Ma Bell's $10 DSL

The Atlanta Journal-Courier interviewed the new CEO at Ma Bell, Randall Stephenson.

Q: Of all the things the AJC has written about AT&T lately, none has caused more reader irritation than AT&T's $10 a month DSL offer, which was required by the Federal Communications Commission when you bought BellSouth. A lot of folks said they couldn't find it. It was hard to find on your site. Why? A: We haven't made it difficult to find. To be honest with you, that's not a product that our customers have clamored for. We still have $15 offers out there in the marketplace, even $20 offers, for 1.5 megabit speeds. Those are really kind of the minimum speeds that give a good user experience. So I don't want to necessarily offer up a product where the user experience is not what I would consider really state of the art. That $10 product is kind of in that mode.

Doesn't it sound like he side-stepped the question? Just like Ma Bell is side-stepping its promises!

Broadband Growth - Is It Slowing Down?

Om Malik writes about the VZ FiOS numbers in 2Q07:

Even as its DSL-subscriber additions tanked, Verizon saw a sharp uptake in the demand for its fiber connections. ... The company added 203,000 FiOS broadband customers, out of a total of 288,000 in the second quarter of 2007. At the end of the second quarter, Verizon had a total to 1.1 million FiOS customers. In a conference call with analysts CFO Doreen Toben said that about 22% of the new FiOS broadband subscribers are customers who have upgraded from Verizon’s DSL service.

The next story is about Broadband growth. It is slowing down!

The problem is that the slowdown in new additions is happening at much faster rate that one would think. According to UBS Research, the net additions in the quarter for AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast were 1.018 million combined versus 1.67 million last quarter and 1.245 million in the second quarter of 2006.

Many will confuse this story because the difference is Penetration versus Deployment. Both are required. We still need Deployment of broadband to the many places that still do not have a choice in broadband. And Penetration means getting as many customers that broadband passes to take the service (and use it). It also means finding a way to cross the Digital Divide. How do we get people without even dial-up or a computer to use broadband internet access?

Search

Many people are worried about the domination of Google. Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask.com are working on improving search. Yawn. It's about relevant results and simplicity. Wikia is hoping open source search will work. Wikia just bought a crawler called Grub from LookSmart. And TyBit is trying to private label search and share the ad revenue. But will users want to load another widget to run on their desktop?

If Ma Bell was the DOT

If Ma Bell was in charge of the Dept. of Transportation, things would not be good. InfoWeek has the analogy here.

Ma Bell in Cable Franchise mess

The Connecticut PUC ruled that U-Verse TV was an information service. A Court ruled it was TV and needed to be franchised like cable. [source and here] Federal Law Takes Precedence Over State's View Of Internet TV Service [source].

My thought is that if you are going to regulate VoIP like dialtone; then TV is TV. Once again, Ma Bell wants it both ways. Regulate them and not us.

Google, Sprint & 700

JOHN DVORAK'S column on Google and the 700MHz Spectrum is interesting. Google has been mad since Whitacre @ at&t said that Google gets a free ride. The average consumer may have taken that comment as truth. So with Google looking at the 700 spectrum and making a vague WiMax alliance with Sprint, you have to wonder. Then I read where VZ and T may buy the spectrum just to sit on it. You just never know.

DSL adds slowing

Dave at DSL Prime writes that DSL growth is slowing.

AT&T and several smaller telcos have reported reduced DSL net additions in Q2, presumably a trend as prices stay too high to attract the remaining 45% of U.S. homes. DSL for the indefinite future will continue to grow, but the rate is inevitably going to slow.

He blames it on price, but it is more about telco policy. T supposedly offers the $10 DSL as per the merger requirement, but no one can get it. It's like VZ's $9.95 home phone service - It takes too much effort and fighting to order it (without extras) and to get it billed correctly.

And what happened to the $19.95 Naked DSL? This will certainly be cheaper than DSL Lite plus a phone line. And if T had any brains at all, it would offer the Naked DSL through its cellular stores.

Why Cable Rates are so high

A new regional sports channel, The Big 10 Network, is in a battle with cable companies. This fight demonstrates the pricing and demands of the content companies. (Read the story here). The highlights of the battle are here:

The Big Ten Network is asking cable and satellite operators to pay $1.10 per subscriber within the eight-state Big Ten region and 10 cents per subscriber in the rest of the country.
"I doubt we will take it, as we see no reason to carry the service in our lowest tier of service nationwide," said Carl Vogel, president of satellite operator EchoStar.
The Big Ten Network battle is a crucial one for cable and satellite operators, who fear other major college conferences will make the same demands as the Big Ten. The SEC, for example, is considering launching its channel next year, and conference executives have said they are keeping their eyes on the Big Ten situation.
"Creating a separate network just for every sports conference in the country and demanding that all customers nationally pay for it regardless of whether they have any interest in watching it is a strongly anti-consumer position for sports conferences to take," said Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen. "It is about more than just the Big Ten."
And it's about more than just the college conferences, said Bob Wilson, Cox's senior vice president of programming. Cable operators have long complained about the cost of sports networks, which account for half of operators' programming costs even though sports viewing accounts for 10 percent of ratings, Wilson said.

I think the content guys forget that there is only X amount of space for Y number of channels. The bandwidth is not infinite. And this is a reason that many consumers like the A la carte channel idea of the FCC -- let me pick what I want. Do I want HSN or QVC or the Garden Channel or Fox News? Heck, no. Why should I fund them?

