On Rad's Radar? - wireless Archives

No Traction in Hosted PBX Market

2012-05-25T12:18:09Z

According to Insight Research, independent hosted PBX providers should be able to take some small business market share from the Duopoly over the next five years.

The small business market size is more than 40 millions lines, says Robert Rosenberg, INSIGHT Research president. That will mean even more hosted PBX seats since lines and seats are not 1 for 1. "Our study suggests that thus far, small businesses haven't quite latched on to this new technology so the revenue today is only in the range of one-half billion dollars, but by 2015 hosted services will be nearly a $1.2 billion market and the adoption rate of the hosted services by small businesses will accelerate," Rosenberg concluded.

If the US Hosted PBX space is just $500M, I think that they have calculated wrong or at least not taken into account the hundreds of smaller providers with less than 5000 seats. Phone.com, Pingtel, Flat Planet Phone Co., FreedomVoice, PBX-Change and many, many more providers that you find at ITEXPO and elsewhere.

All the research I have seen states that Comcast is hands down the winner in the US Hosted PBX space with about 300K seats.

8x8 is now reaching $100M in revenue with ARPU of $244 on its 27,000 business customers.

Smoothstone is now West IP Communications after a $120M bid. Smoothstone is probably at $40M in revenue.

M5 Networks, recently acquired by ShoreTel, is doing $48M in revenue.

Telesphere, a member of the Broadsoft-based Cloud Communications Alliance, is doing about $30M.

Admittedly, most Hosted VoIP companies are doing less than $4M in sales, but if you add up hundreds of them at $4M or even $1M, you get to $500M fast. I already listed over $300M in revenue, so that $500M might be low. Still even if it was $1B in pales in comparison to US wireless revenue of $335B in 2012 or fixed network voice revenue that is about $132B or even the $38B in broadband access revenue. [carrier revolution from TIA study]

Combatting Mobile Data

2012-05-24T02:02:06Z

How do you offer your broadband customers mobile access? There are a couple of options. One is MVNO, reselling cellular data cards to your customers. This is a very expensive option. No margin, but stickiness for your bundle.

Another way is to use hotspots. Hotspots are good advertising for your ISP and can even get you some new revenue from hourly or daily users. The cablecos have done that in-region but have now decided to having roaming wi-fi hotspot contracts with the other cablecos. TWC, Bright House, Comcast, Cablevision and Cox will be able to log in to each other's Wi-Fi hotspots - a total of 50,000 hotspots.

I guess AT&T will have to change this statement: "With AT&T Wi-Fi access included at thousands of hotspots nationwide. Cable can't provide that!"

AT&T acquired Wayport years ago and eventually supplanted T-Mobile as the wi-fi provider for Starbucks. AT&T owns more than 20,000 hotspots in the US, including McDonald's, Fedex/Kinkos, and Hilton locations. Wi-Fi access is included for iPhone users on AT&T and for certain other AT&T Mobility and AT&T High Speed Internet service. AT&T uses wi-fi to offload traffic from their overloaded cell network.

"Verizon Wi-Fi for High Speed Internet is a free service that enables qualified Verizon High Speed Internet subscribers to access the internet at thousands of public places known as Wi-Fi hotspots . This wireless service is not intended to be used from your home, but to be used while on-the-go." No idea how many or where, but the locator is here.

Two things are interesting. The top 5 or six cablecos are starting to work together, deliver the same services (usually with the same vendor) like home automation and security, and inter-connect with NNI's. Soon the cablecos will have a nationwide footprint that looks homegenous. The other is that the cablecos are starting to look more and more like the ILECs.

Cellular Mayhem

2012-05-18T17:46:16Z

Just looking at the news makes me think that the cellular industry is having a week of mayhem. Besides the mess I wrote about earlier this week, "US wholesale player LightSquared has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid efforts to resolve regulatory issues that have prevented it from launching its satellite service," according to Telecoms. "The carrier has been planning to build a ground-based LTE network, supported by satellites, but the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) blocked the project, stating that the proposed mobile broadband network will impact GPS services and that there is no practical way to mitigate the potential interference." That about spells it all out. Last I read Philip Falcone wants the FCC to give Lightsquared better spectrum.

