Everyone Against the FCC

Congress and groups are begging Martin to delay the Inter-Carrier Compensation and Universal Service Fund debate. And state Attorney Generals are suing to stop the Alltel-Verizon cellular merger. So the Nov. 4 agenda looks like a mess, except for White Spaces which McDowell says will likely pass.

Sprint, Cogent is ISPissing Contest

According to Alex Muse, DSLReports and GigaOm, Cogent and Sprint de-peered this morning in a tiff of some kind.  Cogent claimed this year that it was settlement free - coupled with its roots in the PSInet backbone network made it a Tier 1 provider. Cogent has had issues with other backbones including Level3 and Telia.

Cogent is incensed at the move,saying it violates a contractual obligation to exchange internet traffic on a settlement-free peering basis, and is taking legal action. It wants Sprint-Nextel to re-establish the link on the same basis.

So Cogent decided to make an offer:

Cogent is taking the moral high ground, and offering every Sprint-Nextel wireline customer that can't connect to Cogent's customers a free 100MBps internet connection until Sprint reconnects, though it says it can't do the same for wireless users. [IT examiner]

Passion, Motivation and Employees

Contemplating some stuff from Fast Company magazine, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the ever pressing issue of salespeople. Is it enough that they are trying 40 hours per week? Or should salespeople be doing more?

If they lack product knowledge, it has to be gained as fast as possible to do the job well. So that would result in a 40+ hour week. After 6 months and no product knowledge, it has to go back on the employee. Seek it out, Demand it or Find it, but Acquire it somehow. It shows a lack of ambition. Moreso, it shows that you do not have a passion for your job.

Sales ultimately is about transfer of emotion. Your passion for what you sell is transferred to the prospect during the sales process. If you are not passionate about what you sell, your prospect won't be either. Sales is emotive. Remove the emotion and it is a numbers game (bid war). So no passion, few sales.

If your employees - sales or otherwise - have a passion for the business, they will be motivated. All this talk about motivating people is crazy. You can inject them with excitement temporarily but Motivation is internal. Passion is motivating. Fear of losing your job can be.

So to motivate your team, you have to get them to enjoy, like or have a passion for what they are doing - or at least for the end game. Salespeople who really believe in the product, believe that their product can and will help the client. That attitude is transferable. Customer service people who believe in the product will have an easier time of it because they know the product works and just want to help the customer (use it).

Next time you are hiring, look for Attitude. Enthusiasm, motivation, ambition, passion -- these are the intangibles that make up a great team. Think about the Marines. Marines truly believe in what they do and that they do it better than anyone else. They were selected for this special unit. Isn't that how you want your employees to feel?

Two things then: make your office the best place to work and select the best people possible to work there.

SEO and PR

It turns out that press releases can be used for SEO. Press releases. You know those boring messages that you don't send out to let people know that you have a new tower or new office or new sales director or just hit a milestone like 10,000 customers.

Here are 2 PowerPoint presentations on SEO and PR from the Marketing Idea Guy blog via PRsarahevans:

• The first is titled: SEO and PR for Digital Public Relations.
• The second is titled: SEO Copywriting: Submitting SEO Press Releases.

Why would you use Twitter?

Best use I can think of for Twitter is network updates for internal team and external customers. If there ever is a problem, you can update everyone through Twitter instead of email or text messages.

the other thought I had for twitter was to do a weekly sales tip via a twitter feed. If interested, let me know. Follow me on twitter now at http://twitter.com/radinfo

Hosting Sliding?

Two separate articles talking about how hosting is sliding.

Web hosting a downward trend?

Rackspace Embraces SaaS Even Though SaaS May Lower ARPU

Are You Selling Hosted PBX right?

If you are starting the conversation with "I can save you...", you are not selling Hosted PBX right. I know. I know. bad economy. How else do I get my foot in the door? Blah, blah, blah. How about being creative and memorable? It's cost more in time, effort and in some cases money, but it works. Anyway...

Here is a link to a chart that compares Hosted PBX with on-site PBX. You are selling Hosted PBX on TCO (total cost of ownership), productivity gains, efficiency, maybe eliminating head-count (or at least freeing up someone to actually do RGA. That real ROI -- it's more than savings. It's how can you turn your phone system into a business productivity tool? these are just my thoughts today.

CenturyTel Buying Embarq

In an all stock deal valued at somewhere $11.6B, CenturyTel is buying the larger Embarq. ($5.8B in stock and $5.8B of Embarq's debt.) Embarq has been up for sale for the last six months with no takers. Now in this economic tsunami, C-Tel pulls an all-stock merger. Interesting.

