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On the Channel Hamster Wheel with PlumUC

Greg Plum of PlumUC and I had a 10 minute chat about the channel. Plum has been spending a good amount of time with MIcrosoft partners, a different segment of the channel from where I spend my days.

Why aren’t more channel partners selling conferencing, Office365, cloud? The Hamster Wheel!

If you can’t see the flash podcast player, you can either download the mp3 here or you can listen on SoundCloud here.

Tags: agents, channel partners, conferencing, microsoft, podcast
Related tags: hamster wheel, channel

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Data Center Outlook for 2016 – Jan 06, 2016

A Chat with IPR’s Channel Chief – Sep 22, 2014

Channel Programs Have Changed – Nov 29, 2013

Tough Talk About the Channel – VARs and Agents – Oct 31, 2012

The Alternate to Cloud – Aug 15, 2012

Are VAR’s the New Agent? – May 27, 2011

A Revolutionary Agent – Feb 17, 2011

4 Opportunities for Agents – Oct 18, 2010

Top 3 Reasons its Hard to Sell SAAS – Mar 14, 2009

RAD Rant on Channel Marketing – Dec 01, 2015

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January 11, 2016 , On Rad's Radar

Data Center Outlook for 2016

In this 14 minute podcast with COLOTRAQ CEO Dany Bouchedid, we look at the data center space as we start off 2016. There are differences among colocation, enterprise data center and service provider data center. Lastly we mention how agents can make money in this hot space.

If you can’t see the flash player or are on iOS or just want to use another player, download the mp3 HERE or go to Soundcloud to listen.

Tags: agents, channel partners, cloud computing, cloud services broker, collocation, data center, podcast
Related tags: center

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Savvis Changes Comp Plan – Jan 10, 2012

COLOTRAQ Talking About DCI-TRAQ – Aug 31, 2015

IPR Secure’s Channel Chief on Merger and More – Mar 06, 2015

CPZ: Cloud Analogy – Sep 12, 2013

Will 2013 Be the Year of the Broker? – Dec 27, 2012

Tough Talk About the Channel – VARs and Agents – Oct 31, 2012

Good News from CenturyLink Channel – Jul 10, 2012

Correction: Savvis Comp – Feb 03, 2012

End Caps – Jan 21, 2012

The Inexpensive Cloud – Apr 21, 2011

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January 6, 2016 , On Rad's Radar

CTI Group Acquired

Call recording company, CTI Group was acquired by Canadian enterprise software company, Enghouse for $0.61 per share or about $18 million.

Enghouse took over leadership of CTI on December 7th. And started cutting immediately. CEO Fred Hanuschek is out along with people from various departments. The new VP of Sales is from Enghouse, Madhav Malhotra, based in Toronto.

Orec-X has been putting the pressure on CTI in the call recording space for BSFT users, but one client told me this morning that CTI recently cut pricing significantly.

I wonder if Enghouse wants to package their stuff like Oracle was thinking when it bought Acme Packet for $2 B in 2013.

Tags: broadsoft, mergers, voip
Related tags: group acquired, enghouse

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Vonage Picks Up Another One – Aug 20, 2015

An Afternoon of VoIP News – Aug 05, 2015

Vonage Buys Simple Signal – Mar 17, 2015

Is Oracle Coming for Broadsoft? – Nov 21, 2013

And So The New Year Starts – Jan 02, 2012

The Latest in VoIP Updates – Sep 19, 2011

Hosted VoIP Valuations – Jul 25, 2011

Geckotech Acquired by M5 – Nov 04, 2010

Broadvox and Cypress: What Now? – Oct 17, 2010

Broadvox Inks Deal to Acquire Cypress – Oct 13, 2010

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January 6, 2016 , On Rad's Radar

Telco Troubles, Clec Version

You forget how many CLECs there are in the US until you check a PUC list like Texas.

The big names in the channel are Birch, Level3, Zayo, EarthLink, TelePacific, XO, WIND, Integra, Mettel, Granite, Bullseye, C-Link, AireSpring, Broadview, GTT. Lot of varying business models in that list alone.

The copper retirement issue is front and center for CLECs (see this Fierce piece). So what happens when the CLECs ink a customer;, order copper; fight the ILEC; finally turn up EoC for the customer; fix the EoC so the customer gets speeds it purchased;and then the retirement notice comes in with 30 days. What happens next?

Many CLECs buy from the APEX program at AT&T. Basically we have come full circle as we are back to UNE-P. In UNE-P, the entire product (for voice) came from the ILEC. The CLEC was just sales, marketing and re-billing. Then UNE-P went away. So did many CLECs. Some went facilities based, filling up central offices with gear to offer DSL, voice, T1s and EoC.