WISPA stormed DC this week to plead at the FCC and Congress for more unlicensed spectrum. Everyone wants more spectrum, but only WISPA will settle for unlicensed spectrum. WISP's make a lot out of a little. Cellcos make a mess out of an abundance, which just goes to show that when you are too big to fail, you will fumble a lot.

Speaking of fumbling, AT&T is in talks with Leap Wireless. Yeah. AT&T needs to acquire more spectrum. How about you and all the rest of you just deploy the spectrum you already have? How about you have to give it back if it isn't lit in a year?

I like this comparison by the NYT: Sprint as a downer and AT&T Mobility as techno-Pollyanna. Sprint might be right about mobile payments, since I don't trust the cellcos enough to be my wallet. I have a wallet. A leather one. I trust AMEX. I understand the rules of using VISA. I have Paypal. What more do I need? Do I really need to spend my money faster?

The Big 4 Cellco execs riffed at CTIA. Yawn.

AT&T ripped into FCC Chair again and threatened price increases: "In the case of wireless, without additional capacity, which would have been created by our transaction, prices rise," said AT&T Senior Vice President Jim Cicconi." So you mismanage your network, can't buy your competition, whine about the FCC and then raise rates. Awesome! We have names for people like you.

You know I have a problem with Sprint and its CEO, but this headline takes the cake: A Better Network is Coming! Really? Could be get a worse network?

,p>T-Mobile thinks that VZ's deal with SpectrumCo (the cable alliance) is bad for everyone. "T-Mobile USA would like to have a chance to bid on the spectrum Verizon Wireless is looking to buy." Well, make a bid then. Sheesh.

The Union is against the VZW-Cable deal, "could mean the end of a competitive telecommunications landscape, saddling consumers with higher prices and diminished choice." Well, that and the Union doesn't get a piece of the deal. I do agree that this will end all competition, since the competition is a Duopoly. Now they would be working together.

A Frank Look at the iPhone

2012-05-07T19:56:50Z

From the NYTimes, "Randall Stephenson, AT&T's chief executive, shared some surprisingly frank comments about the iPhone." Stephenson regrets unlimited data pricing. Since moving to tiered data prices, the company has made more money. DUH!! He cries about "...it's a variable cost model. Every additional megabyte you use in this network, I have to invest capital." Well, if you and de la Vega didn't mismanage the network design and build.... If you just deployed all the spectrum you horde... If you just gave customers what you promised them on the contract that you hold them to... But I digress.

"Stephenson said he worried about services that could replace the company's own offerings." Like Apple's iMessage that replaces text messages. Voice, text and data are the 3 ways that cellcos make money on your usage. Voice and text are in decline. Data is on the rise. Cloud, apps, social media, photos, videos - all connected via your smartphone, use up a lot of data.

"The board (of Cingular) was nervous about the Apple smartphone because it was aware that it would transform its business model, Mr. Stephenson said." Did it?

In related news, VZ is pushing sales to Android LTE handsets. Why? It needs more consumers on its LTE network - and the Apple iPhone isn't a 4G device (yet).

Interesting figures:

only 9% of VZW's 93 million users converted to LTE.

"USB modems and iPads are only 8% of the carrier's postpaid subscriber base."

VZW's 3G network peaked in 2010 at 1MB and is over-crowded now.

AT&T is probably seeing a similar issue with an over-crowded HSPA network.

Sprint probably not so much.

Did you see that Sprint CEO Dan Hesse had to take a $3.25M pay cut due to the iPhone costs? It was that or his job. He should have kept the $3.25M as a parting gift.

Cincinnati Bell to Spin Off Data Centers

2012-05-04T17:02:23Z

Last week when asked, I said that I did not see Cincinnati Bell spinning off its data centers. One reason was that the ILEC would be left with a declining wireline business and debt, which was the reason that CinBell had pursued a data center acquisition -- to offset the line losses.

This week, CinBell announced that it will examine spinning off Cyrus One as a REIT (real estate investment trust). The IPO will bring in much needed cash to pay down debt - $2.5B.With the data center business up 21% to $53M, CinBell is expanding the data center space.

Cincinnati Bell 1Q 2012 revenue is $363 million. Wireless revenue for the quarter is $64 million; Total wireless subscribers decreased to 446,000. Postpaid ARPU in 1Q2012 increased to $50.82 with Postpaid churn for the quarter at 2.2 percent. [source]

Wireline revenue for the quarter was $182 million - down less than 1%. CinBell is offsetting wireline (copper) revenue with FTTH.