Social Networking DIY

There are at least 9 companies that will help you white label a social networking site. TechCrunch has the review and comparison chart. Why do you care? Because if you add community to your users with classifieds, blogs, pictures, and communications, you wil add stickiness. On LinkedIn one of the questions was about Social Networks: "What is the best software package for creating and hosting a Social Networking Website." [see answers here] So it is a hot topic right now. Mainly because if you aren't interacting with your users, they will go elsewhere.

Embarq drops 18%

EMBARQ, the former wireline operations of Sprint, announced an 18.5% decline in 2Q07 earnings. Quarterly earnings were $176 million, down from $216M last year, but up 1.6% from last quarter. I guess the highlight was: "The company reported an increase of 52,000 high-speed Internet subscribers, bringing Embarq's total to 1.15 million." [source]. I can tell you why revenues are down. I waited over a month to get local frame quotes from them - to no avail. After 2 phone calls totaling 20 minutes - and 20 minutes of hold time remaining - I was unable to get a quote for 10MB of DIA from this ILEC. Revenues cannot go up if you do not make quotes, people!!!!

If you have a way of actually get quotes from EMBARQ, please contact me. Thank you.

ORG 2.0

Seth Godin wrote about smart non-profits back in January. There is a list of the smart 59 here. It's about smart marketing.

Look at #49: Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Online and offline partnerships and events that garner huge particpation and large donation amounts. Komen has 3-Day Walks and 1-Day Runs. New Balance is a major sponsor. You can find pink gear in so many places now. Smart marketing.

There are 58 other smart ideas on that list. Why did I bring it up? Recently, I have found myself being invited to particpate in two separate ISP associations. One I was an active member of for 5 years including chairing Committees and briefly sitting on the board before that org imploded (in my book anyway). The other is a fledgling org that is on the cusp. Both can, if the correct path is taken, do wonderful things for thier constituents.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Get Professional Association Management. CAE's know how to train Board members; attract vendors; acquire members; and organize events. It is too hard to run an organization with all volunteers (or in some cases untrained professionals who will not be up to the task at hand due to distractions from their own agenda).
2. Poll and talk to the Membership - oftem (It is THEIR org, not the Board's).
3. Spend less time bitching and more time teaching, learning, and doing.
4. Don't let the listserv devolve into government bashing, especially on a public listserv.
5. Have a professional website that is updated frequently. It's your business card.
6. Not just Attend Industry functions, but Particpate, make announcements, and create an impact (or why bother?)

Promotion and marketing are important. The CAE knows how to do this and a volunteer member committe can help. (Or at least hire a PR firm to put out press releases regularly).

The listserv is the most valuable part of an association. It's where members get to share and network. It's where vendors can effectively show their expertise (IOW, market without hammering ads). The listserv needs to be maintained and cared for.

Being a vendor member costs about $1,000 per year. With time spent on listserv messages, participating on committees, attending meetings, etc., the ROI for a vendor has to be about $5,000 in sales for it to be worthwhile.

Associations cost money. But how long will members continue to fund an organization that has very little pay off? Or isn't moving forward? The Board has to attract, retain, and keep happy the Vendors as well as the Members in a thin wire balancing act.

Not 500k - only 146k

Hype - and lot sof it. But all that hype did was move 146,000 people to sign up for the iPhone. And that fact (included in AT&T's 2Q07 financial report) tanked Apple stock. It's tough to live up to the hype. BTW, AT&T had a 61% growth in profit. [Phone+] This is ridiculous. Sales were only up 2%, which means all their rate hikes (like in NY & NJ and excess recovery fees in FL have added to its cash horde).

• net quarterly income totaled $2.9B on earnings of $4.3B
• these numbers include BellSouth which closed in December of 2006
• cellular: net gain of 1.5M subscribers for a total of 63.7M, churn is 1.6%,
• Total wireless revenue rose 12.7% to $10.4 billion
• U-Verse has 51,000 subs in 23 markets

SunRocket Eulogy, MS VoIP

The NY Times has a great piece about SunRocket's demise. Expect even more regulation of VoIP as the Bells will toll over this. Plus the final sentence is the real problem:

Now, Mr. Egan said, he plans to move his service to AT&T or some other traditional company. “I want to avoid anything that has to do with growth technology companies,” he said.

Meanwhile,

1. Microsoft is buying its way into the VoIP hardware Retail space for a P-n-P VoIP service that works with Vista and Live. [see story here at Fierce and here at Ars].
2. Former employees buy Zultys in bankruptcy auction [FierceVoIP]
3. RTI sues Qwest over 2 VoIP Patents [bizjournal]

Amp'ed quits

Well, Amp'ed couldn't get financing and called it quits. That's one more MVNO that couldn't make it work. (It's not easy).

More VoIP Requirements - Section 225 + 255

According to FCC Martin's speech at Congress:

In addition, we recently extended the disability access requirements of sections 225 and 255 - which formerly only applied to traditional phone services - to providers of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Congress sought to ensure that all Americans, including people with disabilities, benefit from advances in technology. It is the Commission's responsibility to make this possible. [The order was posted on May 31, 2007].

GovTech explains Section 225:

In addition, the Commission said that interconnected VoIP providers were subject to the requirements of Section 225, including contributing to the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) Fund and offering 711 abbreviated dialing for access to relay services. Requiring the TRS Fund contributions will protect the stability and sustainability of the Interstate TRS Fund. (TRS is a service that allows persons with hearing or speech impairments to use the telephone. The TRS Fund is used to pay for the provision of TRS services and is funded by contributions from all carriers that provide interstate service.) Requiring 711 abbreviated dialing will ensure that anyone wishing immediate access to the local TRS provider need only dial 711.

CyberTelecom blog from Robert Cannon has most of the detail here. The FCC's page on Section 255 is here.

