EarthLink launches New Orleans, Milpitas

EarthLink launches NOLA wi-fi - "on Dec. 21 launched New Orleans' municipal wireless network -- a 20-square mile Wi-Fi mesh network that covers parts of Orleans Parish." All the media are talking about it, including DSL Reports and the BizJournal:

EarthLink is supporting the city's rebuilding efforts by providing a free tier of service (up to 300Kbps) for residents and businesses throughout the coverage area. New Orleans residents will also have access to higher speeds via EarthLink Wi-Fi with down-and-upload speeds up to 1Mbps. The service costs $21.95 a month.

EarthLink also launched Milpitas muni wi-fi this week. GigaOm has a detailed post here. There is even news on Phillie Wireless.

RSS by Email

My blog has an RSS feed. And you can use Gmail or My Yahoo to read it (and keep current). But some people do not use RSS or read blogs, so maybe Quick Threads is a solution to get emails instead of reading the blog.

McDowell says won't vote

FCC's McDowell decided not to vote on the at&t-BST merger. And jabs at his colleagues:

McDowell said he feared his recusal had been used as a pawn to forgo "meaningful and sincere" negotiations and he urged his colleagues to put aside their differences and offer the necessary concessions to complete the review. "Now that I am removing that chess piece from the board, I hope that the twin pillars of sound negotiations are restored: good faith and sacrifice," he said.

Forbes.com is saying the merger may fail:

AT&T Inc.'s proposed buyout of BellSouth was thrown into doubt Monday when Robert McDowell, a member of the Federal Communications Commission and a former telecommunications industry lobbyist, said he is excluding himself from participation in the agency's deliberations on the deal.

Here is the full text of McDowell's statement. Here's what Martin said :) And finally Copps sums it up: "I respect Rob's decision. Finally we have clarity on who will be participating in this proceeding. That should give some juice to our ongoing discussions."

Coming Laws

Dave Snead is a telecom attorney specializing in web hosting.

Its clear that both law enforcement and politicians see providers of Internet Infrastructure services, particularly web hosts, as an effective source of information and behavior control. Currently, to avoid liability, web hosts should have a written procedure in place for dealing with subpoenas and law enforcement requests. Its clear that in the future, hosts will have other significant responsibilities.

6 Secrets Millionaires Know That You Don't

Ever wonder what it takes to build a million-dollar business?

1. Everything Is Marketing. The success of a company is based more on the marketing of the product than on the product itself.
2. Million-Dollar Ideas Can Come from Anyone. Ninety-five percent of CEOs never ask the $8-an-hour employees for their opinions. Yet, those employees are the ones touching the product and speaking to the customers. [That's why Tom Peters says to talk to wierdos].
3. Networking Is Not Working. Many new entrepreneurs spend more time at networking events than on their businesses. Always strive to network above your level.
4. Don’t Underprice Yourself.
5. Expect Icebergs. Millionaire entrepreneurs know that no matter how successful they are, no enterprise is unsinkable. The Titanic sank its first time out, but if you’re prepared, even enormous icebergs won’t sink you.
6. Compete Only With Yourself.

Read the rest at Entrepreneur.com

Using YouTube to teach your clients HOWTO

Episode 1: How to Video Podcast

FCC Head: Cities Block Cable Competition

FCC Chair Martin says: "Cable television rates keep going up while prices for other communications services are going down, says the nation's chief communications regulator, and he blames local governments for blocking competition." Um, I don't know if you have checked your phone bill lately, Kev, but my VZ Local rates keep going up! Due to your deregulation scheme! At least with TV, there are 2 national DBS - DTV & DISH. But for POTS, not so much. I wonder why? I wonder how we have lost so much competition since Martin has been at the FCC?

I might have to read this book: Law and Disorder in Cyberspace: Abolish the FCC and Let Common Law Rule the Telecosm by Peter Huber.

10 Ways To Be In The Paper

Is it fair to monitor employee Web use?

About 60% of those that did the poll at TBBJ said Yes. What does this tell you? Opportunity! Sell URL filtering or blocking. Sell logs. This comment caught my eye:

Absolutely, as a business owner with a business in the IT support field I can tell you first hand that unrelated to business web surfing is rampant and costly. It creates a loss of productivity, an increase in system maintenance, presents security & other risks and in some cases it involves illegal activity which might present a liability/culpability issue to the business or business owner. I’ve seen it all and if you think its not happening in your company your dreaming.

