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“Peter possesses a keen sense and insight for turning telecom services and products into customers and dollars. He is passionate about this industry, his work and the people he serves. Visit his site, read his blog and sign up for his newsletter at marketingideaguy.com and you will discover what makes Peter a sought after marketing consultant.”

Cynthia de Lorenzi, CEO, Patriot Computer Group
Just Pointing It Out (part 644)
On Rad's Radar
Tuesday, 20 July 2010 13:24
We have a lot of good writers at TMC.  A lot of content gets produced here. So much info in fact that it's impossible to read it all. Thankfully TMC is SEO-ed to the max, which our advertisers, channel partners and readers love. 

Paula Bernier wrote in the May issue of the Internet Telephony magazine about a couple of news items. I wanted to comment on them here.

One is the Intelysis is one of the bigger master agents in the US. Others include Microcorp and TBI. All of the bigger master agencies throw an annual party. Top producers get rewarded at these events. Some do it bigger than others. All the masters are about the same: 30+ carrier relationships; from 300-1000 agents (active agents is a different stat); back office support; commission collection; and no quota for the sub-agent.  

It isn't about the party. (Although if they throw realloy big parties, maybe they aren't paying out enough commissions). It's about the master agency that best works for you because you will be glued to them for as long as you want that recurring commisison check. Pick wisely.

The other piece was about the TNCI Equity Plan. Not to beat this horse, but to give you an example of how this might play out, TMC was just bought out by Globalinx and a whopping 50 agents will see a cash equity pay out. That's all I'm saying. 
Read more... [Just Pointing It Out (part 644)]
 
FiberNet Changes Hands (Again)
On Rad's Radar
Tuesday, 20 July 2010 13:15

One Communications sold off its FiberNet holdings - 100,000access lines and about 3,500 route miles - to NTELOS, according to a press release. The price tag: "for cash consideration of approximately $170 million." Huh? What is that?

I'm translating this from the One CEO to mean we needed the cash or cash consideration:

""FiberNet and its dedicated employee team have been a valuable part of the One Communications family," said Howard Janzen, CEO of One Communications. "But I believe there is now a tremendous opportunity to create new possibilities for its customers, partners and employees as they begin a new chapter and draw on NTELOS' long history of providing exceptional telephone service in the region."

One should have made some kind of deal for access to NTELOS' cellular platform. Cellular is a piece that many companies are going to have to look at soon. (Ask Qwest). For no other reason than to push up ARPU and to get sticky by capturing more of the TTS (total telecom spend of the customer).
Read more... [FiberNet Changes Hands (Again)]
 
Really: PAETEC Sells Fixed Wireless
On Rad's Radar
Tuesday, 20 July 2010 11:54

While surfing, I came across this page from PAETEC about how it sells Fixed Wireless services. Fixed Wireless is not cellular. It's using radios and spectrun (mainly unlicensed spectrum) to connect a customer premise to the Internet or to another location.

In this case, PAETEC is using licensed spectrum to deliver from 20Mbps to 1Gig with "99.999% (or better) circuit availability". Really? Five Nines or better? 100% uptime? Even the PSTN can't do that any more.

"XO is the largest owner of LMDS spectrum (28-31Ghz) in the nation. NextLink, the wireless operation of XOHO, recently launched its broadband wireless services in Las Vegas and increased its wireless portfolio to 14 markets at the speed of covering 1 to 2 metro areas/month: Washington DC, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, Nashville, Chicago, Kansas City, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Huston, LA, Seattle, Phoenix, Las Vegas - already more than its almost only competitor in LMDS fixed wireless services, FiberTower (FTWR). The remaining large LMDS spectrum owner, Level 3 (LVLT), through its acquisition of Telecove, has so far no plan to use the spectrum, which may expire and become invalid if it is unutilized for certain time period." [seekingalpha]

Actually: "XO Communications has realigned its product offerings by integrating the Nextlink Wireless, Inc. broadband wireless products and services into the company's existing Business Services and Carrier Services business units." [xo.com]

My guess would be that PAETEC is using Dragonwave gear, considering this  press release, "PAETEC's Fixed Wireless uses carrier-grade microwave equipment and consultative engineering to build reliable 'last-mile' access loops between a customer network and a local PAETEC point of presence."

Why bother? It's very difficult to build and maintain a wireless network, unless it is your primary business. It is even more difficult to sell fixed wireless as a side business unless you are bundling it as a complete Disaster Recovery package (which they kind of do via a PDF).

Both PAETEC and XO are a smorgasbord of services wrapped under an umbrella holding company. The ILEC is trying to be all things to all people - TV, ISP, MSP, SAAS, data center, transport, transit, and oh yeah voice. It isn't working for them either. What's your brand? What's your Identity? I leave you with that.
Read more... [Really: PAETEC Sells Fixed Wireless]
 
Not Exactly the Way to Sell SIP
On Rad's Radar
Tuesday, 20 July 2010 09:00
XO announced a SIP Savings Estimator Tool in order to help sell their SIP offerings. I understand why they do this: Bell-heads only know how to sell on price.

In my head, why bother? Just keep selling PRI - SIP to the customer premise then PRI signaling into the box. It's what all the CLEC's are doing. Try to find a TDM PRI or a TDM Dedicated LD T1. 