Apparently, now VoIP is taxed as much as TDM. This is really funny because in the FCC's Vonage decision on June 1, the FCC ruled that Vonage and Inter-Connected VoIP Providers DO have to pay into USF. Yet the FCC "Deferring a decision on whether to classify VoIP as a telecommunications service or an information service, the Commission grounded its order in its permissive contribution authority and, alternatively, its Title I ancillary jurisdiction." Moreover, the FCC in 2003 ruled that Vonage was NOT subject to the rules of the Minnesota PUC. That seems contradictory.

CTIA, Cellco, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Spectrum

CTIA is the wireless equivalent of the USTA. It is mainly a mouthpiece for the big cellcos like T and VZW. When Broadcom won its patent fight against Qualcomm, no new Qualcomm phones were able to be imported - just as the iPhone was being released. CTIA got mad and wrote some letters. The funny thing to me is that if Carterphone decision was applied to cellular, CTIA would have this problem. But then cellular has always been driven by handsets, not by the network.

CTIA also is yelling about the 700 spectrum auction (and so are VP's at T). You spend your whole life working for a monopoly - basically for the dole - the easy handouts from the consumers you have been screwing for years. Promises made and broken. Rates that keep increasing even as your income increases. I understand that the PSTN has to be supported as it is the emergency communication system.

One ringing truth: if things were fair, even and open in telecom, T and VZ would have very few clients left, because as most noise on the comment sections state: People hate their phone company.

Randall, Ivan and Gary: Here are some ideas:

1. You should be looking at ways to RETAIN customers - not ways to DETAIN customers.
2. Curtail the false advertising. Unlimited should be Unlimited - and $9.95 home phone shouldn't cost $22.
3. Oh, fees are not mandates - it's called profit. Stop making it look like a tax.

Wireless news bits...

• Airvana IPO Price Drops First Day
• Sprint & Clearwire JV on national WiMax plan [source]
• Hiwire mobile TV via Aloha Network's 700 MHz sprectrum and SES [source]

various news bits...

• Microsoft is teaming up with Jwire to offer free, ad-supported wi-fi. [source]
• The Senate Commerce Committee took the first step to improve the quality of broadband data used by the FCC. In a vote, the committee unanimously approved legislation to require the agency to revise its calculations on high-speed connection penetration rates. [internetnews]
• T endorses the FCC spectrum plan [source]
• FCC asks for comments on network neutrality, gets 27,000 of them
• Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) filed a comment to the FCC on Net Neutrality, saying it is "crucial to the democracy and economic growth of the United States."
• STT can increase its stake in Global Crossing - up to 66% per FCC [source]
• Local Gov't sue FCC on Video Franchise Ruling [source]
• FCC and Markey want Carterphone for wireless [internetnews]
• SPAM Isn’t Killing Email - SPAM Filters Are

Google on the move again

Google has announced intentions to enter the 700 MHz spectrum auction IF the FCC agrees to the open network idea. ("The four specific requests made by Google ask for open applications, open devices, open networks, and open services," according to PhoneScoop). Google is also ponying up a minimum of $4.6B for the auction.

I don't know if I ever posted this:

Google announced today that it will be making its Google Apps for your Domain available to ISPs. Google Apps Partner Edition is targeted specifically at service providers, which will allow them to make Google's collection of web apps available to thousands of subscribers as their own branded services. [source]

Google stock dips to $508 due to:

"Web search leader Google reported disappointing earnings yesterday, blaming a hiring spree and a jump in other operating expenses, sending its stock down 7 per cent. Google failed to beat Wall Street expectations for only the second time in its 12 quarters as a publicly traded company. Net profit rose 28 per cent and Google gained market share against Yahoo! and other rivals in online advertising." [source]

Google to concentrate on Universal Search and Translation Technology [source]

IPTV, iptv, iptv

My Gmail alerts are full of IPTV and WiMax news. I'm tired of both. WiMax doesn't really exist yet and IPTV is a limited idea. Here's why IPTV is a limited idea:

TV is the only medium where the consumer generally has a choice:

1. rabbit ears
2. the local cable franchise
3. 2 satellite TV companies (DBS from DirecTV and DISH)
4. The Web: iTunes, direct from the network website, and other places, and
5. soon, at least, in the NFL cities, you will have VZ or T offering something called IPTV.

But here's the funny part: it's a static pie. It's all about price at this point, because the channel choices are very similar. So the Bells are going to spend billions to split up the pie with cable and DBS. Gary Kim remarks:

But there's an important principle here. If one totes up the actual revenue any telecom provider can generate from video (ARPU is nice, but gross margin for an entertainment product has to be sliced in half to figure out what "gross revenue" actually is for a service provider), and then compares that to what a service provider can lose from current voice and data, the potential loss from voice and data is a larger number than the potential gains from new video services. That isn't an argument against providing video. It is an argument for not getting defocused on core data and voice revenues. That's where the money is. [emphasis added by me]

Even Wall Street is looking for proof in TV strategy, as the Washington Post writes.

Marketing Lesson from at&t

at&t in Connecticut is using block parties and an HDTV equipped ice cream truck to promote their new U-verse service. [source] Since it isn't available everywhere, mass marketing doesn't work. (They are learning). So the block by block approach probably works best - as many of you know. Door hangers, lawn signs, and other shoe leather marketing methods work best.