The Sweet Spot

This is the SMB sweet spot that you should be targeting.

Anti-Trust

Bell Atlantic versus Twombly is an anti-trust case in the court system. Is Congress going to step in on that issue? No. On the mega-mergers? No. But the NFL shouldn't have Anti-Trust protection any more. That's important. Not broadband or phone service. But football. It amazes me how the government can't keep a focus on priorities.

Skype to start charging in 2007

from VOIP Pulse: Skype is set to end its promotional calling service that allowed its users to place unlimited calls within North America at no charge. Beginning in 2007, the provider will allow customers to make calls within North America by per minute charges or pay $14.95 for an entire year of unlimited N.A. calling. The rate will go up to $29.95 in February. During the promotional phase, Skype is giving subscribers 100 minutes of free international calling as well as coupons for hardware that works with the Skype service.

Dustin Warns You

IF YOUR ORGANIZATION DOES NOT HAVE A KICK ASS UNDERSTANDING OF NETWORKING, ROUTING, BRIDGING, NETWORK SECURITY, MONEY TO SPEND DOING SOME THINGS RIGHT, MORE MONEY TO SPEND DOING THINGS WRONG, THE STOMACH TO THROW EXPENSIVE THINGS AWAY, IF YOU DON’T LOVE THIS BUSINESS, DO NOT WANT TO SLEEP, EVER SEE YOUR FAMILY, DON’T PLAN ON STARTING A FAMILY, ARE PIG HEADED, THEN LAYER 1 AND 2 IS NOT FOR YOU. GO BACK TO DIALUP, DSL AND HOSTING or possibly a real job.

BlogTag

Pulver and Andy started playing Blog Tag - and I figured I would start one as well.

5 Things You May Not KNow About me

1. I have a Chemistry degree and worked in Pharma for 6 years at Bayer, Glaxo, Oil of Olay.
2. My favorite pasttime is going out to a nice restaurant with my wife and friends or hosting parties - having friends over for dinner, wine tastings, whatever.
3. Volleyball is my favorite sport - and I still play beach at least twice a week.
4. I miss playing racquetball - and play tennis once a week to make up for it.
5. My degree is from Southern Connecticut, but I have attended lots of other schools: RPI, Sacred Heart, Pitt Community, Hillsborough Community. Lifetime student! (I'm considering a Personal MBA... any comments?)

Your turn! Tag to Jon Price of ISPCON, Keith Rosen MCC [author, speaker & executive coach], John McKown of Delaware.Net, Jack Brandt of Register.com, and Rich Bader at EasyStreet.

Hosting Disruption Again

First, you have Microsoft Live serving up free hosting in follow up to the 1and1 and GoDaddy boys playing in the low end of the hosting spectrum. Now Wiki is jumping into free hosting - and you keep the ad revenue!

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said on Monday his for-profit company, Wikia Inc., is ready to give away -- for free -- all the software, computing, storage and network access that Web site builders need to create community collaboration sites.... Wikia, a commercial counterpart to the non-profit Wikipedia, will go even further to provide customers -- bloggers or other operators who meet its criteria for popular Web sites -- 100 percent of any advertising revenue from the sites they build.

Why is everyone in a race to the bottom??? Unless it is just a PR ply. A hoster needs lots of volume to make money on razor margins (or worse free).

The money is in the middle - the gap between the Fortune 1000 and the two-person shop. Success means you have to be willing to FIRE clients that are not profitable or do not fit into your client profile. And you have to be willing to disqualify these prospects as well. Quickly. Most companies find it easier to just take orders and hope it makes them a buck down the road.

Cable Costs Rising, FCC Upset

FCC head K-Martin is upset that cable fees keep rising for the consumers. He thinks handing the nation over to the RBOCs will solve this problem. Apparently, he knows nothing about media and TV, which does not surprise me in the least. (Someone Has to Pay for TV, NY Times).

And let's not forget that competition already exists in the form of Satelliet (DBS) - DirecTV and DISH. (Two companies that the FCC blocked from merging - go figure!). However, broadcast TV is a static market. Customer acquisition and retention is a costly business. Some Green-field and MDU FTTH projects are stealing lucrative customers from the market. VZ FiOS entering a market drops the pricing tremendously. But who wins? Temporarily, the client. Then when no one is looking the price starts rising, because you can only sell underwater for so long.