"Total local access lines declined 7.8% year over year to 621,300 at the end of 2011, and comprised 552,400 in-territory lines and 68,900 out-of-territory lines," Zacks states.

"The company passed 13,000 additional homes and businesses during the quarter with its Fioptics product suite, bringing the total number of units passed to 147,000. Wireline added 3,000 new Fioptics entertainment subscribers and 4,000 new Fioptics high-speed internet subscribers during the first quarter, bringing the totals to 43,000 entertainment and high-speed internet subscribers at the end of the quarter," reported Seeking Alpha.

I wonder if cell churn is due to coverage or handset choices.

I don't know what the IT Services and Hardware segment is but it increased 4% to $73M.

Some Stuff Happened While I Was on Daycation

2012-04-23T18:23:04Z

I was taking today and tomorrow off to visit with some pals but the news won't quit.

In the I-can't-stand-it zone, the University of Florida decides that TD's are more important than IT and cuts the Computer Science Department. Just when Florida is playing host to the Rupublican Convention and is looking to make a name for itself, that name becomes DUM or MUD. In a time when we need more science and computer nerds, the state U decides to go a different way.

In Tampa, the former CEO of Savvis has closed his e-commerce company, Savtira, after a flurry of promises to hire 200 people and a number of odg and pony shows about the hot future. Apparently, he has done this before.

Cbeyond has decided that traditional agents are not its future. The Cloud has different demands and demands different partners.

Coresite bought Comfluent to enter the Denver market. "Comfluent plays a vital role in the interconnection community in the western U.S., serving more than 75 customers and managing the Rocky Mountain Internet eXchange (RMIX), the region's largest Internet exchange with access to more than 25 networks. Comfluent currently leases two sites that total approximately 9,300 NRSF," according to the SunHerald

Verizon Wireless wants its deal with the cablecos / SpectrumCo to go through, so it promised to sell off some spectrum. T-Mobile and others think that is just smoke and the deal should still be axed. [see here and there]

Tucows, a domain registrar and fellow ISPCON standard, runs an MVNO called TING.

Vodafone is bidding $1.7B USD to buy Cable & Wireless, according to Rueters

Linux talent will be important in 2013, especially in data centers, reports the Channel Insider

Alex Doyle left Broadsoft for Polycom. Good luck at the new position, Alex!

from Tony: An Insider's Guide to Technology Analysts

Dean Parker, CEO of Callis in Mobile, AL, has been selected in the top 12 finalists for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Alabama/Tennessee/ Georgia region.

T-Mobile Layoffs Called FCC's Fault

2012-03-26T14:34:58Z

This makes me laugh. AT&T's SEVP for external and legislative affairs, Cicconi, wrote a post for AT&T's Public Policy blog last week that again attacked the FCC. AT&T blames any T-Mobile Layoffs on the FCC.

Really?

It's not the fault of T-Mobile management who have not steered the ship in 2 years?

It's not the fact that once the LOI was signed, the culture at T-Mobile - already at a low - went down the drain and the smart people left in droves? That's the FCC's fault?

It isn't AT&T's fault for lying to the US government for why they wanted to buy T-Mobile?

It wasn't the fault of both corporate cultures that had such poor customer service and shoddy network service that a merger would have been a horrible prospect for any and all customers?

Really?

AT&T mismanaged its network, didn't acquire enough spectrum, and didn't plan ahead. So it's the FCC's fault? The ONE time the FCC (and the DOJ) says No to you, AT&T, (the ONE time) and you whine like the spoiled brat that you are, Cicconi? Grow up.

The monopoly mindset of your company is the biggest threat that your stock faces, right next to that huge pile of debt - $69 Billion - hanging over your head.

Your stock is screwed. But blaming the FCC won't help. Triple play is expensive to deploy and deliver and that pie is flat or declining, just like wireline revenues. Now your savior - wireless - is facing a similar fate: expensive to deploy and flat revenues in a pie that is flat. Meanwhile, VZW is eating your lunch and conspiring with SpectrumCo to really kick your ass. Great planning by the way. I wouldn't let a SVP at AT&T plan my birthday party.