We have been watching for a merger among the independent ILEC's - Windstream, Embarq, and CenturyTel. Other Indies have been merging - like Hargary and Smart City. Just no one predicted this one. The bet was on Embarq and Windstream to merge. But then no one saw the Fairpoint/VZ deal coming either.

C-Tel's third-quarter sales slipped about 8% to $650 million from $708.8 million, but Embarq does $1B quarterly. ("The telecom technology company said revenue fell to $1.53 billion from $1.59 billion in the year-ago period.") [marketwatch article]

"The combined company would have about 8 million lines spanning 33 states, mainly in rural areas, " according to the AP. Rural means less density and less ability to push FTTx and broadband. Without a cellular component, these incumbents face a downhill slide in revenue. (They are in the EarthLink boat sort of).

AT&T Read My Blog!

I know I have reached the big time now that AT&T is following my blog. Hey, guys, over at AT&T: Are you trying to learn something new? Or are you just trying to censor what I say? BTW, this picture is not a logo, it is a Parody! And so is the second one!

SSPA

Founded in 1989, the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) has grown to become the largest and most influential industry trade group for technology service and support professionals. Its nearly 200 member companies represent tech support, field service and customer relations organizations around the globe.

Digital Hands from Tampa just won an award from the SSPA. Digital Hands is an outsourced IT company. Between the SSPA and the MSP Alliance, you should start taking a look at other forms of revenue from leveraging your in-house skill sets.

Adtran, XO, Lunch

I spoke at an Adtran and XO luncheon today about Convergence, the Cloud, and not leaving money on the table. So here are 2 plugs :)

XO is selling 3MB on EoC (Ethernet over Copper) for about $320 in Miami. XO just hit 15,000 customers on its XO Flex platform. XO is not buying Nuvox.

Adtran has an Edgewater (VoIP QoS Router) replacement in their NetVana line of boxes (IP Biz Gateway).

Lawsuits over Small Wage and Hour Claims

Read this article carefully if you have even one employee. It just goes to show that there are too many lawyers in this country. Time to save college money by closing some of the law schools.

Highlights:

• they're happy to find 10 or 15 employees working off the clock or due unpaid overtime.
• So the employee might get $10,000 but the attorneys' take could easily amount to as much as $100.000.
• remember that for a Title VII claim, you have to have 15 employees, but for wage and hour Fair Labor Standards Act violations, just one employee is enough.

Short Lesson

This is probably better suited for Thanksgiving, but with everything going on, remember to take a few minutes per day to Breath. Breathing is good. Smelling the roses are extra, but enjoy the journey, it ends abruptly (and usually without notice).

FCC Doing Heavy Lifting

The FCC is holding a meeting on Nov. 4. On the agenda: Inter-Carrier Compensation, Alltel-VZ merger, Clearwire-Sprint merger, and a vote of White Spaces. Lots of heavy lifting on this agenda. Martin wants to give his pals at VZ one more gift before he goes.

The VZ-Alltel merger is big, but the topic that can really rock telecom is the Inter-carrier Comp issue, which has been a stagnant FCC docket for years.

If companies can show high costs, they will continue to benefit from the subsidy program. Martin also wants to eliminate wireless providers' right to claim government subsidies for offering service in hard-to-reach areas. Martin wants all companies, wireless included, to show they have incurred losses in providing rural service before they can collect the subsidy. Without those changes, Martin worries that the subsidy fund will collapse of its own weight and rates will go up anyhow. [CNN]

It depends want the Compromise looks like -- and it will be a large compromise. Democrats want one thing. Republicans another. Cellcos versus Wireline. Rural versus Urban. Inter-Carrier Comp even bleeds into the USF issue. How? Because rural carriers count on both Universal Service Fund subsidies AND rather high call termination charges to keep afloat.

Why now? The ISP inter-carrier comp rule has been in court for six years. Earlier this year, the DC Court ruled that the FCC had to get off the pot:

The court set the deadline for an order from the FCC at November 5, 2008, six months from the date of oral argument, stated it will not grant an extension and warned that if an appropriate order is not timely issued, it will vacate the interim inter-carrier compensation rules.

Consumer groups are against another largess for the monopolies at the expense of the ratepayers.

The head of the Federal Communications Commission wants a massive overhaul of the fees that phone companies pay each other when they connect calls. Supporters say the reforms will help fund improved broadband Internet access for rural America, but consumer advocates question how much the plan will raise people's phone bills. "This could be potentially a billion-dollar giveaway to phone monopolies, paid for out of consumers' pocketbooks," said Chris Murray, an attorney with Consumers Union. [AP]

Intercarrier comp is how the various phone companies pay each other for traffic. VoIP providers and cellular carriers, especially Sprint, would like a fairer shake. The old RBOCs would like the Rural LEC's to stop getting so much money. (see Free Conference services not getting paid by RBOCs).