Many of the 1200 MSO's in the US are small cable companies with analog systems that provide for a limited amount of channels and no cable modem service. In these markets, DBS is winning subscribers. IPTV or triple play will not make it to these markets since delivery is just too expensive.

But back to the cable fees rising. They are rising for 3 reasons:

1. The cost to upgrade cable systems. To upgrade 6000 homes is about $3M*** not including the $400 set-top boxes.
2. Debt payment from upgrading cable systems. Comcast has about $29B in debt.
3. Programming costs. Besides the NFL and other sports, recall that the six stars of "Friends" earned $1M per episode! Syndication pays back much of that.

EarthLink Is Losing a Lot of Email

Robert X. Cringely has beentesting how much email gets through. EarthLink is the worst losing up to 9 messages out of 10! Slashdot has the summary here. PBS has the full article from Cringely.

The trend continued so my friend, who has long been in the networking business, himself, started running experiments. He sent messages from other accounts to his Earthlink address, to his aliased Blackberry address, and to his Gmail account. For every 10 messages sent, 1-2 arrived in his Earthlink mailbox, 1-2 (not necessarily the SAME 1-2) on his Blackberry, and all 10 arrived with Gmail.

Swimming upstream through Earthlink customer support, my buddy finally found a technical contact who freely acknowledged the problem. Since June, he was told, Earthlink's mail system has been so overloaded that some users have been missing up to 90 percent of their incoming e-mail. It isn't bounced back to senders; it just disappears. And Earthlink hasn't mentioned the problem to these affected customers unless they complain. The two groups affected are those who get their mail with an Earthlink-hosted domain and those with aliased e-mail addresses like my friend's Blackberry.

In the same article, he takes shots at MegaPath and BellSouth:

I have a backup business DSL account from Megapath, a national broadband ISP which is the only DSL provider here in Charleston who offered static IP addresses when I was shopping around. Of course the DSL actually comes from BellSouth, which I think of simply as The Devil for its poor service and vindictive ways, from which Megapath presumably would protect me for only three times the price.

Embarq wants more fees

Embarq is seeking additional 50-cent storm-recovery fee in Florida. This on top of $0.85 it is still billing for 2004 hurricanes!

Filtering for Parents & Businesses

In a BizJournal article, the increased need for filtering is examined. Obviously, filtering for parents is a great value-add. But businesses need filtering as well. Employees lose productivity by surfing the Web during the work day. If you could filter by time - so employees could surf at lunch or after work - that would be a bonus. But besides surfing porn, employers want shopping, IM, and job sites blocked. Managed services people -- helping people get the most out of the technology -- is where the money is.

eHealth by 2009

As this BizJournal article points out, initiatives to bring about electronic medical records (EMR) is on the rise. EMR has to be in place in 2009. The push is from hospitals and insurance companies - and Medicare payments. (The pull is coming from the ILECs who need to sell large pipes).

Because the task is so large, he's got volunteers lined up to help conduct telephone and fax follow-ups with providers who may not have Internet access. He's also enlisted the help of the state's health care associations as project advocates.

First, the state has an agreement with BellSouth that will allow practices to get on the broadband network for a lower cost than if they sought it alone, Agassi says.

Plus, a federal program through the Universal Service Administrative Company could provide 80 percent of the funds needed to get rural practices broadband access, and the state will help counties gain access to it.

Doctors are a PITA client. Besides being cheap, they are not tech savvy and are hard to sit down with. There are strategies to capture this market - as well as convince the doctor that technology can make his office more efficient, increase revenue, and decrease patient frustrations. He/She could become a proactive health care provider instead of reactive. Here's where hiring me for a marketing and sales plan pays off ;) [813.496.2122]

MDU / PCO Trend Rises

The BizJournal has another example of greenfield developments choosing an alternative carrier:

Connexion Technologies Inc., in an agreement with developers of the 600-home Kellswater Bridge, is providing phone, cable, Internet and security services. Homeowner association monthly dues will pay for the services, which will be managed by Beyond Communications, an Alabama-based phone ompany.

Kellswater Bridge homeowners won't be buying service from CT Communications Inc. or Time Warner Cable, Cabarrus County's dominant phone and cable providers. Neither is placing equipment into the subdivision.