The Economies of VoIP

Gary Kim gives us some lessons from SunRocket:

1. In hindsight, it was kinda of crazy to spend $200+ to acquire a customer whose annual spend was only $200+. Hard to outrun the economics. The hopes, of course, was that if you reached a decent size, people would come to you and you could reduce your marketing costs. Vonage certainly hasn't seen this, so SunRocket wasn't going to be much better.
2. Customer service cost also can eat you alive. Anytime you call for customer service, figure it's costing that company between $0.75 and $1.00 PER MINUTE to talk to you. For a typical 10 minute call that's $8-10. Call twice in a month and for a SunRocket $17 a month revenue, they lost money on you. It's also amazing the number of people who buy cheap are also the same group who complain constantly.

Some more lessons from Bob at DigiLink (as commented to my blog on Phone+):

1. There is no such thing as unlimited voice service today. It is an illusion being propagated by those companies with clueless management and more money than sense who will cut off their own arm's and legs to get market share. It is not a sustainable business model today and anyone that thinks otherwise is just in denial.
2. Sunrocket's demise is a good example of the fact that they still had to deal with the per minute/incremental costs of passing calls to/from the PSTN.
3. the voice business is very complex and capital intensive. VoIp service may not require copper wires and plant but it does require a lot of software, facilities, systems and most expensively experienced personnel to keep everything running.

One point about Unlimited is that many companies play the over/under - hopefully, the few heavy users can be made up by many, many limited users.

Femtocell

Femtocell is the ability to move from a wi-fi network call to a cellular network call seamlessly. T-Mobile has this service (called Hotspot@Home) using UMA to encapsulate GSM over IP. Rumor has it that at&t has an RFP out for femtocell [source]. And Google invested in UK-based Ubiquisys, a maker of femtocell devices for mobile phones [source]

Zonbu's subscription-based PC

engadget has 2 posts about Zonbu, a mini-PC based on Linux with no hard drive (1st and 2nd posts). The $99 system is sold with a 2 year subscription service (of $12.95/mo) that includes 25GB of storage on Amazon S3. Seems like a new way to get cheap service, but it still needs Internet Access apparently.

What's the selling point? It's green - low power usage: PCmag reports: "It used 8W in standby and 11W in use playing DVDs or making a Skype call, using our Kill-A-Watt power monitor."

If this thing had wi-fi enabled and a 10" LCD screen, it could be a great idea for Muni Wi-Fi networks.

GTD 2.0

David Allen's book, Getting Things Done, has a cult following, including software devs that try to make tools for GTD. Emily has a list of them here.

Allen’s Getting Things Done describes five stages of mastering workflow: collect, process, organize, review, do. [emily] “The goal of GTD is [to] get things as much off your mind as possible..."

Google Notebook, Jott, Remember the Milk, Backpack, 30boxes, Nozbe, Vitalist, SimpleGTD, and others

Top 5 Business Headaches

NFIB's monthly mag for small businesses has The five Burdens of Business Ownership:

1. Healthcare
2. Gas Prices
3. Tax Burden
4. Cash Flow
5. Finding and Keeping Qualified Employees

CEF Going Away

On NxT1 service, Sprint and at&t used to use CEF (Cisco Express Forwarding), which naturally uses a Cisco Router as the CPE. But at&t has announced that it is retiring CEF and will use MLPPP instead.

AT&Ts older network edge devices that support NxT1 with CEF are being retired. They are being replaced with new units that support MLPPP, but not CEF, so MIS Product Management will withdraw NxT1 using CEF beginning in August, 2007. MLPPP is a superior solution that bonds multiple T1s to provide the equivalent of a single fat pipe, whereas CEF only load-balanced between T1s. NxT1 is a lower priced alternative for customers compared to fractional DS-3 for speeds up to 12Mb (SxT1).

AT&T, VZ, Vodafone - All Bout the Green

Lots of talk lately about Vodafone buying out the Verizon stake in Verizon Wireless. (Vodafone owns 45% of VZW). Vodafone wants VZW spun off to private equity like Alltel. It is estimated that VZW is worth about $48B; Alltel went for $27.5B. Alltel has 11M subscribers and is No. 5, after at&t, vzw, sprint, and t-mobile.

Andy has talk about Vodafone and AT&T buying each other (read it here). There has been noise about Vodafone buying its way into the US market (here). Vodafone could have bid on Alltel or T-Mobile (when T was up for sale).

The stickler is that without a wireless component, the wireline isn't all that appealing (look at Qwest). Most analysts say that the growth is in wireless (cellular) - voice and data. But even that is flattening out since everyone has a cell phone that can talk and afford one. (And if you can't afford one you get an Amp'ed phone and don't pay :)

But you and I are thinking business strategy. These jokers are only thinking about moving money and raising stock prices, cashing out, making themselves and their friends rich. It isn't about running a successful business, the consumers, the technology -- it's all about the Benjamins. Sad.

What is Worth Doing?

As business owners you are usually firemen, putting out fires all day. But you need to spend time ON your business not just IN your business. The Fire Chief on Rescue Me doesn't do the actual fire-fighting, he directs things. He's the Project Manager.

The checklist above is from David Seah, who has lots of tracking objects for use at his website. To manage your day, there is software, like Easy Tracking Pro, and a website for Project management (aceproject.com).

Get help. Being more productive means happiness and maybe a few more benjamins. Want some help from me and your peers? Then attend a RAD-INFO, Inc. Round Table event or come to ISPCON in San Jose in Oct. (Let me know either way!)

Outsourcing

As the business owner, you not only experience these time wasters, you need to see how you can eliminate some of it to make your employees more productive. Tim Ferriss wrote The 4-Hour Work Week about Productivity, Pareto's Principle, and Work-Life Balance. See the video here or listen to his talk from SXSW here. WSJ has an article discussing Outsourcing and sites like Guru.com, eLance.com, and rentacoder.com. Tim talks about GetFriday.com and workaholics4hire.com. (I have a Virtual Assistant from AssistU.com and I do not utilize her enough). Delegation is a leadershbip quality. It's a muscle that needs to be exercised to get stronger. And Outsourcing is about delegating and getting the best bang for the buck, especially for skills that are not available in-house.