The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, which represents small phone carriers, told FCC officials earlier this month that a new rate of $0.0007 per minute puts many of their members' livelihoods at risk.

And then there is the White Spaces issue. When broadcasters make the DTV transition in 1Q09, there will be unused spectrum that the Wireless World would like to use for its own bandwidth needs. However, due to bleed over (interference) with cordless microphones and other broadcasting devices, the NAB is opposed. [see dailywireless]

All of this is at one meeting while America votes.

Not to go Political, but...

This blog explains why a Republican VC guy is not voting for McCain. I agree with some of his points. One that he missed is that his choice of Veep probably demonstrates how he will pick other key figures like Treasury and Secretary of State - key figures that will face Big problems.

I think it is sad that we had 30+ candidates start this trip and all of them are hiding somewhere instead of backing their party candidate. It says so much about politicians in the US in general.

The fact that neither candidate (or their staff) could predict that a simple question was coming during debate 2 speaks volumes as well: Who would you pick for Treasury Secretary? In the midst of this huge economic blowback, you didn't see this question coming? How will you handle other surprises? By finishing the ending of a children's book?

UPDATE: "That train is going to hit us again," Dimon said. "We are unable to make the decisions to make this country healthy." An interesting speech from the CEO of JPMorgan Chase.

VoIP mashup for Doctors

Thomas Howe is working on a Voice mash-up for Polycom (because that's what Thomas Howe does - Mash-ups to make VoIP a useful app). The app will "allow doctors to see their scheduled appointments for the day and press a single button to have all the unconfirmed appointments called and confirmed." [itexpo] Now that's what VoIP is for!

IP is $7

The price of Wholesale IP Backbone has fallen across the board to $7. If you are buying wholesale IP in a 1GB port on a two year contract, it runs approximately $7 per MB from many carriers including HE.net, Above.Net, XO, Level3, NTT/Verio, Telia, WV. There are stipulations like it has to be an NFL city and you have to commit to more than 20% (and sometimes the whole port). The transport loop is Extra. So for those of you in the Heartland of America that want that price, you just have to add the 100+ mile link.

New Internet Access Rates

Ma Bell released new NxT1 Internet Rates (to my customer through a direct AE):

• 2 x T1 MIS with a Managed Router $725
• 3 x T1 MIS w/Managed Router $1,032
• 4 x T1 MIS w/ Managed Router $1,057

And they have a Competitor rate for 10MB for $1000 in the 22 state foot-print. There are stipulations. There needs to be a competitive situation with a copy of the competitor's quote. 36 month contract. 50 mile loop limit (add $200 for extra mileage). Available through 3T08 by calling a telecom agent like yours truly (813-963-5884). (I am not a AT&T Solution Provider. I work with a couple of them.)

Please NOTE: These rates came from a customer via Direct AE from AT&T. Once again the internal AE's have a leg up on the Channel Partners. Once again AT&T is mad at me for posting stuff that they released. I don't post stuff that comes direct from AT&T - but if an AE gives it to a customer that is Public Domain!

Seth Prize Pack

Today is Seth Day. I have a ticket to his seminar in NYC on Wed., Oct. 22 from 9 AM till Noon. I can't go because I am speaking in Lauderdale on Thursday and I want to be at my best. Not likely if I am in NYC the day before. So want the ticket? Let me know - 813-963-5884.

Also, see that picture of 3 books by Seth including his latest one, Tribes? Want the pack? Tell me why and I'll mail it to you. (Include your name and mailing address in the email to peter (a) rad-info dot NET. BTW, that's an original Cereal Box set for Free Prize Inside (never opened)

Home Monitoring

I get a good amount of (unwanted) PR in my piles of email. Yesterday one came in from the Z-Wave Alliance. Yeah. I didn't know who or what they were either. But they do some work on Home Security with Monitoring and Automation. The next gen house, right? Just after the market recovers in 2010. Here's some of the message:

I thought you would be interested to learn that five members of the Z-Wave Alliance will be demonstrating the possibilities of an interoperable Security, Monitoring and Automation (SMA) home solution at The Cable Center’s ‘Cable Today and Tomorrow’ exhibition. The exhibit will include Schlage connected door locks, GE lighting and appliance adapters, and Panasonic and SerComm IP cameras that operate on a single network, available as a bundled service through cable providers, for a personalized home security and control services managed through TVs, PCs or mobile phones. The exhibition opens today and will run through April 1, 2009 in Denver, Colo.