But now new firms such as Connexion and Charlotte's BroadStar and Your Residential Technology Team are paying developers for the rights to install fiber-optic systems, while also bearing construction costs. The deals typically involve an upfront payment per lot or a share of monthly revenue.

Apartment complexes, condos, industrial parks, sub-divisions, private dorms - these are just a few of the opportunities to be the "ILEC". MDU (Multi-Dwelling Unit) sales make you the PCO (private cable operator).

Billing Issues with EMBARQ?

Here's an article about a billing issue with Embarq that took months to rectify. (Sound familiar?) But the bonus is that the article states: Billing Issues with EMBARQ? Call Margaret Wright, Embarq's regional public affairs manager @ 434-971-2208 (Charlottesville VA 22902).

at FCC: McDowell Can Vote

After being recused because he used to lobby for CompTel against such mergers, the FCC's top lawyer, General Counsel Sam Feder, issued his 8-page decision: McDowell can vote. Business Week had the story last night:

In Feder's eight-page opinion, he argued that McDowell should be allowed to vote because he had not participated in the merger proceeding as a lobbyist, did not stand to gain financially from his vote and that it would be impossible for someone else to take his place in the proceeding.

But Feder was also clearly torn, noting that the Robert Cusick, director of the Office of Government Ethics had said the decision was a close call on which reasonable people could differ and that Cusick said he would decide against authorization but that "the FCC could reasonably come out the other way."

While McDowell, a former lobbyist for a trade group that opposes the merger, is authorized to participate, that doesn't mean he will be forced to vote yes or no. He could still abstain.

Branding by John Moore

John Moore has worked for Starbucks and Whole Foods. He has a slide show about branding that explains branding pretty easily. It is available for viewing on SlideShare. There are 4 slides co-opted from Zag that demonstrates the difference between marketing, advertising, branding and PR - and John Moore has them here.

Just Do It

Purple Cow, Blue Ocean Strategy

Strategic innovation can be achieved in these areas:

1. Building new markets for the products / services (like eBay).
2. Creating added value for the customer.
3. Inventing new business models.
4. Establishing new distribution methods (Dell).

In Blue Ocean Strategy, the authors discuss the typical strategy: "Yet in today ’s overcrowded industries, competing head-on results in nothing but a bloody "red ocean" of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool." This would be telecom and cable. Static markets like TV, cellular and phone are "bloody oceans". That's why the strategy has to be like eBay or Starbucks or Whole Foods, who created a new market segment. "The aim of Blue Ocean Strategy is not to out-perform the competition in the existing industry, but to create new market space or a blue ocean, thereby making the competition irrelevant."

In Purple Cow, Seth Godin talks about creating a remarkable service or product. As internet access and web hosting become "commodities", you have to find a way to be remarkable. Delaware.Net is working on this. Remember: "What is not different is not strategic."

One VoIP Provider Gets Vertical

If this offering actually works and can be provisioned with little headache, IPcelerate will be off and running. Hospitals, medical offices, et al have to be HIPAA compliant and have EMR running by 2009. Phone+ announces:

IPcelerate Inc. has introduced a bundled platform for health care organizations. Features include two-way nurse call integration, increased patient and caregiver security through RFID integration, liability reduction and transcription facilitation with on-demand recording, and dial-out capabilities for information dissemination to patients and insurance companies, the company said. "We created this bundled solution after working closely with health care customers and gaining an appreciation of both their everyday needs and critical business initiatives," stated Laurent Therivel, COO of IPcelerate. "We included key VoIP solutions which health professionals need in order to provide quality care for their patients, as well as ensure operational excellence within their facility.” The platform leverages the IPsession, IPstudio and IP Video Surveillance application servers and requires no custom development. Additional functions include video surveillance, emergency response communication, targeted zone paging, video blogging for communication between doctors, text messaging for remote nurses, staff management and RFID tagging of medical inventory items.

BPL is like DSL & Cable Modem, only smaller

Apparently, Trimax is excited because the FCC ruled that BPL (Broadband over power lines) is an information service not a telecom service. Whew! Big win for the less than 20,000 homes on BPL. BPL isn't even really BPL. It is a hybrid of wireless. Also, the power infrastructure is so old and over-burdened, there aren't many places that BPL can be used. (When was the last time a power plant was built?) I like FCC Commissioner Tate saying this will lead to more competition. Plus, BPL is also a LAN technology, using inside electrical wiring as the LAN cabling.

