to brands, including to EarthLink over an independent or stand-alone VoIP company.

I see more deals happening soon.

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Masergy Buys Broadcore - Jul 10, 2012

The New VoIP Giant - Jun 07, 2012

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Cell companies are stuck. After years of leveraged cool handsets to drive sales, cellcos are stuck as hardware providers - subsidized hardware too.

Cellcos aren't alone. VoIP providers are stuck in the hardware space too - phones, headsets, switches and routers.

On the one hand, the customer is getting it all in one stop and the ITSP (VoIP provider) can ensure that the gear inter-operates with the VoIP service. So that is good. However, there is a capital outlay involved, a lease arranged, or some other factor that can deter the sale.

Subsidizing phones plays heck with cash flow for cellcos. The subsidized handset results in more risk for the phone company, since if the customer goes belly up, they may not collect that ETF. The value of the contract is shadowed by the handset subsidy.

Even with BYOD (bring-your-own-device), the phone companies are still stuck with phones, with hardware - and the logistics and support that come with it. Their support costs would increase dramatically and customer profitability would decline, if they abandon hardware right now.

Consumers haven't separated the device (the phone) from the phone companies (cellcos or ITSPs) or from the phone service. If the device breaks or voice quality is poor, the phone company (VoIP or cellular service provider) takes a consumer satisfaction hit.

The phone companies have to start planning for a time when they can distance themselves from the device. What will support look like? How will they market their service?

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iPad, MDM and Other News - Mar 09, 2012

So Can You Re-Use Those Cisco Phones? - Feb 13, 2012

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Death of the Telecom VAR in 2013 - How an entire sub-industry will be wiped out in the next 24 months by Jeff Hawkes. "Traditional telecom VARs or value-added reseller businesses- those that derive the majority of their revenue from the sale of on-premise PBX equipment to business customers- have ridden one of the longest product life cycle waves in recent technological history and combined with an emerging threat from hosted phone providers and a professional background that leaves most ill-prepared to run a business larger than a few employees is threatening to wipe-out or dramatically alter an entire sub-industry in the next 24 months." He writes like me.

Not telecom - but patent law - Monsanto wins a big case. "The court ruled unanimously that an Indiana farmer violated Monsanto's patent on genetically modified soybeans when he culled some from a grain elevator and used them to replant his own crop in future years."

Infonetics scores Comcast, Verizon, 8x8 and XO top North American business VoIP providers. SIP Trunking is the big winner. Revenues are the big loser as SIP trunk is used as a low price dial-tone replacement.

Blair Pleasant is "still not convinced that the cloud is the long-term panacea."

Doug Mahoney reports that HD Voice is Experiencing Unprecedented Growth globally.

YorkTel's VideoCloud integrates with Microsoft. So I wonder how Skype feels about that.

lastly....

The Cash Cow is Dying: Mobile Networks Face Bleak Future (based on SMS and LD revenue). Lucky for cellcos that Metaswitch just released Clearwater, an IMS implant.

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VoIP in 2013 - Jan 17, 2013

What to Ask Your Prospective VoIP Provider - Sep 29, 2010

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In 2012, UNSi acquired IPNetzone, a nationwide MPLS network provider, adding an advanced backbone network to capabilities. They partnered up with their Derby Capital teammate RapidScale. Yesterday, they decided to acquire Airband in an all stock merger. The combined entity will be named UNSI and generate about $60M in revenue. This will add fixed wireless and Hosted PBX to the service offerings. The biggest competitors UNSI faces are EarthLink, MegaPath, Masergy and AireSpring which all play the same game - MPLS and HPBX.

The bullhorn is the re-emerging noise around tw telecom being acquired. A few months ago CenturyLink's stock took a hit when their bankers floated the balloon that C-Link would buy twt. C-Link is sitting on a boatload of debt - $20.6 Billion. To buy twt would only add to the debt. It would hamper C-Link from its integration of Savvis-Qwest-Embarq and its plans to "leverage those synergies".

Now the bankers are floating the Level3 will buy twt balloon AGAIN - for like the 3rd time. How??? I get why - take a fiber player off the table and add revenue. But how?

Level3 is NOT the sum of its parts - parts which include, most recently, Global Crossing. Level3 is horrible at integration. Maybe all telcos are because the Ma Bell umbrella is still a bunch of silos, but come on, integration is not what they do well. And synergies have never been realized from this - or quite frankly most any telecom merger.

I have an idea for Level3: fire the top guys that have been there since they bought WilTel -- all of them. Hire from OUTSIDE the telecom world for a new CEO and a new President. Level3 has all the assets in place to be doing far better than they are. In baseball terms, they are the Yankees with Bucky Dent or Ralph Houk managing. (Sprint, too , btw).

