There are always lists. Everybody comes up with Top 10, Top 5, Best of, blah, blah, blah. What does the list actually mean though?

For years I have heard about the JD Power awards, but have no idea what the criteria for winning one is. I know they survey people, but I have never been surveyed. How many do they talk to? Is it even enough of a cross-section to be statistically valid? We have 330 million people in the US, talking to 300 is insignificant for a mass market. Just saying.

ABI Research released the North American Hosted VoIP and Unified Communications Service Providers Matrix. (Yeah. That's what I said.) "This Matrix evaluates these service providers on the basis of "Innovation" and "Implementation" as a means of providing an impartial assessment of the service provider landscape from the standpoint of technological prowess and business execution."

So did they look at at least 10% of the 1100 VoIP Providers in the US? Probably not. The Top 10 is interesting. VZ is # 1 due to global reach in both UC and VoIP. We were scratching our heads because the 2 Bells on this list are the hardest carriers to work with - and both Bells have sent out notices that FOC dates don't mean anything right now. So Implementation? And Innovation? In what way is VZ innovative? FiOS maybe. So they were picked due to FiOS VoIP Phone service, a straight POTS replacement? Huh?

The other Bell, Ma, 5th. No idea why since they scrapped CallVantage. Now its the wholesale AVOICS or enterprise DNA. Again Implementation and Innovation? Really?

I can see NGT even though they were bought by Comcast a while go. I can even see SmoothStone, 8×8 and Cox. Alteva has uniquely positioned themselves with Microsoft Linc, so I can see that as a nod. Yet, no M5, even though Cypress gets a nod? Unless it is innovation for using Nortel C4 as your switch. Thinking Phone Networks and Broadview Networks were surprises because you don't see that much press about them.

To me, it's just a list, or more precisely, someone's opinion.