Time Wasters

Switching Phone Service (YouTube)

Humor

A Kansas farm wife called the local phone company to report her telephone failed to ring when her friends called and that on the few occasions, when it did ring, her dog always moaned right before the phone rang. The telephone repairman proceeded to the scene, curious to see this psychic dog or senile lady. He climbed a telephone pole, hooked in his test set, and dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring right away, but then the dog moaned and the telephone began to ring. Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found:

1. The dog was tied to the telephone system's ground wire with a steel chain and collar.
2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose.
3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the number was called.
4. After a couple of jolts, the dog would start moaning and then urinate.
5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to ring.

Which demonstrates that some problems CAN be fixed by pissing and moaning. Just thought you'd like to know.

CEO Challenges

These are challenges frequently mentioned by CEOs:

• Accountability -- things that should get done, don’t get done
• Engagement -- people don’t seem to care as much
• Direction – focus is unclear, opportunities may be overwhelming
• Transition – a desire to “pass the torch” successfully
• Control - things “feel” out of synch
• Quality – product and service levels are diminishing
• Alignment - people aren’t on the same page
• Frustration – we should do better
• Human Resources - acquiring and retaining quality employees
• Knowledge management - when employees leave, they take with them much of your corporate brain trust and knowledge base

RAD-INFO, Inc. can help you with much of this. Give us a call and let's set up some time - 813.963.5884

Community and Apps

I often talk (okay, rant) about how Residential-based ISP's need to have community software so that people will be driven to the branded site. Offering what every other social network has can still build a local community, especially photo and video sharing and classifieds. IN the face of pricing pressure, giving your users community can make the difference.

Userplane.com offers: Add free community apps to your site. Then get paid when people use them!

Yipes! India Bought it

Yipes was one of the original fiber-metro ethernet plays (or EtherLECs or Optical Ethernet MAN Provider). Yipes went BK in 2002.

Yipes Enterprise Services, the new incarnation of bankrupt Yipes Communications, raised $54 million as part of its restructuring efforts. A group of investors bought the assets of the metropolitan network operator for $20 million with the approval of a federal bankruptcy court in San Francisco. [source]

In 2005, Yipes Enterprise Services Raised $24 Million in Funding. So the VC's put in about $100M total. Yipes went cash flow positive in Feb. of 2007 according to a press release. Yipes was bought this week by Reliance Comm. of India for $300M cash. Interesting facts:

• "Yipes owns over 22,000 route kilometers of fiber across 14 U.S. metros."
• "Yipes has nearly 1,000 enterprise customers, concentrated across 4 industry verticals - financial, legal, government and healthcare - which currently account for 50% of the Ethernet market."
• The company also had a global presence including Europe and a POP in Hong Kong.

Your VoIP Phone Numbers ... and SunRocket

Andy at VoIP Watch points out that with the doom-and-gloom hanging over SunRocket and Vonage, customers might want to start thinking about what will happen to their phone numbers. The problem with many VoIP Providers is the lack of CLEC status. Only licensed phone companies with NANPA can hold phone numbers. LNP only refers to phone companies, not VoIP (so far). While Andy talks to end users, I'm talking to providers: You need to check on the status of your DID's. What happens IF.....???

GigaOm is announcing that SunRocket is done. Crashed and burned.

The Art of Marketing

Seth Godin has an excellent post about marketing here:

Sure, it would be great if IDEO could design your next product or the CEO of Texaco would introduce your sales guy to his purchasing department. It would be great if you had the resources to have a detail force at every retailer, or Russell Simmon's PR firm or a page that got linked to from Yahoo's home page. But they won't, he won't and you don't. The art of marketing is not finding more money to do more marketing. It's figuring out how to tell a story that spreads with the resources you've got.

The art to marketing is to Tell A Stroy that is compelling enough that it will spread like an Idea Virus. It starts with having a Remarkable Service or Offer. That's why you can't have a me-too. You want a me-only.

I talk about Focus a lot but I'm not sure everyone understands what I mean. It takes incredible Focus for a company to offer one truly great service along with incredible customer care. That takes laser-like Focus and concentration to keep your eye on that ball. And you can't do that with a shotgun approach to offering everything to everyone. You don't need 5 or ten good offerings -- it starts with one remarkable one that makes you the best in your territory or market (however you define that).

Ring 9 Launches Web Meeting

Gainesville-based Ring9 started as a Level(3) VoIP Partner reselling L3's VOIP offering until that service was deep sixed by L3. Ring9 rolled out their own VoIP based on a Tekelec. No one has ever heard of them, but they had a booth at a show in Orlando I attended. (I can't remember which one - Comptel maybe, not ISPCON). According to the website FAQ, no one has heard of them because they have not spent money on marketing just on R&D. Here's the history:

Ring 9’s roots date back to 1990, when its former parent company, Central Services Group (CSG), was formed. CSG was a successful telecommunications provider that also served business customers. In 2004 CSG created their VoIP product line under the Ring 9 brand. In 2006 the Ring 9 was spun out of CSG as a stand alone company. Ring 9 is a private company. The majority of the shares are owned by the Nelson Family, the founders of CSG and Ring 9. There are also numerous outside investors.

Now they are moving into web conferencing. I can't figure out if they are just reselling Webex or its their own. Ring9 is a Cisco partner and Cisco recently bought Webex.