Electronically Stored Information In Litigation Rules

"Over the last week or so there have been a number of articles about new rules related to litigation, portending that there could be punishments for undertaking routine computer backups or destroying legacy data from obsolete systems. Don’t panic! " Read the rest of Attorney Linda Markus Daniels' article on the rules here.

FCC Rulings, Mergers Hurting Consumers

Go figure. The FCC and court rulings since 2005 have crippled competition for local phone service and broadband. As a result, prices are going up. VZ & BST were reprimanded earlier this year for tacking on fees to DSL, after Congress granted a discount to the consumer service. Embarq & BST are both adding surcharges to local phone bills in Florida to recoup hurricane costs. The Chicago Trib reports:

"Many customers who called AT&T Illinois to get cut-rate phone service deals advertised in their November phone bills are being told the plans don't exist, leaving customers confused and AT&T embarrassed."

Ill. like many states, including NC & FL, passed laws to unregulate phone companies in 2005 and 2006. [Thanks!]

"In return for establishing three cut-rate phone plans and restraining rate increases for other plans, AT&T was freed from most traditional state oversight of what it charges consumers for phone service in Illinois."

The Tulsa World is reporting:

"AT&T Oklahoma's residential and business customers will be hit with price increases Jan. 1 ranging from 5 percent to 60 percent on a series of stand-alone services and optional features, company officials said Friday."

At the same time, when the Bells roll out Triple Play, they give away the store to grab market share. (Obviously this will be a short term price plan). For example, BST's $99 Plan:

"BellSouth began marketing a $99 monthly triple-play package of telephone service, high-speed-Internet access and a choice of either Cingular Wireless mobile-phone service or DirecTV programming in south Florida."

And finally DSLReports.com has the story about VZ DSL Lite going up from $15 to $19.99. Yeah, competition is really working. Powell and Martin shouldn't be allowed to make economic decisions until they get they pass a Economics 200 class. Another Bonehead decision by the FCC, an agency charged with our speectrum and communications policy. Of course, when you have a Prez that can't spell Communications....

Spam

Three years ago at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bill Gates, the Microsoft chairman, made an audacious prediction: The problem of unsolicited junk e-mail messages on the Internet would "be solved by 2006," he said. Mehran Sabbaghian scoffs at that forecast. Sabbaghian, the network engineer at the Web-hosting company Lanset America, said that a sudden Internetwide increase in spam last month clogged his company's servers so badly that delivery of regular e-mail messages to customers was delayed by hours. To relieve the pressure, Lanset, based in Sacramento, California, took the drastic step of blocking all messages from overseas, where much of the spam was originating. This week, Lanset plans to start accepting incoming mail from foreign countries again, but Sabbaghian said that the problem of junk e-mail messages was "now out of control." Spam is back — in our inboxes and on everyone's minds. In the past six months, spam has gotten measurably worse. Worldwide, spam volumes have doubled from last year, according to the spam-filtering company Ironport, and unsolicited e-mail now accounts for more than 9 of every 10 messages sent over the Internet. Read the rest here.

Muni Regulation & Deployment Conference

We are pleased to announce a two-day conference on Local Broadband Regulation and Deployment, Feb. 22 & 23, in Tampa, Fl. Here is the latest information on municipal broadband project development for local government officials, attorneys, industry professionals and land use professionals. Co-chairs Nicholas P. Miller, Esq., Miller & Van Eaton, PLLC, and Gary I. Resnick, Esq., GrayRobinson, P.A., lead an exceptional faculty who will examine current economic, political, technical, regulatory and legal questions facing local communities wishing to make affordable, high-capacity connections available as rapidly as possible. Sign up soon. Please register here.

• What: Local Broadband Regulation & Deployment Conference
• When: February 22 & 23, 2007
• Where: Tampa, FL (Tampa Convention Center)
• Details: Local Broadband Regulation & Deployment Conference or call us at (800) 854-8009
• Program Co-chairs: Nicholas P. Miller, Esq., of Miller & Van Eaton, PLLC Gary I. Resnick, Esq., of GrayRobinson, P.A.

Referrals

Best way to grow organically is to have Referral Business. For those of you interested in increasing your referral business, I would like to point out 2 great references:

1. Audio CD: Create Your Own Referral System - presented by Keith Rosen, MCC
2. e-Book: Build Your Referral Engine also by Keith Rosen, MCC

I can certainly help you with your Referral Program. It is not something that can just be left alone. Your best referrers need to be worked. By that I mean, fed information that they can spread around; appreciated; and thanked.

