Tony Robbins did some one on one coaching of young business owners who won a Shopify contest.  See some of it HERE. Some more of it made its way to the Business Insider channel on Amazon Prime video.

You should ask yourself these same questions that Tony asked:

1. What is your greatest competitive advantage?
2. Where do you think you are in the life cycle of your business?
3. Who is your ideal client?
4. Do you have a business plan for 2019?
5. Are you having fun?
6. What is your focus?

FISPA grew by being a volume buying group (mainly for BellSouth, later AT&T and then some cable programs). However, most programs are shifting away from wholesale and volume buying. AT&T is pushing either the APEX program for each service provider or a commercial agreement.

The ISPs want a true wholesale program to resell cable, DSL and fiber as their own. This has been the desire of ISPs since 1999 when DSL hit the market. This is at odds with the desire of the Duopoly. Neither cable nor ILEC want to resell their network for wholesale rates to ISPs. The Duopoly wants to own the customer; same as the ISP does.

As I have said many times before, Layer 1 or Layer 7. Either build your own network – fiber, wireless, whatever – or bundle better! SaaS providers have a higher multiple on exits than telcos or service providers.

ISPs like the simple business plan of re-billing someone else’s network. I get it, but that model is coming to an end.

The current FCC UNE Forbearance petition by the USTA (ILECs) says that copper is going away. Facilities-based CLECs are in danger after the sunset of UNE, since prices will increase 15% at least — and who has an extra 15% margin??? Not many when the main selling point is price.

Layer 7 means Bundle Better. You need a triple play or quad play that is NOT the same as the Duopoly.

I’ve written about bundling before many times. I can just assume that everyone likes just being a smaller replica of the big guys with the motto, “We suck less.”

Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple (GAFA) have more value than any Duopoly company – maybe the 4 GAFA have more market value than all 10 duopoly providers. They did it without becoming ISPs — except Google who did the Google Fiber project to force the Duopoly’s hand.

You can to.

My buddy at MOJO offers a Telecom Marketing Plan and Budget Template.

UC Service Providers are looking at SMBs Wrong according to Edgewater Networks. The study identifies 4 segments of the SMB market. Companies with fewer than 20 employees; 20-49; 50-99; 100-500. I look at that differently: 1-4; 5-10; 11-20; 20-49; 50-99; 100-199; 200-500. Each has different sales triggers and needs. Market accordingly.

GDPR is Upon Us.

One-in-five employees is now willing to sacrifice future pay increases for better healthcare benefits, according to a recent PwC survey.

FreedomPop to Offer $15 Unlimited Cellular Data Under ‘Unreal’ Brand. FreedomPOP is an MVNO on Sprint. “FreedomPop’s platform is enabling large companies like Dish to launch new MVNO brands in months.”

“Digging into the results, cable industry customers were increasingly dissatisfied compared to 2017 with picture quality, helpfulness of staff, frequency of service interruptions, and call center assistance,” according to Fortune.

REMINDER:

UNE Forbearance petition at the FCC by USTA – FCC WC Docket No. 18-141 (Comments or Oppositions Due: June 7, 2018) – see HERE and HERE

Keatings Communications (in JAX FL) Offers Schools Lockdown Alert System Free With Purchase of New Phone System [press]

Schumer: Broadband is a Utility That May Require Price Caps [DSLR]

Windstream Sheds Some Details on Its Fixed Wireless Plans via CAF-II [DSLR]

FCC Poised to Free Up 2.5 GHz EBS Spectrum for Broadband, Primarily in Rural Areas [Telecomp]

Comcast this week launched a campaign that links Internet Essentials, its high-speed internet adoption initiative for low-income households, with members of the Conference of Western Attorneys General and focuses on online safety for seniors, parents and children. [Multichannel]

Telcos tapping into Flytxt’s AI-driven marketing automation software for customer satisfaction, profitability
[Fierce]

A report by IHS Markit found that 75% of the service provider respondents said that enhancing customer experience was their top digital transformation project, followed by automation (44%) and cloudification (38%). [Fierce]

The primary reason people are leaving cable is cost. The user experience issue is secondary. Exhibit A: the 5,000% increase in broadcast re-transmission licensing fees over the last 11 years. [Fierce]

Can the FTC Regulate Broadband? [NO]

Lead Gen tips by MOJO

USTelecom (the mouthpiece for the ILECs) has petitioned the FCC for Forbearance on UNEs.

USTelecom pushes to End Unbundling (UNE access under the Telecom Act of 1996)

USTelecom Says Telecom Unbundling Regulations are Outmoded; Competitors Say They Need Those UNEs.

The UNEs are used to offer POTS, T1, PRI, any flavor of DSL and Ethernet over Copper. (This could be a gut punch to GTT that bought Global Capacity). This will affect so many consumers and businesses.

The small problem is that most CLECs have either pivoted or gone out of business (or been acquired). Not certain how many are left to fight this.

The USTelecom petition is HERE.

The comment period was just published by the FCC HERE.

WC Docket No. 18-141

Comments or Oppositions Due: June 7, 2018

Reply Comments Due: June 22, 2018

Comment here

Might be a good time to comment and join INCOMPAS to lobby for your UNE.