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

telco

Local CLEC Sues Verizon for Anti-Trust

March 30, 2011

AstroTel, a local CLEC in Sarasota, FL, filed the complaint in federal court in the Middle District of Florida against Verizon Communications, Inc. and Verizon Florida, LLC for repeated violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Lanham Act, and the RICO Act.  The complaint was filed in the context of AstroTel’s Chapter 11 Reorganization which began four months earlier.  The reorganization itself is the result of ongoing contract disputes between AstroTel and Verizon Florida, LLC.

As I understand it, VZ repeatedly used CPNI information that by Federal law they are required to protect to market to AstroTel customers. The Duopoly as a whole does it.

Consumer Telecom Dropping

February 21, 2011

With the latest quarterly financial reporting in, one item stands out: CenturyLink, Qwest, Windstream and EarthLink are all experiencing consumer decline.

"CenturyLink Inc and Qwest Communications International Inc both posted quarterly revenue declines in what is expected to be their last reports as independent telephone operators, as customers disconnected their home phones in favor of cellphones." [Reuters]

In the case of Windstream, Morningstar reports that "Consumer revenue, which accounts for about 35% of the business directly, dropped 3% versus a year ago, in line with the prior quarter and a significant improvement versus the first half of 2010. Demand trends weakened, however, with phone customer losses increasing sharply versus both the prior year and quarter. Internet access and television customer growth also slowed to a trickle during the quarter."

Verizon Changes Commissions

January 31, 2011

Shockingly, Verizon has dramatically changed their commission structure for 2011.

The changes are effective for all orders issued into Verizon's legacy system after 1/1/2011.

Commissions have moved from a Residual and Acquisition structure, to an all Acquisition (up-front) structure.

Commissions for all products will be capped, being paid as if they were 1-year-term deals.

Free Conference Services Blocked

January 27, 2011

Over on a Voice Ops listserv, some ITSP's are discussing blocking access to free conference calling services. One, I'm not certain that is legal. I think a complaint to the FCC could make an ITSP's day go south.

Two, bad press from blocking could lead to negative branding.

The Future of Bell DSL

January 27, 2011

AT&T announced that they "nearly" hit 3 million U-Verse TV customers. In comparison, Bell added 2.8M new wireless customers in the 4th quarter and sold 4.1 million iPhones. Bell has 95M wireless subscribers. [see PDF].

The New New Telco

January 9, 2011

Comcast-NBC Merger is Failure Two

December 27, 2010

This will be a far reaching rant but I think that it's time the FCC (and other F-Agencies) close their doors. Really. We have a huge deficit and really you just aren't honoring your duties or worth the expense any longer.

The Net Neutrality issue went on for months - and you had plenty of time to talk to the bazillion lobbyists, but couldn't find time to consider the consumer in all of this? 

Contract Termination Class

December 17, 2010

A mandatory webinar on ETF, Contract Termination and Shortfall Charges today. The ILEC starts out by blaming tariffs for the clunky processes that require Agents to spend so much time and effort every single move, add, change and even upgrade. (One question was, "Do you even want more revenue from the customer? [Because you don't act like it!]).

A New Case of Huh?

November 19, 2010

So back in July, a client asked me to migrate 14 POTS lines from one location to a new office as well as take them back from a CLEC. The CLEC was a rebiller (non-facilities based) and kind of messed up the move. The CLEC continued to be a fly in the ointment through out the process. Ma Bell used every excuse in the book on this one as well.

Cloudy With a Chance of Rain

November 17, 2010

The news is filled with Cloud and mergers. Will it Rain?

Rain is revenue. Will all these acquisitions turn into revenue? We'll wait and see, but most big mergers do not see the synergies that were predicted.

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