So this article is pretty good about Training, adoption and corporate culture are important to UC deployments.

I just starting reading Starts With Why by Simon Sinek, a good book on leadership.

The world of wireless will be interesting in 2014. Spectrum crunch, huge build-outs and a price war will highlight the year.

The spectrum crunch is what CTIA talks about. If that was the case, why haven’t these cellcos deployed all their available spectrum then? T-Mobile just paid $2.4B in cash and swapped AWS and PCS licenses for VZW’s 700 MHz A block. That means that all of these cellcos HAVE spectrum that they have NOT deployed yet. And with a new auction coming up (likely in 2015). See this one slide about the spectrum swap.

When Softbank bought 80% of Sprint (and Clearwire), Softbank wanted the best network built. That will take a lot of cash (especially since Sprint’s current 4G network is awful). The capital expenditures in building out 4G (and 5G) networks for the big 4 – T-Mobile, Sprint, VZW and Ma Bell – will require a lot of money. A LOT! Add in the DISH Network spectrum and LightSquared’s spectrum going into a possible 5th national grid and we are talking even more billions.

If DISH was smart, it would work the Rural Wireless Association or the Competitive Carriers Association to build out. But that’s just me thinking aloud.

DISH got a nice letter from the FCC about use of the spectrum it owns. DISH can use it for broadband. And DISH will bid over $1 Billion for the H block spectrum. It is also in a fight for LightSquared spectrum, which is in bankruptcy court.

Finally, we have a price war starting. While M2M and the Internet of Things will add devices to the network, ARPU can’t go up fast enough to pay for the network builds, the spectrum, the maintenance, tower rental and the backhaul.

BTW, if you want to join the insiders’ club for wireless, join PCIA. Look who the members are – ATT, DISH, everyone!.

PS, the NCTA and the RWA put on an event with CES in Vegas (now): The Wireless Symposium. The name: Build Wireless Now makes me laugh. Get on that.

The other event to watch is the fight over CAF funds. The ILECs – ATT, Frontier, C-Link – are in a battle with fixed wireless and satellite providers over the broadband map and over-building with government funds. That should be an interesting battle.

My dance card is already busy for 2014. Here’s where you can find me in Q1 2014.

I will be speaking at FISPA Live in Nashville on Feb. 19-21. If you are a CLEC, you should probably attend. If you have questions about fiber builds or telecom operations, you should attend. In all my years of being involved with FISPA, I can only recall a couple of times where the attendees ever didn’t think attending was worthwhile. (I’m not certain those folks are still in the business.)

I will be speaking at ITEXPO East in Miami Beach.

• Differentiation Through a Customer-Centric Cloud Approach – on Thur., Jan. 30, 2014 @ 2:30-3:15pm
• Doubling Your Sales in Telecom with Mojo Angela! – on Wed., Jan. 29, 2014 @ 9:00-9:45am (This was standing room only in Vegas at 9 am!!!)

And also I will be speaking at Channel Vision Expo in Miami Beach:

• Top tech Trends for 2015, yes, 2015! – on Thur., Jan. 30 @ 11:30.

If you want to meet up, get coffee or do an interview for the blog, let’s get it on the schedule now.

Also, I am still provisioning circuits – so if you need Internet bandwidth, transport, MPLS, colocation, VoIP or anything else telecom related, let me know. Thank you. Best wishes for a prosperous new year!

One of the reasons to use CRM is so that everyone has access to customer information in order to better serve your customers. One database of knowledge about every client is an asset to your business and for service.

If you want to sell your business, you will need a customer management system in place to pull sales and contract information for potential buyers, investors or even in some cases banks.

Here are 3 open source CRM tools: opebCRX, CiviCRM, and Zurmo. Zoho currently offers a limited free version for up to 3 users. Of course, if you are Microsoft shop, you have access to Dynamics, but in many cases that will be overkill.

Thanks for reading! Best wishes for a healthy and happy new year! see you in January.

from Gaping Void