For MDU or greenfield or rehab housing these are great value adds.

Only the strong survive.

Dan Caruso, the CEO of Zayo and on the Board at NTG, writes a blog called Bear on Business, which has a post about what to do in today's economy. Here are some snippets:

1. While no one knows how long or deep this downturn will be, there is a clearly appropriate strategy - prepare for the worst and seize the best opportunities when they come.
2. For our customers, I am sure the impact will be broad and varied. .... We need to be responsive to these needs and vigilant on our exposure.
3. Our success will be a function our ability to be nimble and responsive to the shifting environment we face.
4. Only the Strong, Nimble, Focused, Creative, Disciplined and Driven Survive.

I would like to add the following:

Shore Up Your Best Customers NOW! Stay in contact weekly. As Gitomer says, "What would you do if your top 3 clients left?"

Be flexible. And creative.

Cut costs where you can, but sell the profitable stuff first and foremost.

This is also a great time to look at what ALL of your true costs are to see if you ARE indeed making a profit. (Not, do I have money left over at the end of the month? But am I charging enough to insure a certain profit margin). Many of these calculations that I have seen ISPs do, often neglect to factor many of the line items on this list.

1. Have you looked at how much credit cards are taking? Bad debt? Billing?
2. The Cost of Sales (referral payments, salesperson costs including salary, benefits, expenses, lease, desk, phones, car allowance)
3. Lease payments. If you lease phones or CPE, credit may tighten. Pay attention. Talk to your banker.

It's a good time to get out and network with businesses locally to help each other, to get new ideas, and to create some business opportunities. Here's a video lesson on Biz Schmoozing by Keith Ferrazzi.

499 and 477

The Law Offices of Thomas Crowe has a simple explanation about form 499a (USF payments) here.

Virtually all telecommunications providers, including long distance resellers, prepaid card providers, wireless providers, Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), and now interconnected VoIP providers, seeking to provide service in the U.S. must first register to do so with the FCC. Registration is accomplished by filing with the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) a signed copy of selected portions of the FCC Form 499-A.

The form 499 is due quarterly. (see schedule here).

Form 477 is in flux right now as the FCC is taking comments on how to improve data collection after the court, Congress and the GAO gave Martin a beating about his lousy data. Anyway.... the form 477 has to be March 1 and Sept. 1. (I have written about this before).

There are also new privacy rules for carriers called CPNI (Customer Proprietary Network Information). "This filing must be made annually with the Enforcement Bureau on or before March 1 in EB Docket No. 06-36, for data pertaining to the previous calendar year." The fines for not filing these forms are high. It is easier and cheaper to have your attorney file for you. I would suggest Kris Twomey or Jonathan Marashlian at The CommLaw Group.

Top 4 Reasons to go to ISPCON

If you are coming to San Jose next month (Nov. 11-13 in San Jose) for ISPCON, we have a few surprises.

One: I have a free pass for someone who needs (deserves?) one.

Two: A Creative Dinner for 7 on Tuesday night. By creative, I mean we are going to talk about Marketing Campaigns.

Three: ISP-CEO moderated by Alex and I; John Todd and Donny Smith are the Keynotes; Get all of your Marketing Q's answered by Jack and I during The Marketing Spotlight; and Google will be on a panel I am moderating talking about How to Run a Channel.

Four: Live hockey! The Sharks are home Tuesday and Thursday night.

How do you get in on this excitement? Email me with why you should be included.

UPDATE: I should explain Item 2. I am gathering similar sized (and minded business owners) to have dinner and discuss Creative Marketing Ideas. You have to bring some ideas and you will get some ideas -- and some real world experience on what does and does not work. (PS: I am not picking up the check. I'm just gathering the Master Mind). More questions? drop me a line.

Cox is no Vonage

Verizon sued Cox over VoIP patents -- and lost. Cox must have hired lawyers that understood patents and the technology, unlike Vonage, whose hired guns lost case after case this year to Sprint, VZ, and others. The one thing that Vonage had against it was that its IPO filing contained details about its VoIP service -- evidence carriers used to base th epatent infringement cases upon.

BarCampTampaBay

BarCamp Tampa Bay was held this weekend at USF College of Business. Over 350 people pre-registered for this Un-conference. (Don't know what a BarCamp is? See BarCamp.org.)

