Global PBX/IP PBX market declines by 3% in Q2 2012

“The corded PBX market (excluding micro PBX products) declined by 3% year-on-year in Q2 2012 (period April to June 2012 inclusive), driven by a 6% year-on-year volume decline in the below 100 extensions market, while the above 100 Extensions market stagnated ending flat year-on-year, according to the latest figures released by MZA,” the article explains.

MZA reports that Cisco at 14%; Avaya at 12%; NEC at 11%; Panasonic at 10% of global market share of premise based IP-PBX in >100 extensions in 2Q2012, which was similar to last year.

In less than 100 extensions, Panasonic supplanted NEC, the Q2 2011 market leader.

“North America continued to dominate the market for IP deployments with just under two million extensions deployed to the desktop this quarter…Analysts at MZA say this accounted for an IP extension penetration rate of 65% into total extensions for North America, by far the highest rate globally.”

VOIP AND UC SERVICES MARKET HIGHLIGHTS by INFONETICS

“Infonetics predicts a cumulative $377 billion will be spent on business and residential/SOHO VoIP services over the 5 years from 2012 to 2016, driven primarily by SIP trunking and hosted VoIP/UC services.” I have no idea if that means $75 B per year on average or it will reach $377B in 5 years. Probably the $75B average.

“NTT, the perennial leader of residential VoIP market, topped 14 million subscribers in 2Q12” – globally obviously.

“Roughly 15%–20% of all new IP PBX lines sold are part of a managed service or outsourced contract, making managed IP PBX the largest segment of business VoIP services.” WIND and TDS offer managed PBX.

Global “SIP trunking revenue grew 23% in the first half of 2012 compared to the second half of 2011, led by strong activity in North America.”

Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC.
Service Providers have called on RAD-INFO INC for assistance building a channel, improving sales, managing online marketing efforts, and overall company strategy.
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Sprint is looking at a buy out from Softbank, a Japanese mobile carrier. I guess they are not counter-bidding on MetroPCS against T-Mobile.

CenturyLink tried to float a $1 Billion bond, but rumor of it acquiring twt sent its stock down. Bond and take-over shelved; banks cried over their martinis and gold cuff-links.

A company that was on my panel, DoubleHorn Communications, “announced a virtualized solution that bundles SIP trunking and enterprise-grade Session Border Controllers (SBC). … The virtualized solution delivers ‘one click’ SIP trunk provisioning with elastic capacity for providers and enterprises needing secure, interoperable and tightly integrated session-based communications with Unified Communications (UC) providers such as MicroSoft Lync.”

An interesting cloud service from Zoho: “Password Manager Pro by ManageEngine is a secure vault for storing and managing shared sensitive information such as passwords, documents and digital identities of enterprises.”

Want a cool business card? Moo cards now has NFC installed in your business card! “In short, an NFC enabled Business Card is a regular Business Card, with a tiny microchip and antenna embedded inside the paper that can transmit data from itself to a mobile phone which is also NFC ready, when they are tapped together.”

The new CEO of Yahoo has a 3-year 21-page strategy for the company. One that stands out: “Delight our customers!” Take note.

Sprint Launches StarStar Me To Replace Your Phone Number With Your Name

Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC.
Service Providers have called on RAD-INFO INC for assistance building a channel, improving sales, managing online marketing efforts, and overall company strategy.
Contact RAD-INFO INC at 813-963-5884 or https://rad-info.net

In Chicago, we spoke about added fees and how to collect taxes, USF and fees. Now, we see the last major MSO adding a modem fee.

“Directly on the heels of Time Warner Cable charging their customers a new $2.95 modem rental fee, Bright House Communications has started charging a modem rental fee of their own. The company started informing customers September 15 that starting October 1, Bright House would be charging customers a $2 “maintenance & rental” fee. Bright House insists the fee helps cover the installation, service and support of the modem.”

It’s okay to collect for fees and taxes as long as you are transparent about it. But consumers are getting tired of being nickeled and dimed to boost revenue. It’s a balance. It certainly helps when all the other service providers do it too.

Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC.
Service Providers have called on RAD-INFO INC for assistance building a channel, improving sales, managing online marketing efforts, and overall company strategy.
Contact RAD-INFO INC at 813-963-5884 or https://rad-info.net

T-mobile parent is in talks for MetroPCS – and MetroPCS confirms talks! This might be to spark more action from Sprint, who it has been said was talking to MetroPCS.

Overheard at ITEXPO: Level3 being bought by Comcast now that the CLEC-cable ban has been lifted by the FCC. For Comcast, Level3’s debt is just a rounding error – but the video pieces of L3 via Vyvx make it attractive to Comcast who now owns NBCU.

Rumor at ITEXPO is that CenturyLink is in talks with twt. I didn’t see either of those happening.

Folks who would like to be bought: XO, MetroPCS, Leap, Cbeyond, and a bunch of others.

Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC.
Service Providers have called on RAD-INFO INC for assistance building a channel, improving sales, managing online marketing efforts, and overall company strategy.
Contact RAD-INFO INC at 813-963-5884 or https://rad-info.net

Remember Helio? It was EarthLink’s joint venture MVNO with SK Telecom. It sold to Virgin Mobile USA with less than 200K subs for $39M in equity (no cash, all stock). Sprint bought Virgin Mobile USA in 2009. Disney had an MVNO that failed around the same time, too.

TracFone is owned by America Movil, “leasing space from AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile, among others.” TracFone just bought out T-Mobile’s MVNO, Simple Mobile.

UltraMobile is about to launch as an MVNO on T-Mobile. 1GB of data for $49, including talk and text. Roaming and cell-to-wireline calls are usually extra on MVNO plans.

Another MVNO on the T-Mobile network is trying the MLM approach. “Solavei is making its official debut Friday, already armed with 25,000 customers ready to spread the word about its unlimited, social network-driven mobile service on T-Mobile USA ‘s network.” It uses T-Mobile USA’s HPSA+ network and unlocked GSM phones (swap out SIM card). “The mobile virtual network operator (MVNO)’s contract-free service shakes up the business model for mobile, rewarding subscribers with cash for each additional subscriber they recruit to the service. After a $49 sign-up fee, subscribers pay a flat fee of $49 per month for unlimited data on any unlocked GSM phone, while racking up money if they choose to bring more people on board,” writes Light Reading.

They aren’t alone in this space: Lightyear Wireless sells this way and WOW (not the cable guys). MLM is seen as a way to keep marketing and customer acquisition costs down or at least fixed.

There are other MVNO’s out there besides these, Ting and Republic Wireless – all trying to come up with an angle.

EarthLink is back in the MVNO mix with a new deal with Clearwire for 4G. I wonder if they get that in WiMax or LTE flavor?

Accel Networks is just a reseller of 4G data on the big 3 networks. And there a number of companies that resell 3G/4G for broadband backup.

Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC.
Service Providers have called on RAD-INFO INC for assistance building a channel, improving sales, managing online marketing efforts, and overall company strategy.
Contact RAD-INFO INC at 813-963-5884 or https://rad-info.net