You can always work out a deal to wholesale from CLEAR - or maybe call Charlie at DISH, since he just got FCC approval.

The Scoop on TDMobility

2012-03-23T16:09:04Z

I spoke with Brian Kosoy, PR manager for Tech Data, and Charles Kriete, the Executive Vice President of TDMobility. Kriete is also the founder of the company that developed some of the key technology (CellManage) in TDMobility. His company was acquired by the joint venture between Tech Data and Brightstar. TDmobility launched recently as a way for VAR's to offer cellular service - handsets, devices, netbooks, tablets, mifi - to their customer base through Tech Data. Give it a listen. (embedded Flash player)

There are 2 sections. TDActivate acts just like an authorized dealer does for cellular products. Pick your device, pick your plan, activate it through the carrier - all through a TDMobility. It is not a true MVNO. It all goes through the carriers - AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint.

TDCellManage is the MDM or mobile device management platform. It is similar to a TEM model, where you can see the carrier billing, the devices, the contracts. It can be more as a solutions and software pillar to provide applications control on the device, email security, remote security (like wipe), desktop virtualization and anti-virus. RIM, Good and AirWatch software is available. This is the value that the VAR can add over an authorized agent, Best Buy Mobile or Amazon.

It's all about Management - managed servcies, TEM (telecom expense mgmt) or MDM (mobile device mgmt). Get in the game!

Download the mp3 here.

What a Crazy Monday

2012-03-19T18:02:05Z

So Zayo is buying AboveNet for $2.2B.

Avaya bought RADVision for $230M. Conferencing is making a lot of noise. As David Byrd points out, "It is clear that video conferencing is growing in importance in the market.... is the market big enough to support them and others attempting to stake out market share. Vidyo, ooVoo, Skype, Polycom, ShoreTel and others are all battling it out to deliver video conferencing either as a desktop offering or major telepresence in conference rooms." Byrd forgot Google, who has made video chat with G+ Hangouts stupid easy. Easier than Skype, since there isn't any software to download.

AT&T quietly settles the iPhone data cap case. Quietly because they don't want a rash of these lawsuits, even if it only costs $900 to settle. Will there be a rush to the small claims courts?

This headline killed it this morning: "Bernstein Downgrades Sprint, Notes Bankruptcy Risk". It being Sprint's stock, which dropped. Is Sprint in risk of BK? Not in the near term (2012 or 2013). Maybe in 2014 if it has to pay Apple for unused iPhones. See Bernstein thinks that the iPhone 5 which will utilize the 4G network will hurt Sprint who doesn't yet have a nationwide 4G network. Why not? Sprint just opted out of the LightSquared deal that the federal government all but kaboshed. Clearwire can't get it's act together. (Even with a deal with NetZero for free 4G data!) Bernstein stated that Sprint didn't have spectrum for 4G, which isn't true, since Clearwire has Sprint's spectrum combined with others to have a big chunk in most markets. Also, with roaming agreements in place, Sprint can use AT&T or other 4G carriers, although that will be costly. Sprint has a Brand isuue. Not to mention an under-utilized fiber network. BTW, CNET has a story about the 4G spectrum issues.

LightSquared has chosen to yell at the FCC and demand replacement spectrum. LightSquared said that the FCC action violates its constitutional property rights. What a bunch of BS!! The DOD said you can't use the spectrum. Period. You don't OWN the spectrum. You have a license to USE the spectrum - as it was deemed in said license. The LightSquared spectrum was licensed for satellite usage, not terrestrial broadband usage. "LightSquared's spectrum holdings (between 1525MHz and 1660.5 MHz) are close to the GPS satellite signals," reported ARS. And even more about the challenge that LightSquared faces from the Laws of Physics. LightSquared has offered to swap spectrum with the Dept. of Defense.. Corporate welfare clowns annoy me.

Creditors Want Zenith Infotech to Liquidate

Is DSL Done?

2012-03-12T21:48:47Z

Every time we examine the DSL field, it looks more and more barren. Now VZW has made moves to insure that it is dead.

One is the huge deal that VZW has with SpectrumCo that will result in a joint venture company that will co-market VZW with cableco partners. Basically, VZ is saying that cable wins in terrestrial broadband and we are just going to focus on wireless.

