Recently in TMC Category

Do you know what twitter is? It's the text messaging to the masses application platform. Officially, I think it is described as a micro-blogging social networking platform, but huh? The idea with twitter is to update a group of folks about what is of interest to you.

I'm on twitter and so are many TMC folks, like Rich, Tom, and sales guy extraordinaire Anthony; so is the TMC news service.

There are some telcos on twitter like Embarq, CenturyTel, and Windstream. The two companies merging do nothing with there account; it's a place holder. Windstream however just started up and they are doing a good job of it as far as I can tell. It's about interaction and they are being interactive with their customers, which is the example set by companies like JetBlue and Zappos.

The cable company with a bad service reputation took to twitter months ago and has been winning back it scustomers One at a time. That's right, Comcast is doing it the old fashion way, reaching out to help customers one at a time.

TWCable has an account with protected updates. Bright House Networks has one employee who is just underway.

In the VoIP world, there are plenty of folks on twitter, including Dan York from Voxeo, Garrett Smith of VoIP Supply and FreedomVoice. Actually there are too many to mention in VoIP.

Is your company interacting with its clients and target marketplace? Take twitter out for a test drive -- or watch what other folks are doing and copy it.

It's amazing the news feed you can get from Twitter.

Broadband Stimulus Plan: High-Speed Access coming to Rural America

Ask our CIO about our UC implementation at Aspect on a Frost & Sullivan webinar tomorrow:

Telefonica, Microsoft Offer Windows Live Services to Latin America

AboveNet is connecting 4 Telx facilities in NY/NJ

Recession is slowing the Death of Dial-Up.

RackSpace is using the Green label to market its hosting service. (IPO's will do that to you).

Apparently, BPL is still a viable option. Go figure.

This is all in about an hour. There's a lot going on. How are you keeping up with the Industry?

It's a busy Expo. Full house this morning for the Service Provider Round Table with Broadvox, 8x8, InPhonex, MagicJack, Telefonica, and TW Telecom. It seemed like they would all like their ILEC associated costs to drop so they can drop their prices even lower. (I won't even rant about theMagic Jack deal).

8x8 made a statement about not wanting to collect communication taxes on its service. He sells POTS replacement. Cities and counties need the tax revenue from communications services. It's in the tens of millions of dollars. To want to shirk that responsibility just grates me.  If the ILEcs didn't collect taxes, their bill would be lower too.

I am looking forward to Miami Beach next week. I'll be leaving the chaos of Tampa in the midst of Super Bowl 43 on Sunday because flying out Monday was too expensive (and crazy). So I'll be in Miami Beach (staying at the host hotel, the Royal Palm) and watching the game at a neighborhood bar. If you are in town, ping me on twitter.

Have you checked out the Facebook page for IT Expo/4GWR?  Bowling party courtesy of DIDX on Tuesday evening.  And if you are looking to have dinner with some interesting people drop me a note - we will be at Meat Market on Monday night and Icebox on Tuesday.

There are plenty of no-charge reasons to go to the show: Microsoft Response Point training; Reseller Solutions Day (or How to Make Money with VOIP)  and this IS the place to learn about SIP Trunking.

Well, got to run and write some more notes for my keynote, The Road Ahead, at 4 PM on Tuesday for Telecom Agent Day.

After spending much of 2H09 campaigning for ILEC Forbearance because he claims that the CLEC model has failed in the US, American Fiber Systems' Dave Rusin is interviewed by TMC's Rich Tehrani (video).

My problem with Dave is that he acts like he is CEO of a major telecom company. But according to Inc., AFS is only a $40M company with about 150 employees. It's a fiber only company. No voice. Transport and re-sold IP. No copper. Nothing complicated at all. (He sticks to his knitting, which is good). It's a high-asset, large CAPEX network operation, meaning it costs a lot to get a customer lit with fiber, long ROI, low cash flow, but fiber is an asset once trenched (which is what he often blogs about). Fiber is the diet of telecom kings. (pun intended)

AFS is more like Looking Glass, Progress Telecom, and OnFiber - all companies that were swallowed up a couple of years ago. It is nothing like his first company Frontier, which has more in common with PAETEC than just the city of Rochester.

AFS has network in 9 cities - Atlanta, Boise, Cleveland, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Nashville, Reno, Salt Lake City and Vegas. A press release states, "AFS has deployed over 90,000 miles of high-capacity, high-bandwidth metropolitan fiber optic cable since 2000....AFS has over 400 capacity enabled on-net buildings." That's 44 buildings and 10,000 route miles per metro. Many of the lit buildings are Central Offices and data centers. So I am guessing that AFS has about 500 customers.

In 2006, AFS received $25M in financing. That's $25M to get to $40M in revenue. I told you it was capital intensive. But the claim is that "AFS' unique metropolitan fiber optic network footprint supports an addressable market tele-density of over $9 billion in annualized telecommunications services." It's a $9B market and you have $40M of it? And you pick on Paetec and XO? That's like RC Cola debunking Dr. Pepper.

Rusin states (in the video) that he prices below the ILEC rates. From my experience that isn't the case, but if the plan is to price below the ILEC, then how is your marketing and sales approach different than PAETEC? That isn't selling on the value of being a focused, single minded network operator; it's taking orders on price.

After that interview, I have to wonder (again) what the campaign for forbearance is all about. Two thoughts: it is messing up his capital market and AFS needs capital to grow and add buildings to its network OR AFS is looking for an exit strategy (i.e., PR to get bought).

All in all, I do like reading his blog because it usually makes me write something. Thanks, Dave!

I was lucky enough to be chosen to give the keynote for TMC's Telecom Agent Day at the Internet Telephony East Expo in Miami Beach on Feb. 3.

The Road Ahead:  So you want to know what tomorrow has in store? Come to this session to hear all about the opportunities that are waiting just ahead. The speaker will address the trends and the recent activity in the market and come away with a plan for addressing the challenges ahead.

So I would like to know what YOU think is coming down the pike. I spoke with Dan Goodwin at ATC this morning who expressed that agents need to be experts and on top of their game to be able to handle the constant change in this industry. Recently, a real estate agent told me that she welcomed this market, because all the amateurs left. I'm hoping for the same in telecom.

Here at Room 502B at the IT Expo West, we have the largest press room ever! Ten columnists / bloggers lined up with desks and laptops and eleven tables for people to hold meetings.

To be a speaker at the IT Expo, there is a lot of paperwork. And I have procrastinated so that I now have to scramble to meet tomorrow's deadline. I will share with you some of the questionaire:

What has been your company's biggest achievement in 2008 so far?

Getting my book finished.

What can we expect to see for from your company for the next 12 months?

I will be helping many service providers fine tune their message, train their staff, and help them sell more services.

How do you see the communications market evolving?

I see VOIP being sold as an Overlay rather than as a "Cheaper Alternative to POTS"

What company made the biggest contribution to communications this year?

No idea. It all looks the same to me.

How has Google changed our markets?

Everybody thinks free is possible - moreso than before, which is annoying! They made SAAS more acceptable.

How about Apple?

That damn iPhone.

What mobile phone(s) do you use?

A brick from Sprint (PPC6700)

Who will win in an Apple/RIM war?

Blackberry. Not everyone likes ATT. Not everyone wants an Apple. And between Apple and ATT, something will mess up that turns folks off. RIM already had their mess up during the patent battle. The first one with a hook to Broadsoft's Broadworks will win.

What do you think the communications market might look like in five years?

I can't see that far in advance. The pace that change gets adopted is logarithmic. I think we should all have video phones now! And UC should just be how it is.