You know how you get out of debt? You sell stuff!!! Then you deploy stuff. Then you keep it running. POOF!! That thing you see is called revenue which will eventually get you to profit if you stop selling on price alone.

Apparently L3 quietly bought a San Fran based fiber provider.

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What's Up With Level3? - Jul 16, 2012

Masergy Buys Broadcore - Jul 10, 2012

Tidbits About the GC-L3 Combo - May 29, 2012

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Tech Data is the 2nd largest VAD at $26 Billion after Ingram Micro (at $37.8 Billion in sales), but TD is located in Tampa Bay, where I reside.

Tech Data has a long standing sales agent agreement with XO. Next, it established a cellular master agency with TDMobility, which also offers MDM. Then last year, TD inked a deal with master agency, Microcorp. Tech Data has long dabbled in telecom, without actually embracing it.

CDW has a telecom division that is doing very well.

SYNNEX has a $180 million per year telecommunications division, according to an executive bio I read today.

Ingram Micro inked a deal with TWC and CenturyLink.

Adam Edwards at Telarus thinks this is great. I think it is the beginning of the shift for distributors to take over for most master agencies for network services. For straight telecom services, the distributors are in a better position to automate the process for the channel and for the carriers. In fact, for cablecos who lack the automation for channel sales, working with a VAD may actually enhance their channel opportunity.

When stuff becomes a commodity like T1, broadband, cellular, voice, hosted email, web hosting and hardware, margin comes from efficiencies. I see much of this, especially in the small business marketplace becoming something you buy at Amazon or Best Buy fairly soon. The more savvy VAR's will have a check box for each service to insure that the customer has it taken care of -- and to see if she can take it over under her billing or management. The total wallet share idea.

Where does that leave Master Agencies? They will have to morph like some of them are doing into either an extension of a carrier's channel sales division or a cloud service brokerage. Unfortunately, even in both those realms, they will be competing with VADs. SYNNEX, Tech Data, Ingram Micro and Arrow have cloud platforms. Sprint is making a play in this space as well, utilizing its Parallels system to sell cloud services to its wholesale and retail customers. APNI and VoIP innovations both rolled out private label Hosted PBX services as well. It seems we have come full circle in VoIP - white label, wholesale, retail, wholesale, white label.

I think cloud will be the sticker service. Once you start selling even Hosted Exchange or Sharepoint, are you going to want 2 vendors for this or just one?

Everyone seems to be scrambling to figure it out - masters, carriers, CSBs, VADs - and even the Agents and VARs, who are the ants marching in this scenario. It takes some real thinking to figure out the next move and then the next one after that.

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Predictions for 2013 - Dec 19, 2012

The Scoop on TDMobility - Mar 23, 2012

Tech Data Becomes a Master - Sep 19, 2011

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iTalk acquired RocketVoIP. iTalk is know for its sleeve to turn an iPod Touch into a VoIP phone. RocketVoIP was an OTT (over-the-top) VoIP provider that offered unlimited international plans. It is an interesting combination. Unlimited VoIP on your iPod including International.

GTT buys Inteliquent data business for $54.5 million. This is the business that Neutral Tandem (the name of the company before it became Inteliquent) bought with its TINET acquisition in 2010 for almost $100M. It was profitable too, with revenue close to $70M. Inteliquent has been through some management changes, so this may be a step in the company re-focusing on its core products: voice. Or they just needed the cash. Who knows? It's telecom, where there is no rhyme or reason.

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HT Picks Off Big Competitor - Jul 12, 2012

The New VoIP Giant - Jun 07, 2012

iPad, MDM and Other News - Mar 09, 2012

The Sprint Rumor Mill - Oct 05, 2011

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Comcast opened a Cloud Services Marketplace, which sells cloud services like Carbonite data backup.

Apparently, cloud services brokerage is growing as Citrix just launched a program for cloud aggregators. There is even a referral and affiliate program with Citrix. I think this represents the cloud being like CLECs, "Please anyone sell my stuff!!! Please!"

Interesting tidbit, the global CRM market grew faster than other software and 40% of that market is SAAS, according to Gartner.

Rackspace has 50 employees devoted to the channel.

EarthLink sales dipped this quarter due to the sales cycle. "Our bookings in the second half of 2012 were soft as we saw extended customer decision cycles despite a growing sales pipeline that we've talked to everybody about. This caused the 2013 entry point and resulting financial guidance for this year to be lower than many of us had hoped it would be," according to EarthLink CEO. It demonstrates that hype is still growing, but sales are slow to come. I think the low hanging fruit is and will continue to be low cost, because integration, productivity and business outcomes are difficult to deliver, deploy, implement and show on a spreadsheet.

SIDE BAR

Good article about the Year of Hell for a SAAS CEO.

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Is Cloud Just Hype? - Jul 23, 2012

A Fun Chat with VAR Dynamics - Feb 01, 2012

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