VZW rolled out Home Fusion, fixed wireless broadband via LTE. So VZW needs spectrum so bad? Then how could they be pushing fixed broadband over the same 4G network that they tell the FCC needs more spectrum?

Home Fusion is a metered or capped service that is expensive.

"All of the plans are usage-based, which changes the broadband paradigm from one of limited bits to limited bytes. Verizon's plans begin at $59.99 of monthly access for 10 GB of data, and there is a $200 installation charge. If you consider that an hour of watching Netflix consumes about 1 gigabyte, you're looking at about 8-10 hours of TV a month," reports GigOm.
One client, Hunt Telecom, points out that VZW is a non-union shop, so by shifting to all VZW, the books look better. (And you break the union that was striking on you in 2011). This move demonstrates that VZW is running the show, not VZB or VZT.
The client also points out that if the consumer buys Home Fusion, they are likely to buy VZW cellphones too.
There are still many parts of rural America without 3G service, but this is a way for VZ to acquire broadband customers out-of-region! Since the broadband nd cell pools are saturated, this is a way for VZW to get new subs. I don't know why these same customers can't just get a mi-fi router, but meh.

Where Will the Revenue Come From?

2012-03-02T16:00:45Z

The screaming you hear is coming from execs at the global cellcos. For years we have been hearing how voice will be free. (Hasn't happened yet, but it has flat rated.) Now it seems the text messaging revenue arm is decreasing - 9% from last year globally.

According to this article, "Pinger and an explosion of smartphone messaging services -- like iMessage, BlackBerry Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber Media, Facebook Messenger and KakaoTalk -- have managed in just a few years to slash away at the important revenue that cell phone companies get from text messaging. Analysts say there's no end in sight to the financial blood letting."

This explains all the metering and bandwidth caps. Revenue is flat for cellular so they need to make it up in data revenue. When you are spending $7-9 Billion per year on the network, plus paying for roaming and having to buy spectrum, you want ARPU and revenue to go up.

There is also all this envy to Apple, Google and other cloud companies that are making money from apps, shopping and usage that the cellcos are not getting a piece of.

I think it is also why a good many cell phones do not have wi-fi. That tends to work two ways though: wi-fi is capacity offload while the customer is still paying you a monthly rate. Wi-fi upload may be how they save some money on capacity upgrades. Wi-fi capability in teh handset would also be a way to appease the folks who get throttled or capped. However, that doesn't help the carrier revenues. They just don't want to be a dump pipe, but every move they make seems dumb.

T-Mobile's Next Move

2012-02-24T15:49:41Z

T-Mobile to Pump $4 Billion Into Network, 4G LTE Buildout. This is T-Mobile's next move on the heels of getting fiber and billions in cash from AT&T after the merger was nixed by the government agencies.

I have to laugh at this because Clearwire has clearly (heh) spent more than $4B to only partially build out a nationwide 4G network. How will T-Mobile do it for $4B?

Google is cutting its losses and selling its stake in Clearwire for $47 million, a tenth of the price it originally paid. What does that say?

AT&T's CEO had his pay cut over the debacle of the merger. Across the board - and it pains me immensely to say this - only VZW seems to have a clear cut strategy that they are executing on. Sprint and AT&T need new management. I have said it before and I will state it again: Hesse is not helping Sprint at all. He has had ample time to fix Sprint -- yet he has not. Like IBM bring in Lou, Sprint needs an outsider to come in and shake it up to make it competitive.

Rumors this morning are that Sprint was in talks to acquire MetroPCS. Bloomberg, Reuters and others reported that the Board vetoed the deal as a sign that they have lost faith in Hesse. Uh, hello! That's what I have been saying.

I'm shopping for a new cell phone (to replace my Blackberry) and friends pointed out that Sprint hasn't had a new phone since the iPhone. And subsidizing the iPhone is hurting all 3 carriers in the wallet. Devices are what drive cellular sales. Smartphones, tablets, netbooks, data cards, Mi-Fi hotspots -- all contribute to sales and ARPU increases. When you have a tired inventory, retention and acquisition of customers is challenged.

What else?

There's still DISH out there with its spectrum and desire to build out a 4G network. One has to wonder if DISH will hire Nokia Siemens Networks or Ericcson to build and manage its 4G network.