On VoIP Resellers

Andy Abramson @ VOIP Watch hits the nail squarely on the head about VoIP Providers:

"Market differentiation--everyone is a VoIP Reseller. No one is a market specialist. As a result it becomes hard to find the right VoIP Reseller to talk with. Companies reselling VoIP need more market focused messaging to drive their service offerings and availability." "If companies can get past the "if we build it they will come" mentality and instead start to niche, target and diversify their marketing, they will find the customers are there. But waiting for those buyers to find them won't be an easy way to do it."

Om has a look at the pulse of telecom here. And Business Week looks at the Telecom Bust to examine if it is back from the dead.

Personally, I think it is on it's knees. TV, broadband and cellular are flattening. Wireline and LD is shrinking. ARPU isn't increasing in most cases. And the old guard doesn't want to learn new tricks, except to wall gardens. The companies that can combine Voice 3.0 and Web 2.0 technology with their services will easily win niche markets.

PC World Rates ISP's

PC World rates ISP's, but by ISP's we mean ILEC and CableCo. Here's the chart with VZ FiOS in the lead.

10 good reasons not to provide free tech support

From the blog at TechRepublic, there are at least 10 good reasons not to provide Free tech support to people. Boils down to 2 main reasons: de-values your skills and You’ll wind up shouldering the blame for future problems.

Special One Day Roundtable Retreat With The NSP Strategist

• Have you met your sales goals these last 2 years?
• Have you reached your potential?
• Where is your focus?
• Do you shotgun market? Or are you a Sharpshooter?
• Do you fight fires all day?

We will cover Marketing Ideas, Planning, Focus, thoughts on Hiring, and some old fashion Business Advice.

With so much changing in the telecom industry as well as the service provider space, I am putting on 3 separate Round Tables with just 10 people each. Such a small gathering will allow you to get most of your questions answered as well as network face-to-face with other owners.

One of the concepts Napoleon Hill wrote about in Think & Grow Rich was a Master Mind Group.

"The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony." He continues ..."No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind."

This is not a workshop - it is a MasterMind Group. In a MasterMind Group, the agenda belongs to the group, and your participation is key. Your peers give you feedback, help you brainstorm new possibilities, and set up accountability structures that keep you focused and on track. You will create a community of supportive colleagues who will brainstorm together to move the group to new heights. You'll gain tremendous insights, which can improve your business and personal life.

Besides the Master Mind effect that gets created with face-to-face networking with peers, what can you expect from this event? What problems do you need solved?

You will have the opportunity to email me your specific questions, challenges and expectations of this one day even to ensure you get your most pressing issues addressed.

There will be 3 Round Tables this year: the first in Biloxi, MS on Friday, August 17. The next one will be in Atlanta on Sept. 18. And the final one in New Orleans on Oct. 4. More information is available here. Register by email or phone - 813.496.2122 or by Yoomba or by Skype or with Gizmo

Google on a buying spree

Google bought Postini this week for $625M. Postini will be integrated into Google Apps for Enterprises. Many analysts speculate that Google needs to add security before wide spread acceptance of its apps happens. Postini also offers secure hosted IM.

Apart from Postini, acquisitions in recent months include call and message coordinator Grand Central, PowerPoint rival Zenter, WebEx clone Marratech, presentation software maker Tonic Systems, and wiki-hosting company Jotspot. In May, Google also acquired Green Border, which secures computers by blocking unwanted downloads and registry changes through “virtualized” Internet browsing sessions. [source: red herring]

Tech Blunders: Sprint

Sprint announced plans for its $35B merger with Nextel on 12/15/2004. (It ended up costing much, much more than that as Sprint ended up buying most affiliates due to litigation, including Nextel Partners for $6.5B)

Sprint then spunoff its wireline business - naming it EMBARQ - when there was still plenty of value left there. In fact, as the 4th largest ILEC, it would have been a great base to use for FMC strategy. One of the reasons that Sprint was the 3rd largest LD carrier, I think, was due to that base of over 2M local customers.

Two years later, most of the more profitable Nextel clients have left. The billing systems are still not integrated. (I have a Sprint PCS account and a Nextel account -- and cannot get them combined still!).

Even though Sprint has a large Internet backbone, its mainly cable and Embarq that uses it.

Sprint Fires Crabby Customers

The blogosphere and the news media (especially the grump at ZDnet) are up in arms over Sprint's decision to fire cranky clients. Seth has a post about it. Apparently, many of the 1000 fired called 25 times a month. You can't please those customers... ever! And at $30 per call -- they were costing Sprint $750 per month each - or $750,000 per month combined. Sometimes it's better to get rid of the unprofitable customers.

In the book, The 4 Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris talks about Parkinson's law and how applying the Pareto Principle to your business can increase revenue. (Get mp3 here). Pareto says that 80% of your complaints and your revenue will come from 20% of your customers - but not the same 20%. Identify your best clients - and duplicate them, find more of them. That's the way to success.

VZ Holds 2500 Patents

"Verizon now owns nearly 2,500 patents in the United States and around the world, and the list continues to grow.... Overall, Verizon now owns 2,044 U.S. patents and 450 foreign patents." [CNN-Money] Among some of the new patents awarded to Verizon in the past 18 months were:

• Patents for new or enhanced voice services, such as call management through customer computers and other ways to leverage the connectivity provided by Internet connections.
• Patents related to providing IP networking and related services via wireless devices.
• Patents related to the configuration and testing of firewalls to protect services (and customers) connected with the Internet.
• Patents for new processes that can be used to help battle denial of service attacks.
• Patents related to enhancing network capability for delivering bandwidth-demanding content such as video on demand.