3 Things You Can Do Today

Success involves doing little things daily and weekly, like marketing your business just a little bit every week. Here are 3 other things you can do today to achieve success by Loral Langemeier:

1. Pay Yourself First: Consistently paying yourself a set amount first each pay period will keep you from feeling like you are on a budget or financial diet. Stay motivated don’t financial starve yourself.
2. Focus On Making Money: Your focus should always be on making money not paying down debt. When you make more money you will be able to simultaneously pay off your debt. When you pay your debt first, what are you left with? Nothing! So focus on having the cash flow in.
3. Do Paperwork: We have said it before and we will continue to say it, Do Paperwork or Be Poor! It is not usually a fun job, but it is one that needs to be kept up with so set aside some time each day or each week to devote to the task of staying on top of your paperwork.

Hiring & Pricing

The 2 biggest problem areas for small business owners (1 -99 employees): Hiring & Pricing.

Most small businesses price their services too low, just to grab any revenue they can -- even if it is at a loss. You have to know what it costs to provide the service before you can price it. And selling below water doesn't help your business grow. Can you charge more? Probably. And you will lose 10%, but so what? You lose the cheap-o and gain someone giving you more money. You are in business to make a profit, right?

The other problem area is HIRING. How do you grow without human resources? You need to hire slow and fire fast. Interview at least twice and with at least two people, so you have at least 2 different perspectives. Expectations have to be managed from day 1. If you expect your new salesperson to cold-call and door knock in your service area, then make sure it is in the offer letter - and reenforced often. Track all work with CRM.

How do you get revenue without sales? How do you sell without a salesperson? How do you find salespeople? Tough one. Networking. Ads. Monster.com. Employee referrals. Steal from a competitor. Realize that you will probably churn salespeople.

How to Raise Money for Your Business

Collected from Inc., Entrepreneur, and AllBusiness.com, ways to raise money for your business:

1. Angel Investors
2. Venture Capital
3. Government Programs
4. Private Equity Financing
5. Bank Loans
6. Microloans
7. Joint Ventures
8. Strategic Partnerships
9. Customer & Supplier Partnerships
10. Direct Public Offerings
11. Equipment Leasing
12. Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)
13. SBA-Guaranteed Loans
14. Private Loan Guarantees
15. 504 Loans
16. Royalty Financing
17. Federal Government Venture Capital
18. Business Incubators
19. 401(k) Financing or Self-Directed IRA's
20. Reverse Merger
21. Initial Public Offerings
22. Institutional Venture Capital

You started out Boot Strapping (Seth's Bootstrapper's Bible), but the next phase will take some capital. Just remember when you are raising capital, it takes a lot of time. According to Business Know How:

Most companies vastly underestimate the time commitment necessary to successfully complete a financing. In actuality, a company seeking financing needs to budget between 500 to 1000 work-hours to the capital-raising process, spread out over a 6-9 month time period. The key processes in the capital-raising process include

1) perfecting the business plan, offering memorandum, and other company due diligence materials,

2) developing a comprehensive, targeted prospective investor list,

3) contacting this list and responding to investor due diligence requests, and

4) negotiating the transaction.

Om's VoIP Round-Up

Om reports on his VoIP Round-Up - and many providers seem to be doing well. What are YOU doing with VoIP that isn't me-too? Obviously free is big, but productivity is better. Jangl's deal with Match.com for private phone numbers shows that AOL and NetZero's Private Phone weren't a bad idea. There are so many ideas that involve managing communications better that it is amazing VoIP isn't ubiquitous.

TechDirt on RBOC ISP Email

TechDirt discusses Customer Service at the RBOC ISP's:

The e-mail and connection reliability of major ISPs frequently leaves plenty to be desired. MIA e-mail is most frequently thanks to botched spam fighting efforts, such as when Verizon customers suddenly stopped getting e-mail from outside the country. Or more recently when BellSouth's spam fighting system was so poorly implemented, people weren't getting any e-mail, forcing them to revert to their previous spam fighting solution. Huge outages thanks to network upgrades or transfers is also a concern, as many of the customers caught in the Adelphia, Comcast, and Time Warner cable switcharoo can attest.PBS's Bob Cringely laments that there really are no consumer protections for these kinds of outages, and that ISPs are increasingly willing to bumble their way through botched network upgrades or capacity issues while hoping impacted customers don't notice. Users seem increasingly willing to click through mouse-print EULAs that leave them with no room to complain if their service stinks. One obvious solution would be to upgrade to a business line with some kind of reliability guarantee - but if the best solution is to upgrade to a more expensive business line, isn't this just encouraging ISPs to make their consumer lines worse and worse in order to convince everyone to upgrade?

