wireline

FCC Rules on Rural

February 7, 2012

Following Congress sending him a letter, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has finally issued a ruling on Rural Call Completion [pdf].

ATIS and NTCA have been hounding the FCC as complaints went from about 100 a month in 2009 to over 1000 a month in late 2010. A group of them sent a letter to the FCC [pdf], which stated:

"the Rural Representatives identified a variety of concerns, including but not limited to: (1) calls that ring for the calling party, but not at all or on a delayed basis for the called customer of the RLEC; (2) calling parties who receive incorrect or misleading message interceptions before the call ever reaches the RLEC or the tandem it subtends; (3) calls that appear to "loop" between routing providers, but never reach the RLEC or the tandem it subtends; and (4) incorrect caller ID that displays to called parties."

Many carriers point the finger at their underlying network operator - another carrier that they dump the rural traffic on. MagicJack and Google Voice have a reputation for not completing calls to high expense rural areas.

The underlying problem is Inter-Carrier Compensation. Rural telcos not only get USF funds to operate, but also get many pennies per minute for call termination.

Posted in FCC, telco, wireline

Verizon Puts the Move on Video

February 6, 2012

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.

Posted in cableco, cellular, duopoly, satellite, spectrum, telco, video, wireless, wireline

LightSquare, GPS, ADTRAN and West

December 12, 2011

ADTRAN "announced today that it plans to acquire, through an asset sale and purchase agreement, the Nokia Siemens Networks fixed line Broadband Access business (BBA), and associated professional services and network management solutions. The planned acquisition would include the Broadband Access intellectual properties, technologies and the established customer base." This gets ADTRAN some revenue and a foot into International customers.

IN other acquisition news, HyberCube is being bought by West Corp.

"West Corporation, a leading provider of technology-driven, voice and data solutions, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire HyperCube LLC, a premier provider of tandem switching services to telecommunications providers. .... Founded in 2005 and backed from its inception by Kamine Credit Corporation, Annex Capital and Chambers Street Investors, HyperCube has rapidly grown to become a leading provider of toll-free origination services in the United States.

Posted in broadband, cellular, mergers, spectrum, wireline

The Cellular Battle

November 28, 2011

I don't mean the AT&T-T-Mobile merger, although that is just one battle in the war for cellular supremacy. (Other battles are Sprint with Clearwire, Sprint with the cablecos and the MVNO model.)

"Former T-Mobile CMO Denny Post says carriers should focus on retention, rather than relentless promotions aimed at new sign-ups." Post says that it is the end of the New-to-Wireless Customer Era and that cellcos must re-think customer care.

Post continues, "It is going to become an absolute competitive scrap battle, [because] any customer is going to have to come from somewhere else."

This isn't just the cellular market. Look at broadband, landlines, cable TV, voice - all flat.

While VoIP revenues are increasing, it is because TDM revenue is decreasing. Hosted UC or Hosted PBX sales are more than voice sales, but functionality, productivity, efficiency, collaboration and one-inbox.

Posted in Marketing, broadband, cellular, channel, hosted uc, sales and selling, satellite, wi-fi, wireline

Cramming Star

October 24, 2011

Cramming is when the carrier's bill contains unauthorized fees (either on cellular or wireline bills). The FCC explains it in detail here.

One agent has been quoted in CNBC and USA Today about cramming.

"With today's economy, where employees are often doing the job of two or more people, bills are not audited as closely as they may have been in the past," according to Michael Bremmer, CEO of Telecomquotes.com. He notes that crammers often add fraudulent charges to a single business under multiple names and in varying amounts, thereby obscuring their identities and making it harder for auditors to detect.

Congrats to Mike Bremmer, a TCA agent, for the press.

Posted in FCC, TCA, agents, wireline

Some Have Reached The Peak

October 21, 2011

I had a conversation yesterday with a friend from UHC. She mentioned that VISA is worried about its profitability on just the $0.24 federal max per debit card transaction. Here's the problem the American economy faces: We Peaked Already. Period.

Globally, America is in a battle for good jobs, natural resources, oil, and soon clean water. (Georgia and Tennessee are already battling over water rights.) This planet can not sustain 7 billion people, which will be the population this weekend.

The US is a service based economy, the engine of which is consumer spending.

Posted in economy, jobs, politics, telco, wireline

Business is Still Happening

October 19, 2011

Despite all the bad news, bad politics, financial collapse and more, at the end of the quarter business is still getting done. People are still buying stuff.

For example, Juliana Kenny reports that Yahoo! still hit earnings expectations even with firing their CEO.

"The US telecom market generated $367bn in service revenue in 2010, an increase of 3.1% over 2009," according to Pyramid Research.

Juniper hit expectations with the help of some cost cutting. The parent company of TDS Telecom and US Cellular grew revenue 4% with managed services revenue offsetting wireline losses. [FYI, triple play for TDS is at 27% penetration.]

Cbeyond stated 2Q2011 total revenue of $120.6 million, up 7.9% over the second quarter of 2010.

Posted in economy, sales and selling, telecommunications, wireline

Stranded Assets

October 18, 2011

Last week, FISPA had a skype video call with the FCC. The first part was with Lisa Gelb of the Wireline Competition Bureau. She gave us a perspective on the Decline of the PSTN. There has been a 34% decline in wireline as consumers swicth from the fixed network and migration to other services, like VoIP, video, SMS and broadband. Cell only use is on the rise. [In fact, that is what is keeping VZW and AT&T afloat: cell]

Telecom revenues have been flat overall, but wireline revenues are declining.

Posted in FCC, broadband, wireline

The Telco Customer Experience

October 18, 2011

There has been some buzz on twitter about the telcos working on bettering the customer experience. Despite JD Powers awards, the average customer is not happy.

Those that are still on Telco 1.0 with POTS and DSL do not have a special relationship. And the fees are piling up.

Those with 3G or 4G wish they were actually getting high-speed broadband.

Those with VoIP - not quite Telco 2.0 - wish the quality was better.

Those customers with Hosted PBX - Telco 2.0 - wish the onboarding was better; the features easier to figure out; and that the quality was better.

The promise of Telco 2.0 and 3G/4G has largely been limited at the customer experience end.

Posted in PBX, agents, sip trunking, telco, voip, wireline

What Does It Say About the Reseller Model?

October 11, 2011

TNCI filed BK, owing $10M. There have been a number of resellers over the years in this industry - and there will be more. Reselling is THE business model that everyone jumps on it telecom. What was UNE-P after all? Just a sales and marketing plan with your billing software and you were a CLEC.

Posted in CLEC, Marketing, telco, wireline

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