250,000 devices

VZ now manages 250,000 servers, routers and security devices according to CNN-Money. That means many companies big and small want someone else to take the burden. Is that you? Do you train your people? Do you advertise the certs your people hold?

According to industry analyst firm Gartner Inc., "By 2010, 60 percent of U.S.-based enterprises will outsource the management and operation of part, or all, of their corporate networks, up from 30 percent in 2006."(1) Globally, 47 percent of Verizon Business customers using the company's flagship offering, Private IP, opt for full management. [CNN-Money]

And more Tech Blunders: Dot Coms

eToys, Pets.com, CMGI, Idealabs, 2C2, and so many, many more companies blew up when the bubble burst in 2000. (USA Today article about it). Approximately 40,000 dot-com employees lost their jobs -- and many also lost retirement accounts.

Most of the companies forgot some simple business advice: You have to Sell something! And you have to make a profit.

Now, I have one client who will argue about the profit part because we see so many companies operate in the red, like Level3 for about 18 quarters. But these companies sell stock and bonds to acquire cheap capital to keep business afloat. Some of the losses are paper losses only.

The dot-com build up was a gold rush. The business to be in was selling picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. That's where the gold was. billions in stockholder money

More Tech Plunders: AOL

Time Warner blundered as bad as any company. Netscape had the market share and watched it dwindle - and so did AOL. When TW bought AOL, there was supposed to be a strategy for synergy. The ability to get advertising revenue, exclusive content from all the TW properties (includig all the magazines), and all those You've Got Mail eyeballs together. TW also had a broadband network (RoadRunner).

• There was very little upsell made from AOL dial-up to RR. One reason was that AOL dial-up was HUGELY, grossly profitable.
• There was no strategy to make the premium magazine content available through AOL only.
• Remember WebCrawler, the AOL search engine? Had the most eyeballs, but not branded well.

Today, AOL is free. It's all about the advertising revenue.

If there WAS a plan; it was never executed.

10 Marketing Ideas for WISP's (podcast)

The tele-seminar I did a few months back is available in MP3: 10 Marketing Ideas for WISPs

50 Ideas in 50 Minutes: First 10 (podcast)

The first 10 ideas from the list of 50+ presented at ISPCON by Jack Brandt and myself. (It’s a podcast). These are the 10:

1. Plan - so you have a path
2. Strategy - not just putting out fires
3. Call your best customers just to make sure everything o.k., ask for referrals
4. Focus on Goals
5. Marketing takes 6-9-12 months ... it doesn't work fast
6. Become an Expert - newsletter, podcast, blog, keep people thinking we know everything
7. Think tank or Mastermind Group for your business, includes your attorney, CPA, 2 best customers, 2 best prospects, and investors. (Board of Directors)
8. Hosted nonportable services - like CRM, hosted exchange. Makes you stickey and the Bells can’t do it well.
9. Get others organized.
10. Phase out projects that don't meet your goals or distract you from your Goals.

Why Businesses Fail

I collected about some lists of reasons businesses fail here, but it boils down to just a few.

1. You can’t get (and retain) enough customers
2. You can’t make a profit
3. Cash Flow
4. You don’t run your business like a business.
5. No Planning (or Poor Planning).
6. Failed execution.

US Lags and Is Slow in BB

From Yahoo Biz,

"when when it comes to broadband speeds, U.S. consumers lag far behind many industrialized countries, says a new survey of Internet users. .... The study, commissioned by the Communications Workers of America labor union, found a median Internet download connection speed of 1.97 megabits per second in the U.S. -- much slower than Japan's 61 megabits per second, South Korea's 45 megabits per second and Canada's 7 megabits per second. The CWA got its results from 80,000 Internet users across the country who visited a site called speedmatters.org to test individual connection speeds."

"The survey also ranked the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The fastest: Rhode Island, followed by Kansas. The slowest: Alaska, just behind South Dakota. The CWA's Goldman says the survey was generous in its speed estimates. Dial-up users -- which she says still make up more than 30% of U.S. users -- had difficulty completing the survey because of their slow connection speeds. So the true median might be even slower."

Using IT Vendor Sites for Promotion

Patti Wilson has a post called "Using IT Vendor Sites for Promotion". Here it is:

Anyone who is an independent consultant providing IT services to companies should consider posting their information on Knowledgestorm, or Bitpipe. Similar to Guru and E-lance and Linkedin, they use the info-mediary power of the Internet to promote your services. Passively promoting yourself even when you aren't looking for the next gig, deal or position keeps you visible and "in play". And it will make your next search faster and easier. Make sure that what you say is consistent across venues, sites and networks because Google doesn't discriminate when a search is done on your name. Everything will come up for view. But give the research that Knowledgestorm and Marketing Sherpa jointly conducted, IT professionals use advanced search tools and preform boolian searches (see below). Obviously those speeches you did in another life may come back to haunt you. Here are excerpts from the public relations postings from Knowledgestorm's site to give you a flavor of what they purport to do. About KnowledgeStorm: KnowledgeStorm is the Internet's top-ranked search resource for technology solutions and information. We help technology vendors reach technology buyers as they are searching on-line and convert them into Web leads. Leveraging the KnowledgeStorm Network of premier partners and its extensive search expertise, .......reach technology buyers and deliver the information they need no matter where their search begins...... Among the key findings, technology buyers are using more complex search terms. Fifty-six percent use three or more words in their search phrases. Nineteen percent use search operators such as "and" and "or" as part of their search phrase. Technology buyers are also going deeper into the search results, as much as five pages deep. Only 11 percent of buyers don't go beyond the first page of results.