This is an opportunity for independent ISP's to tout their email service. BTW, KYISPA is planning on trying the shared email system. I hope it works for them, because it can reduce costs and provide redundancy. Email is the Number 1 reason that people have internet access. If you can't get this right - and I know it isn't a piece of cake - people will leave.

$13B phone refund

The refunds are due to the repeal of a 3 percent excise tax that had been levied for decades on long-distance bills of telephone customers, whether they used fixed lines, cell phones or Internet telephones. Long-distance portions of fax lines and dial-up Internet connections also are in the basket of services that are no longer subject to the tax. In May, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service scrapped the long-distance portion of the 108-year-old tax after it was challenged by a group of Fortune 500 corporations. While the tax continues to be levied on local lines, it disappeared from monthly bills for long-distance calls starting in August, and the IRS is returning taxes collected between March 2003 and July 2006, along with interest.

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO REQUESTING YOUR BUSINESS' PHONE TAX REFUND from BizJournal 1. Gather your monthly phone bills going back to March 2003 and until August. 2. Add up the amount spent on long-distance calls and faxes. 3. Calculate 3 percent of that amount - that's the money the federal government collected as excise tax. 4. When filling out your 2006 tax return enter the amount for the refund in the allotted column. 5. Watch your mail for a refund check.

Advice for WISP's

Wi-Fi Planet writes an article about the opportunities in Wi-Fi:

Wi-Fi, the war on terrorism and federal funding: it’s a killer combination. Two hot buttons to open the big government cash register in D.C.

ISP Planet writes about Wireless Marketing as explained by Forbes Mercy at ISPCON.

ISPCON: Mike Cassidy & the Keynote

ISP Planet has an article reviewing Mike Cassidy's session at ISPCON about ways to increase your business through services in 2007. Mike has been pointing out that all the opportunity for ISP's falls in the space where you cater to small businesses. It is a good read, especially as you plan for 2007.

The keynote was a panel representing 4 differing business plans: Dane Jasper from Sonic.net as the DSL provider; Jonathan Snyder from KeyOn, a wireless provider; Dan Hoffman from M5 the VoIP Provider; and Rich Bader of EasyStreet, a managed service provider.

Lots of ideas to read and review.

Networking - Online and Off

My business isn't very local. Most of my clients are out-of-state. I use listservs, Yahoo Groups, LinkedIN, ZeroDegrees, and conferences like ISPCON and ITexpo to find prospects, interact, learn, and talk to clients. I also use this blog. Locally, I attend TBTF events, Business Luncheons, Lunch-n-Learns, and Chamber events. What are you using?

A new website called MerchantCircle.com allows you to endorse other local businesses - and to connect with local customers.

Feeling Burned Out?

I certainly understand that feeling. What to do? Get out of your rut. Do something different. Go to networking events - different ones in different places with different faces. Workout. Review your goals - if you have a BHAG, a big hairy audacious goal, it may carry you through. Learn something new. Read or listen to something inspirational. Hire a coach. (If you work for corporate, call meetings :)

EOY, Part II

It's the end-of-year. It's December. You have your hands full. Maybe too full. Make an appointment with yourself every day to perform one of these 16 tasks that will make 2007 a better year:

1. Determine who your best customers are.
2. Touch base with your best customers.
3. Review all your systems from top to bottom.
4. Review all your vendor contracts.
5. Hold annual performance reviews.
6. Engage your employees as partners.
7. Do an early spring cleaning!
8. Review your marketing campaign.
9. Overhaul your website.
10. Take a look at your business cards.
11. Review your insurance policies.
12. Update your minute books.
13. Meet with your accountant.
14. Create a marketing plan for 1Q07.
15. Plan your goals for 2007.
16. Review your goals and plans from 2006. How did you do?

Details on the first 13 are here. The 14th I can help you with or read here for the 7 Line Marketing Plan. The holidays are a great time to thank your employees and your customers for their support. It is an excellent time for review.