By taking 2 PRI's and hanging the customer 1 SIP Trunk, you are taking money off the table. You are contributing to lost revenue. 

LD minutes, Internet bandwidth and now T1's are so low that it is a challenge for an Agent to make a living selling them. Even more challenging: CLEC's being able to survive by constantly reducing revenue because they are not reducing any other cost factors. Debt load and interest payments are actually increasing, not decreasing. Wait for 2013! 

Cost to deliver service is not shrinking. (AT&T is raising Special Access circuits pricing). CAPEX (capital expenditure) for each sale consists of ILEC install costs, customer hardware, and other costs. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that constantly reducing revenue while most other costs remain fixed (or at least don't drop as fast) is a disaster waiting to happen.

The high margin sale is face-to-face Consultative Selling, whereby you understand what you are selling and the needs of the prospective business. Matching that up results in a win-win.

At CVX I will be moderating a panel about Upselling SIP with Broadvox and Vidtel where we will be discussing how to use SIP as a stepping stone to a sticky and profitable bundle. Net-heads will get it.
Read more... [Not Exactly the Way to Sell SIP]
 
MagicJack Merges With VocalTec
On Rad's Radar
Friday, 16 July 2010 11:28

Rob Powell did some excellent reporting on this merger HERE.

VocalTec Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq:VOCL) is the inventor of VOIP and the softphone. It's a patent house of about 30 patents. VocalTec just merged with YMAX.

YMAX owns Stratus Telecommunications, which is a VoIP softswitch platform with OSS built-in. Stratus powers MagicJack, which YMAX also owns. So Vocaltec just merged with MagicJack.

Here's the scary part: "VocalTec expects to have revenues ranging from $110 million to $125 million this year. With over $40 million cash/securities on hand and no debt." WOW! How many other VoIP companies can say that? Not very many (as he counts on his fingers).

The corrected press release was interesting as it tries to spell out why the company should have a market cap of $245M.
Read more... [MagicJack Merges With VocalTec]
 
For All You iPhone People
On Rad's Radar
Friday, 16 July 2010 11:11
"A federal class-action lawsuit will move forward against Apple (AAPL) and AT&T (T) for "locking" iPhones to AT&T's network, and Apple's control over which apps can be installed on the owner's phone." I tend to agree with Seeking Alpha that I side with the consumer and innovation.

If Apple and AT&T want to control the whole phone (or VZW for that matter), then rent the phone like you used to that big ugly black house phone.

 

bell-phone.jpg

More importantly: take it back and recycle it when the contract is up. Right now, I buy a phone, usually subsidized, but at the end I'm left with a phone that isn't much use. It is locked to a specific carrier network. Recycling it is very challenging. (If it isn't let me know, I have 2 complete phone kits in my closet). And they are piling up in landfills. Carriers don't even have a trade-in program like car dealers do.
Read more... [For All You iPhone People]
 
Too Many Terms (Mini Glossary)
On Rad's Radar
Friday, 16 July 2010 10:00

I use a lot of terms in my writing. I figured I would explain a few of them today, since someone asked nicely.

Agent is a member of the Indirect Channel. Also called a channel partner. An agent is an independent sales person for the carrier or vendor. Agents get paid a commission for closed sales. Agents may or may not work through a Master Agent. A Master Agent gets a big contract with a carrier, so that other agents can sell off it and get paid. Today, Master Agencies need to be more like the back-office partner for independent agents, so that the indie agent can just sell and stay in front of customers, without having to jump through a thousand hoops to place a single MIS order. (Do you hear me Ma Bell?)

VAR's are value-added resellers. Originally, this meant folks who built computer systems. Now, it means the company that you buy your computer and network hardware from, who also do maintenance, installation, and other value-added services, like back-up, hosting and more.

Managed Services are anything that you outsource like computer maintenance, router monitoring, IDS/firewall monitoring. MSP World at ITEXPO in October in LA will showcase some of the most progressive MSP's in North America. This show is in run by MSPAlliance. (MSPMentor writes about everything MSP. The VAR Guy may say VAR, but the blog leans towards Managed Services, probably because they are both owned by the same media company).

SI's are systems integrators. In the days when Novell was tops (and believe me nothing could stand up to Novell 3.12 server), SI's were the guys that would take various databases and systems and tie it all together. So if you were migrating from IBM DB2 to MySQL and adding web capability, you would get an SI. I guess today, they are web dev folks or consultants or something else because I haven't seen anyone call themselves an SI in a while.

In the CLEC world, a reseller is a company like Access2Go or PNG. These companies just rebill circuits from other carriers. PNG used to be Qwest's biggest wholesale customer and Access2Go resells AT&T.  GTT is being called an VNO - virtual network operator - but it just rebills circuits. 

Tech Data, Ingram Micro, CDW, ScanSource, NETX are distributors of hardware. You want Cisco gear, you can't get it directly from Cisco. You have to buy it through a distributor. The distributor is the one-stop shop for the build-out: phones, switches, cables, widgets, router, IAD, licenses, etc.  VARs and MSP's (and MCP's) all buy from distributors.
Read more... [Too Many Terms (Mini Glossary)]
 
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