Bell Canada Enterprise Goes for $48.5B

From internews.com, a Jupiter Media company:

Bell Canada Enterprise (BCE) has been bought out in one of the largest leveraged buyouts ever. The Canadian Telecom giant which has phone, internet, wireless, Satellite TV and media holdings including CTV and The Globe and Mail newspaper is set to be acquired by for US$48.5 billion. BCE will be acquired by a consortium of investment firms led by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and its private investment arm Teachers Private Capital. Teachers will be joined by Providence Equity Partners Inc. and Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC. in all cash deal that will include the assumption of debt, preferred equity and minority interests.

That almost $50 BILLION! And one more Bell company disappears.

Business Central 400 - Office in a Box

This looks like July is Gadget Month with th elaunch of the iPhone and the Archos 605 WiFi tablet. Phone+ has a review / round-up of Phone Systems (PBX and key systems) aimed at the small biz market. And ISP Planet has a write up of the SUTUS Office in a Box, Business Central 400. Features of the Business Central 400 include:

• 802.11 b/g
• Web server
• Remote access through VPN and HTTPS
• DHCP server
• MAC address registration and filtering
• Mail server (based on open source software)
• VoIP through SIP (including SIP registrar + proxy)
• 3-local conferencing
• Dynamic and static DNS
• Automatic security updates
• T.38 fax support
• SIP Trunking and POTS options
• serving up to 25 people

The Business Central 400 is available now. The appliance lists at $6,200. Call RAD-INFO, Inc. for details or to purchase one for your office.

Buying or Selling?

Nice write up on ISP Planet about Tom Millitzer of New Commerce Comm. NCC sets companies up for selling or buying.

Sprint Drops Clients

From a WSJ article (no link available):

Sprint Nextel Corp. has taken the unusual step of disconnecting customers who call customer service excessively. The country's third-largest wireless provider, with more than 53 million subscribers, has sent letters to about 1,000 subscribers terminating their contracts, according to Roni Singleton, a company spokeswoman. "The number of inquiries you have made to us ... has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs."

This is a great idea. Fire your worst, most costly clients. It saves you time, resources and money. It's Pareto's Principle: 80/20 -- 80% of your complaints come from 20% of your clients.

50 Ways to Track Website Traffic

There are over 50 ways (apparently) to track web traffic. Mashable.com collects them all here. Mashable also collects 27 Features that Make Google Analytics Best of Breed

Sell UM for Customer Retention

Telecomweb writes about how enterprises are using technology mainly for customer retention.

Results of a new survey say hosted communications services, video, unified messaging, and voice over IP deployments are on the rise in the enterprise and contact-center environments. "What's particularly interesting is that, among those who had not yet deployed unified messaging, the primary reason listed was 'no perceived benefit.' Clearly, vendors must do a better job of showing customers measurable ROI, which we think is possible if unified-messaging applications are offered as part of a broader, 'all-in-one' unified communications architecture." "Our survey results showed that the increasing need to improve customer loyalty was the main trend impacting businesses over the past year," Staples concludes. "This is in line with other aspects of our survey showing the uptake of relatively new technologies, such as video, to both personalize and make more convenient the customer experience. This means companies are demanding more flexible, highly customizable applications -- the kind that can be created and modified in-house. Business-communications solutions that use open standards, are software-based, and can be easily managed and customized are the ones that will fit this bill moving forward."

TalkPlus by Alec

Alec Saunders gives a detailed look at TalkPlus for your mobile phone. The 3 things that TalkPlus can do (specifically on the Nokia smartphone) are:

1. Allows more than 1 phone line on mobile
2. Hosts conference calls
3. Save money on international

As I have said before, TalkPlus allows service providers to offer some kind of cellular piece to the puzzle.

SunRocket cleans house

Andy and Om are reporting that SunRocket's VC's may feel that the failure of Vonage means no big ROI, soooo...

"Om is right on: forty-plus (25% of the staff) were laid off from SunRocket yesterday (Friday). The CTO, CIO, CFO, and CPO were axed too. As far as I know, the only C-levels still there are CEO and CMO. The whole San Diego product team was cut." [Andy]

What does this mean for VoIP in general? MSO's were already moving into the forefront of VoIP in subscriber numbers, but it looks like turmoil from the pure play boys at Vonage and SunRocket.

Voice Revenue is Declining

From a Forbes.com article on Sprint's WiMax 4G plan:

"Revenue from plain-vanilla cellphone calls is eroding, and carriers must bet on wireless data to drive growth."

Gary Kim has been saying (in his keynotes, blogs and articles for over 18 months) that voice revenue was declining.

It's a mad rush to make up the declining voice revenue with data. (Tough to do with $10 DSL). Telcos don't want to be dumb pipes with other companies (Web 2.0, social net sites, apps, Google & YouTube) making all the money off their investment. Hence, the walled garden approach to cellular data - and $60 for EVDO service.

That means as an ISP, you can either provide the unfiltered dumb pipe or you can add Layer 7 to grab some of the app revenue.

The really bad thing that could happen is we windup being just providers at the pipes that allow those things to be created. Those things get created by other parties that are not affiliated with you a business sense and you don’t capture much of the revenue from it. So, it’s a huge challenge, it faces all service providers not just the CLECs and it’s an issue we’re going to be facing for the rest of our professional career, that’s very clear. [Gary Kim in an interview]

Survival is not Enough: Listen to Zoom

Survival is not Enough: Zooming, Evolution, and the Future of Your Company by Seth Godin is an audio cassette set of 2 tapes, on which the author reads the abridged version of the book. I have an extra copy. For the cost of S&H ($3.99) it's yours. For just $175, I'll send it to you and discuss how we can use the principles to improve your company. Call 813-963-5884.