Don't forget LightSquared. LSQD is cutting staff - all but the lawyers, those they are doubling down on to sue the FCC and the DOD.

A scandal surrounds the Obama Administration for perhaps helping LightSquared to the detriment of OpenRange - at least that's what HotAir is saying. I don't think another extension would have helped OpenRange get out of its massive debt.

Peak and MetroPCS are still in play. Who will play with them? As I mentioned above about the devices driving sales, Peak, MetroPCS and US Cellular have been to the FCC to complain about the big 3 locking them out of the hottest devices. While there has been talk about Peak and MetroPCS being bought, US Cellular is 81% owned by TDS, so they aren't in play.

VZW will be fighting to the cable spectrum, since T-Mobile and others think that the deal is too good for VZW+cable, bad for everyone esle. For one thing, the deal creates a joint venture corporation that allows the 4 companies - BHN, TWC, VZW, Comcast - to spend a lot of time together (and that can't be good for competition - what little there is).

Why the FCC will likely say yes anyway: Because they have to.

All this activity doesn't make it easy to sell these carriers. It makes the bankers happy though -- and that's not usually a good thing.

One final cell story: AT&T lost a small claims court case against an iPhone user for throttling. AT&T is appealling. Apparently, it can't afford any losses for this network management strategy. I think it is a case of false advertising across the board. Like everything else about broadband, it's never what is advertised and you are always stuck in a box due to ridiculous contract terms.

Verizon Puts the Move on Video

2012-02-06T15:26:03Z

After Verizon's CFO sais that FiOS was a poor economic decision for the company, I would think video would not be on the VZ radar. The FiOS TV service is so expensive to deliver that Frontier raised rates over 70% when it took over former VZ FiOS territory -- and then decided to switch all the TV over to DBS.

Comcast buying NBCU was a little different, but cablecos have owned channels before, especially sports channels (MSG, YES, BayNews9).

Maybe the TV-cord-cutting crowd is scaring the cablecos, despite the rhetoric to The Street. Content is expensive to license and to deliver. And getting more expensive all the time. Meanwhile more video is being delivered as bits and bytes by Netflix, Amazon, the networks (USA, Comedy Central, ABC, CBS and CW - all have shows that can only be seen on-demand from thier website) and apps (HBO-on-the-Go and TWC Anywhere, for example). This means that TV revenues WILL decline.

How does the Duopoly make up the money and pay off the $250 Billion in debt it has accumulated????

Metering is one way. It increases the ARPU.

BTW, I find it interesting how the RBOC's have basically given up on DSL.

So VZ is now partnering with the Coinstar subsidiary, Redbox, to launch a video streaming service to compete with Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

This means that ATT will HAVE to go after DISH. Why? The wireless spectrum primarily but also DISH owns Blockbuster, satellive TV service, and Slingbox. Telco is a me-too industry. Unless ATT is going to abandon theh consumer space, relinquish it to the cablecos, it will have to make a move soon.

While Echostar owns Hughes Communications, the DISH company bought up spectrum from DBSD and Terrestar that DISH plans on utilizing to offer a hybrid satellite/terrestrial mobile broadband service. Today, DISH has a market cap of almost $13B, while Netflix is at $7B. Since spectrum is finite and like real estate, the extra $6B seems like a steal. Consider that AT&T bought spectrum from Qualcomm for $2B. That spectrum, which, according to Huffington, "Qualcomm stands to make a handsome profit on the spectrum. It paid $38 million for one slice of nationwide spectrum - the former UHF channel 55 - in 2002, then another $558 million in 2008 for UHF channel 56 over New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco." Qualcomm was using that spectrum for FLO TV, which failed. It consists of six D-block and five E-block licenses in the Lower 700 MHz band, giving AT&T post-transaction holding between 6 and 80 megahertz of spectrum below 1 GHz. Holding is key, because, like all cellcos whining about spectrum, AT&T HAS spectrum it has not deployed.

AT&T says it needs the spectrum, especially if VZW gets the SpectrumCo deal to go through whereby VZW buys all the AWS spectrum from the cablecos. So do the Rural Cellular Carriers. Makes DISH a big target for acquisition. However, Charlie Ergan still owns 51%.

