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

December 2014

You are browsing the archive for December 2014.

Don't Get Trapped

December 31, 2014

This post is not about telecom. It may make you squirm. A friend committed suicide in July. I've been trying to come to grips with it all year. She (seemingly) had it all - boyfriend, several businesses, partners, community leader, close friends.

2 Biggest Topics of 2014 and My Guess for 2015

December 30, 2014

The 2 biggest topics to me this year (2014) were (1) M&A AND (2) hacking.

Hackers had a field day with Sony, Target, Home Depot, iCloud (and celebrity photos) and 757 other organizations. [See VZ data breach report here.] Hackers had a field day with millions upon millions of passwords, emails and credit card numbers - over 83 million records. No one takes security seriously in the US - until after the hack happens to you (and you bear the cost of the breach, which for some companies is in the neighborhood of a billion dollars.)

A Clean Sheet of Paper

December 29, 2014

The new year is like a clean sheet of paper. The above Calvin & Hobbes cartoon talks about how a blanket of snow makes everything new again. January 2nd is like that as well. (No idea why you have to wait for that date to start something or change something.

There Were Some Bright Spots

December 26, 2014

There were some bright spots in 2014.

Canadian and UK companies reached out for consulting in 2014. Opportunities in LATAM also peaked on the horizon. But most of the attention was right here in the USA.

The Year That Was a Mess

December 24, 2014

We have a huge Net Neutrality debate, Open Internet fights (especially between Netflix and ISPs) and peering duels (between ISPs and backbones, notice the pattern?). Why? Lack of broadband competition.

Big mergers still in play: AT&T buying DirecTV to keep up on TV; and Comcast in a three way with Charter over TWC.

End of Year Tidbits

December 22, 2014

Stop watching the news. Seriously. It's nothing but depressing stuff. It is no way to end the day (go to sleep) or no way to start the day. Read something for 15 minutes instead.

Study Data Doesn't Mean Much Sometimes

December 19, 2014

"Two technologies, namely mobility and Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C), are significantly transforming the work patterns in organizations, " writes ReportBuyer. The release goes on to talk about mobile converging with UC&C and BYOD to create mobile UC&C plus security. There is a specific market for mobile UC&C and BYOD. It is not an SMB problem.

Backup Consolidation Happening

December 16, 2014

Merger news

CenturyLink grabbed Cognilytics

After 4 years of partnering with C-Link (Savvis) for DR-as-a-service, CenturyLink decided to acquire DataGardens. DG also white-labels its DRaaS to BCM and others.

Can You Find the Bestseller Effect?

December 16, 2014

In the world of telecom - T1's, broadband, WAN - we know who the buyer is and why he is buying - or we assume it based on experience. (Maybe we should stop assuming WHY they buy?) But in the world of IT that encompasses mobile apps, devices, cloud services and more, it is so much who the buyer is but why are they buying. Not why you are selling or what benefit your service provides, but why are THEY buying?

Many conversations I have with clients center around who to target.

4 Tips for the Busy Executive

December 11, 2014

I have a couple of prospective clients that keep delaying projects.

One really wants to do the project but the people aren't in place yet. The time isn't right. Is the time every really right?

What Will Consolidation Mean in 2015

December 11, 2014

Rob Powell has a good post collecting some of the M&A activity this year. He makes note that the Comcast-TWC-Charter transaction will create a $7B business CLEC. Seven billion dollar business is larger than Level3 (at $6.4B) or Windstream (with just under $6B) or even Frontier (whose $4.5B is mainly residential). Relatively, CenturyLink is doing $17B.

About Email Marketing

December 9, 2014

Mojo Marketing is blogging the 12 Days of Telecom Marketing! I was the guest blogger for Day 5 about Email Marketing.

In summary, when people see your email they shouldn't say, "What?! Another one from this guy!" They should say, "Oh, I wonder what he has to say."

More Money

December 5, 2014

In its series D round, Thinking Phones (formerly Thinking Phone Networks) raised a whopping $56.7 million in venture money to bring the total to $89 Million. (I think that is a record for VoIP, not counting IPO.)

I tried to find revenue numbers but they were not available.

TP bought Whaleback in August.

It Starts With Strategy

December 4, 2014

What we talked about today was tactics. How do I know? It's always tactics. It's always How do I quickly get customers. That is mainly tactical.

2 Items About Open Internet

December 3, 2014

Like Global Warming is a lousy label for Climate Change, Net Neutrality is a lousy label for Open Internet. But then Open Internet is not so great either. However, the reality remains that the general public -- and denizens of the telecom industry -- glaze over when anyone talks politics -- even if it means a danger to their own job! Sad really, which is why I have shied away from talking politics for months.

Connection Contradiction

December 3, 2014

Comcast conducted a survey in 2012 and again in 2014 about business connectivity.

Today, 4% less think connectivity is tactical and 3% less think it is strategic, but 7% MORE think it is Essential. (Taking out statistical relevance of a 5 point error either way, which would mean that they think of it about the same way now.)

For the most part, business owners do not buy based on these service results.

The Job Market is Hectic

December 1, 2014

Now that Level3 has officially eaten tw telecom, I assume layoffs have commenced, although I have not seen an announcement about them. Windstream let 350 workers go on Black Friday. With AT&T hoping to acquire DirecTV and the Comcast-TWC-Charter deal still in approval limbo, there are a plethora of layoffs coming in Q1 2015.

While observing the number of telecom execs exiting telecom for start-ups, solar, smart grid and other industries, I have to wonder if there are any opportunities left in telecom.

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