PC Repair Business

1. Know your street value
2. Determine who your ideal customer is.
3. Realize that financial stability doesn’t happen overnight.
4. Know your strengths and weaknesses.
5. Market your business every day.
6. Keep your skills current.
7. Reach out if you need assistance.
8. Hire smart.

from entreprenuer.com

Hosting Performance

In an article from Entrepreneur.com, "Keep your online customers happy by switching to a faster web host." Are you the faster host?? The article made me think of a few things:

1. Amazon S3 for using off-site storage
2. Delaware.Net was looking to swap mirrored servers with other hosting companies. This way he had physical redundancy - and so would you.
3. Shared E-Mail Server. We talked about it in Atlanta, but AFAIK it never took off. I wonder if using a hosted email service provider wouldn't make this easier for some ISP's. Especially with the constant work required to keep email up and going, along with virus and spam fighting - and storage requirements.

NetSuite - rambling thoughts

CRM, Accounting, ERP, and e-commerce all rolled into one. That is what NetSuite is. That is what SalesForce.com is looking to do. Both names keep popping up in articles. In an article from Entrepreneur mag, the CRM module of NetSuite is adding Keyword marketing for tracking Google AdWords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search. Adwords is becoming a huge marketing tool.

If you offer ASP services, like CRM, what packages are you offering? Do you have a Keyword tracker? Accounting module or plug-in to QB online? How about e-commerce modules like shopping carts and merchant accounts? If you use CRM internally, do your email, contacts and marketing collateral and templates connect?

Ethernet Webinar

How to Get a Slice of the Mid-Band Ethernet Sweet Spot

• Date: Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007 @ 2:00 p.m. ET
• Sponsors: Hatteras, xchange and COMPTEL
• Speakers: Gary Bolton, Hatteras Networks
• Host: Paula Bernier, xchange

Data Center Technology in 2007

According to Gartner, the top 10 data center related technologies for 2007 are:

1. Open source software
2. Virtualization
3. Information access
4. Ubiquitous computing
5. Grid computing
6. Utility Computing
7. Multi-core processors
8. Web 2.0
9. Network convergence
10. Water cooling in the data center

I'm going to add one more: Power. With more power required per rack, uninterrupted, reliable and redundant power (and the rising costs of it) will be a factor.

FCC Chair Martin Breaks Arm Patting Self on Back

"During my tenure as Chairman, the Commission has worked hard to create a regulatory environment that promotes broadband deployment. We have removed legacy regulations, like tariffs and price controls, that discourage carriers from investing in their broadband networks, and we worked to create a regulatory level playing- field among broadband platforms. ...High- speed connections to the Internet have grown over 400% since I became Commissioner in July 2001....According to this independent study, one year after I became Chairman in 2005, broadband adoption had increased by 40% - twice the growth rate of the year before (from 60 million in March 2005 to 84 million in March 2006." Then he was whisked away to the ER to have his arm set from so much back patting.

Hey, Kevin, how about the trillion dollars in losses in the CLEC industry? How about the thousands upon thousands of job losses? How about the fact that the net gain to an NFL city consumer is less than $100 per year since you have been commissioner. You complain about cable rates going up 90%, how about the fact that your beloved RBOCs keep raising local rates. Oh, wait, you don't regulate that. (No one does). I can't believe people pay you to hear this drivel.

Alcatel Sues Microsoft

Forbes reports that "French telecommunications giant Alcatel is suing Microsoft for infringing on seven of its U.S. patents, including a method for rewinding and jumping forward to certain points in a digital video stream."

Train Your Clients in 2007

NFIB's magazine, My Business, is giving ISP's the hint: Train your client in the gadgets and tools they can have (do have, want to have, need to have).

Provide a lunch-n-learn or an evening gathering - a little networking, maybe some cheese and crackers, and teach them how to use their iPod, anti-virus software, webcam, digital camera, VOIP, website template / control panel, Google Adwords, document management. You become the expert. You are in front of your clients -- and if you let them bring people, you will be in front of prospects.

No one says it can't be $7 per person at the door or $5 if they pre-register, but they get a $5 coupon for back.

Kerkorian unloads all GM shares

Big Ouch for GM: "Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian said Thursday he sold another 14 million shares of General Motors, and published reports Friday indicate that soon after that announcement he unloaded his entire stake in the company."