There was a session about CLEC versus ITSP (VoIP provider). Many ISPs became ITSPs, then have gone on to get their CLEC license. What should you do?

8×8 is not a CLEC. RingCentral is a CLEC (at least in TX under the name RCLEC.) So there isn’t really a hard and fast rule.

When deciding to get your CLEC license, there should be a business plan wrapped around it. Why do you want it?

Without a doubt, the number one reason is control. No more depending upon Level3 or other CLEC for LPN (porting numbers) and DIDs (phone numbers). As a CLEC, you can set up your infrastructure to get your own numbers from NANPA and can perform your own LNP. It’s a hassle, but it is doable.

The other big reason many FISPA members are getting a CLEC license is ROW (right of way). They use ROW to put in their own fiber either buried or aerial. Building out your own fiber fits in to my Layer 1 or Layer 7 rule.

Other reasons include access to UNE in order to offer EoC, VDSL, ADSL2+ on your own gear. But then you are moving from OTT VoIP provider to network operator and VoIP provider. Other skills are required; you are relying on the ILEC for plant and repair; and you are dealing with ILEC billing.

The key is to determine why you would want the CLEC license. What does your business plan need for success?

Nice post by Rich from TMC/ITEXPO today about how the premise PBX – the main revenue of MITEL, Shoretel, Avaya, Toshiba, Zultys and several others – is being squeezed by at least 4 factors – open source, Microsoft, Cisco and cloud. Rich sees more of the Enterprise market than I do.

I can tell you that Enterprise is adopting and talking about Lync. I mean they get it included in Office365. I would never use it as a PBX replacement but then I’m not a CIO at a Fortune 5000 or Private 5000 or Global 5000 company. Yet each roll out is 10K plus seats – most cloud PBX providers would kill for an average of half that!

You will need to have a story about Why Your PBX solution instead of Microsoft, instead of Cisco, instead of Lync. (3 stories, go!)

And you will need to be able to explain why not just use FreePBX or Asterisk…. For those of you using Asterisk of FreePBX under the hood, that will be a tough one.

For some of you, this will be a challenging exercise, but that is good. It will make you think. It will make you examine your own offering. It will help you flesh out your message to your marketplace. Take the time – set an appointment with some of your staff – to do this exercise. (No appointment, not likely to get done.)

And if it too hard to craft the message, talk to some customers. If it is still hard, add something to the offering to make it stand out.

I remember when there were just 4 data centers in Tampa – Morgan St., the beer can building (400 N Ashley), Qwest’s Cyber Center and 655 N. Franklin Street (old Switch and Data facility and Hostway POP). Now, there are a number of them including 3 Peak 10 facilities in Tampa, DMS in Lakeland, Colo5 in Winter Haven and a couple of others before you get to Atlantic.Net’s colo in East Orlando (almost Altamonte Springs).

And that’s just Tampa. QTS just opened one in Richmond (to go with Wichita, Overland Park, Topeka, Miami, Suwanee, Santa Clara, Sacramento, jersey City – you get the idea.) Ascent is building a new data center in St. Louis.

Data Foundry opened one in Houston and one in Austin Texas.

All of the big carriers have bought data centers. Windstream bought Hosted Solutions in 2010. TW Cable bought Navisite. Cbeyond bought MaximumASP. Verizon acquired Terremark (aka NAP);
CenturyLink grabbed Savvis (and may be Rackspace soon). CincinnatiBell has Cyrus One. TDS (which is a smaller WIND) has made many small acquisitions including HMS, VISI and Bend Broadband. Data Center space is booming. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon have all built big data centers throughout the US. The NSA built a massive data center in Utah.

Coresite, Fibermedia, Latisys, Peer1, QTS, Telx, ViaWest are just a few of the big names. If you need colocation, data center, IAAS, PAAS, or VPS, call our office (813) 963-5884. We have helped many service providers and enterprises with their data center projects.

Doug is all excited because a cable company has finally rolled out HD Voice. Doug has been waiting for HD Voice for a long time. Finally, Cablevision’s Optimum service will be launching consumer HD Voice.

Doug hates when I say this but HD Voice is a lot like Fax over IP. It only works within a network operator’s network. Those inter-connection points are where all things go to die – fax, codecs, HD, video, etc. (I have even seen where G.711 and G.729 exchanges don’t work.)

A long time ago, during the Arbinet and Voice Peering Fabric days, all carriers should have joined exchanges to allow for better FoIP and HDV (and video), but those were still the heady days of inter-carrier compensation (that kept quite a few CLEcs afloat). It would be different today, since there isn’t any ICC.

HD Voice is one way to distinguish your service – and during a Demo HD is a lot better than cell phone quality.

The other Cablevision division, Lightpath, added video conferencing to its managed services portfolio.

Hugh MacLeod’s cartoon today was about Consultants. There are many types of Consultants. I am not the kind looking to convert a project into a W-2 (employee).

“The most common killer of change management projects is lack of follow-through. Consultants come in, they write up a bunch of nice looking reports…and then they leave. Nothing against them, but that’s just how the gig goes,” Hugh writes. I don’t usually hand in a report. I usually take a project where I get to execute the report, usually with the asisstance of employees of my client company. That in itself is usually tricky because employees mistrust consultants. And consultants usually don’t have the authority to do much. Conjole, negotiate, explain, demonstrate, befriend employees to join up and affect change, but no real authority. It’s a problem (that I am actually face today). Employees who won’t meet with me; employees who want to complain but not take any responsibility or make any hard decisions. You can’t affect change that way.

“Change fails when companies treat it like an emergency room visit. Run the sirens a bit, stop the bleed, send everyone home.” Change is about the Urgent, the loudest, the right now. Change happens when you focus on the Important, the Goal, and yes, even on the Outcome.

If you spend all day putting out fires, you don’t actually get to catch the firebug who is starting the fires, right?

It isn’t about the symptoms, but the underlying disease.

At the end of the day, I want a win-win. I want happy clients, growing their business. Happy clients make the best referrals.