It's a Mobile Monday

2012-01-30T16:51:18Z

It's a mobile Monday as I get set to pack up to head to ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami Beach.

Yahoo was being Yahoo this morning as it announced - in the same breath - that it has launched a "Mobile First" mindset, then shut down 10 mobile apps. Granted, some of them were not doing well (like Yahoo itself), but it's schizophrenic to do it on the same day.

Patent house Klausner Technologies sues MetroPCS for Visual Voicemail Infringement. That's always fun - and profitable for the patent house. Hopefully, in this case, it doesn't mess up the consumers' experiences.

AT&T is now supporting DISH Network at the FCC on its deployment and usage of spectrum in the 2 GHz range that it acquired from bankruptcy court via TerreStar Networks and DBSD North America. In the Fierce article, it is suggested that the support is because AT&T has eyes for DISH spectrum. And as you have read, the rumor mill has AT&T bidding on DISH - for less than what T-Mobile would have cost. It will depend on the FCC rules on the spectrum.

Both Verizon and AT&T had bad quarters. AT&T attributed its $6.7B bad quarter to its $3B T-Mobile acquisition break-up fee. Some of it may be due to having too much focus on the merger you thought for certain was going to pass. VZ blamed pension liabilities on its loss. Windstream changed its pension accounting method.

Not for nothing, but the pension liabilities that VZ and CenturyLink (via Embarq) owe SHOULD have been funded all along -- not in lump sum, quarter killing fashion. I wonder if this is a boat anchor that will sink them?

While AT&T whines at the FCC about a "clear spectrum policy", can I remind that of a few things? One, you have spectrum. Deploy what you have! And try not to mismanage it this time, so your top execs don't have to explain it to Congress again! Two, what spectrum do you want auctioned off? There simply, at this time, isn't any. You and your ilk have bought it all up, horded it, did not deploy it, and screwed the pooch that is mobile data networks in America. Your pals at CTIA didn't plan well for the future either. Did you think that the spectrum was unlimited?

In more AT&T whining, there is this article about the roaming rules and how Sprint is free-loading. My understanding about spectrum was that deployment was required - with an expiration date. What happened to that? Where is the enforcement?

In cool news: Sprint has a $100 7-inch ZTE Android tablet coming out!

Look for me in Miami Beach Next Week

2012-01-26T17:59:23Z

Next week is ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami Beach at the convention center. I arrive around 11 AM on Tuesday for Editor's Day. There are a number of all-day events going on Tuesday like InsightPRM's Sales Management training and the Avaya seminar.

Not surprisingly, most of the buzz around the show is on Startup Camp Comms, which is Thursday at 4 PM with keynote from Sir terry Matthews, founder of MITEL. Four start-ups will be pitching as well.

I have 5 slots this time.

Wed. night on the show floor at the CVX Expo stage, three agents - Dan Vidal, Josh Anderson and myself (fueled with cocktails) will answer questions from Martin Vilaboy, Editor-in-Chief of Channel Vision magazine about issues facing the Channel. Consolidation, Competition, Commissions, Cloud, UC, and the decline of the PSTN. The fun starts at 6:30. Straight from the Shooters: Candid Conversations on Issues Facing the Channel. Details here.

Wed. at 11 AM, I moderate the panel, Social Media Channel Integration, about contact centers integrating social media into the work station in room B210. The discussion will be about business drivers for social media; 4 steps to utilize social media in the enterprise; and hurdles to incorporating SM in the contact center.

At 2:30 on Wed., in room B116, I will be moderating a panel titled Educating the Channel with Industry Standard Certifications. It's a topic that is close to me because the TCA, which I helped found, is all about educating the Channel and rolled out a certification program last year. This will be a good conversation about how we need to education the sales channels as well as the marketplace in order to sell services like UC, Cloud and managed services.

The fun panel will be on Friday morning at 9 AM: Does Your Business Have a Social Media Strategy? Chief Head of Lettuce Antony Francis is an old pal, who likes to get cranky with me, so this panel will rock. You will leave with more info than you thought possible at 9 AM on a Friday in room B210.

At Noon on Friday catch me at the 4GWE session about Fixed Wireless as a wireline replacement (in room A109). Do you think fixed wireless can replace copper?

Look for my tweets from @radinfo and say HI if you see me.