Now we are back at the CLEC just reselling the AT&T product, whether that is as a mobile MVNO or as ASE (ethernet over fiber product) or straight DIA resale. Margins go back to being slim. CLECs are just sales and marketing.

The big difference this time isn’t just data being the primary product instead of voice. The big difference is that the price of bandwidth keeps dropping, faster than the contract length.

EarthLink is one of the few CLECs who have really tried to pivot. Execution is everything though.

Icahn put some money into XO finally to beef up old network parts. It isn’t likely that this was just lipstick on a pig because no one thinks Carl will actually sell XO.

Level3 seemed to right its financial ship with the TWT purchase. Yeah! Finally. We will see how long that lasts as again pricing pressure will have a ripple effect.

Zayo seems to have the magic touch right now. Congrats, Dan! They churn people because most don’t like the meat grinder atmosphere but it is getting results. As they buy Allstream in Canada and Latisys, Onvoy gets bought by PE firm, GTCR.

The jury is out o GTT. We’ll watch them in 2016.

Bullseye, Granite, Mettel and Birch are all taking paths away from POTS. They better hurry. Time is running out. Also, deals with Frontier are harder than deals with the RBOCs.

The cloud and fiber are the only saving grace to CLECs. It is a huge change of direction, especially for sales. There are other interesting avenues to pursue and other ways to pivot that could work, including going vertical instead of horizontal.

We’ll see what the year brings.

Tags: att, clec, copper, mergers, wireline
Related tags: sales marketing, clecs, product, voice, customer, sales

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News Tidbits Part 2919 – Jul 30, 2015

Analysts’ Views: Part 1 – Jul 07, 2015

Phone Companies, Channel and Other News – May 29, 2015

The RBOCs: Copper, Spectrum, Regulation and Sales – Feb 03, 2015

The M&A Picks Up Steam – Jan 14, 2015

Schizoid Tails of the ILEC – Jun 17, 2014

Frontier Buying SNET – Dec 19, 2013

Why Agents Should Be Pro-Copper – Oct 11, 2013

Promises Broken and Unenforced – Nov 18, 2012

AT&T’s Big Investment – Nov 14, 2012

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January 6, 2016 , On Rad's Radar

Are the Telcos in Deep Trouble?

When you bet the farm on cellular things may not go as planned, especially when you are spending $9B a year on the network alone.

“Verizon ended the fourth quarter with 108.2 million total retail connections and 102.1 million total retail postpaid connections,” according to Fierce. At an ARPU of $51.55 according to this site. That is $5.58 Billion per month! However, cost of acquisition is now just above $650– give or take a phone or tablet. Bring in one million new additions and that will cost you a lot of semolies.

Moody’s is worried about the debt load of both former RBOCs: “AT&T and Verizon are the most indebted non-financial corporate issuers in Moody’s-rated universe, with total debt of $129 billion and $120 billion respectively as of 30 June, according to the report, “AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.: As Credit Cycle Fades, Big Debt Balances Leave Narrow Safety Margin.”

Seeking Alpha calls into question the cash flow and debt problem of VZ. After the $130B deal to buy Vodafone out of VZW and a couple of years of $10B spectrum buys, VZ is looking for cash.

It is selling wireline in 3 states – FL, TX, CA – to Frontier for $10B if it gets approval and FTR can get the money from the Street.

It first shopped Terremark around, a company it acquired for $1.4B in January of 2011. Revenues are about $300M there.

Then rumors were flying about VZ selling VZB, essentially the enterprise division consisting of old MCI assets. They couldn’t get their asking price.

Now Reuters is reporting that VZ is auctioning off its data center business. The data center space is still hot. One reason: unlike other aspects of telecom, data center closely resembles real estate, something that every investor can wrap their head around.

“AT&T Inc (T.N) has been exploring a sale of its data center assets since last year, while CenturyLink announced in November 2015 that it was exploring strategic alternatives for its data centers. Windstream Holdings Inc (WIN.O) also sold its data center business for $575 million to TierPoint last year.” [Reuters]

Frontier is riddled with debt as it buys old assets from the RBOCs. It hasn’t upgraded DSL to FCC broadband speeds yet – and as this DSL Report shows, it is paying dearly for it. Fairpoint keeps its head down after its BK. We have all seen the carnage that is the Windstream story.

When the price of the commodities you sell is declining or flat and your market share has eroded due to cable competition, you have to find cash somewhere. You also have to take some risk and look for a pivot – like buying AOL and launching an OTT video service.

We live in interesting times. Who thought the RBOCs would ever be up against it.

Tags: cellular, data center, debt, financials, mergers, numbers, vz, vzw, wireline
Related tags: center business, total retail, million total, center, million, assets