I am sure you have read about the Heartbleed SSL exploit that the NSA used and so did a bunch of hackers. Oops!

It is a great time to remind your customers and market about password security and best practices.

Lifetime value of the Customer is a huge metric. Seth Godin has a blog today talking about how each customer has a lifetime value and is a media publisher (PR machine).

Seth talks about HP’s poor customer service and CS disconnects that affect the customer relationship. Great read.

The grand experiment of new companies getting into the broadband space via government money is coming to a close I think. In Florida, we had some middle mile winners escape to South America with the money – and no network build. Now in Illinois, Cincinnati-based Gigabit Squared is being asked to account for its $2 million loan.

“Gigabit Squared is turning into a saga that’s perhaps more aptly titled Gigabit Screwed. In the latest chapter, the president and co-founder of the company, Mark Ansboury, confirmed that’s he’s parting ways with the Cincinnati, Ohio-based broadband Internet provider.” [Geekwire report]

Engadget has details on Gigabit Squared’s project in Seattle that is dead in the water with GSQ owing the city about $52K. Seattle itself wrote an update on the FTTH project that GSQ was working on here. These 2 failures are from 2014.

Gigabit Squared had secured funding of $200 million from private placement from businesses and then added money from municipalities. GSQ chose 6 cities in 2012. And then much like Google Fiber, a lot of noise but no actual network.

Gigabit Squared is a digital economic development corporation specializing in the planning, implementation and roll-out of IT-enabled infrastructure. <– awesome marketing; good PR; and like many CLECs, an awesome ability to get funding – followed by poor execution.

BTW, AT&T is going Gigabit in NC in 6 cities in the Triangle and Triad.

The Top 13 IP backbones in 2013 by Renesys are:

• Level3 (both as L3 and GC)
• NTT
• Telia Sonera
• GTT
• Cogent
• Tata
• Sprint
• Verizon
• Tele Italia Sparkle
• PCCW
• China Telecom
• XO
• HE

These are big changes from 2006: In 2006, Renesys’ “top 13 providers were Sprint, Level 3, Verizon, Savvis, AT&T, NTT, Global Crossing, Qwest, TeliaSonera, Tata, AboveNet, Cogent and Telecom Italia, in that order. During the subsequent eight years, Sprint fell from #1 to #7, Verizon declined from #3 to #8, and AT&T left the Baker’s Dozen entirely, tumbling from #5 to #14. In 2012, AboveNet (formerly #11) was acquired by Zayo Group and now ranks #26 globally, just behind France Telecom.” Savvis & Qwest got bought by CenturyLink. Global Crossing was acquired by Level3.

GTT is interesting. GTT
operates “a global Tier 1 IP network with one of the most interconnected Ethernet service platforms around the world.” GTT has about 2,000 customers in over 100 countries. They just floated stock for $200 million.

If you need Internet bandwidth from these or any carrier, please contact RAD-INFO INC for a quote and provisioning. 813-963-5884

Sales is about Trust. It’s about Win-Win. It’s about making friends. Friendly goes a long way.

When you look past the Customer, at the sale, you’ve lost focus. The Focus is on the Customer.