Ours was just one of 4 worldwide this weekend - South Africa, Houston, Little Rock and Tampa Bay. The whole idea behind BarCamp is that everyone shares, learns, participates. It is engaging. There isn't an agenda - until the morning of, when the participants design it. We had 3 or more rooms going with over 60 people giving talks, some as short as my 7 minutes on the Triumvirate of the Consultant. The longest was 2 hours on Drupal. Adobe was there to talk about Flex both days, which resulted in a rant about Flex and Advertising issues and a suggestion to try Adobe Flex hosting with Influxis because you can do webinars from the platform too.

Other topics: Twitter; Blogging; Podcasting; Python; RubyonRails; Second Life; iPhone development, and a voice app. Gavin Stark put the schedule on the mobile web AND wrapped it in an Asterisk app (with Ruby?) so that if you dialed the conference phone number, the schedule was read to you. How cool is that?

BarCampTampaBay was a huge success. How do I know this?

1. The main room was empty except for lunch and breaks -- everyone was in the session rooms. That means Engagement, which is the Holy Grail of event planning.
2. People were asking when the next one was - AND offering to help.

BTW, plenty of noise on twitter and pics/video around, just look for barcampatampa.

There's a BarCamp in Atlanta this weekend; Memphis and Nashville soon; New Orleans has a BarcampApache on Nov. 4. There are other Un-Conferences like PodCamp, WordPressCamp, CreateChaos, and more. It's all about the content, the learning and the sharing - from people passionate about what they do.

VZ Launches Tech Support

Gary Kim has a detailed look at VZ's new Tech Support program (here)

Need more evidence that the historic demarcation between wide area networks and premises networks is gone? Verizon Communications has launched an "Expert Care" service plans that offer 24 by 7, in-depth technical support for computer software and hardware problems, as well as repair or replacement coverage for computers, TVs and telephone equipment.

Read the rest of the detail here.

Time for you to start thinking about Value Adds like this as well. It raises the ARPU $10 per month for stuff you are doing for free. At least put it in your advertising as "Included not like those guys who charge for it."

Sequoia Sounds the Alarm

It's been all over the blogosphere this morning (GigaOm, Om again, Bear, Alley): Sequoia Capital is worried. They have given advice to all their portfolio companies. Here's some of it:

• The Good Times are Over!
• Cut spending. Cut fat. Preserve capital.
• Focus on quality.
• Reduce risk.
• Make sure you have one year's worth of cash.
• If you have a product, reduce expenses around it and boost sales. If the product is ready, cut the number of engineers.
• Be brutal when it comes to marketing -- anything that isn't working, cut it.
• Don't burn through your cash, for cash is king.
• Cut base salaries on sales people and leverage them with upside.
• Most importantly, be true to yourself.

It means that you have to be lean and focused to get through the next 2 years. Get started now!

Selling Circuits

As you know I am a sales agent for 20+ carriers. Moreso lately, ISP's want the cheapest possible circuit so they can re-sell it with margin to the client. Well, getting a CSA today for special pricing is difficult, but you can get a Volume and Term Agreement (if you bill $100K per month). So what are you left with?

Go to Layer 7 by Selling Managed Services.

1. Managed Router.
2. URL and Content Filtering so that employees aren't shopping, IM/chatting, job hunting all day on the employer's dime.
3. Backup /Email Archiving / Back-up services.
4. Manged Security like Intrusion Detection and Firewall.
5. VPN is a value add on top of DIA (also known as Dedicated Internet Access or MIS).
6. If the client has a Frame Relay network, upgrade that to MPLS (with me). That will likely mean an upgrade of the network gear, which is a chance to offer managed router services.

To compete against the cheaper monopoly, you need to add value. You might also have to prove TCO improvements (total cost of ownership is cheaper with you than X). Or have an ROI model (return on investment = where the cost savings are like in time, effort, CAPEX, OPEX).

Need more ideas? You should read the book: SELLECOM.

Hatteras Ethernet over Copper Webinar

Xchange magazine is hosting a webinar with Hatteras to discuss Ethernet over Copper. One of Hatteras' clients, a CLEC named Integra, will be on hand to give some real-world experience. The call is Tuesday, Oct. 14 at 2 PM Eastern. Register here.

VZ UNE-P

So I get a call from a client in Baton Rouge who says that VZ is selling POTS lines in BellSouth region. I was skeptical to say the least. Why would AT&T offer VZ a UNE-P deal (or technically the wholesale commercial agreement for switched access)?

So I call the number today. It is a 727-210 exchange. Right here in Clearwater. As it turns out that is an Mpower exchange (now Level3). They don't answer the phone with a company name, but it is a call center for VZ. The guy explained that AT&T and VZ have swapped a UNE-P deal. It might be that or it might be the old MCI agreement. Either way he did not give me a quote because I would not give him all the company information. But it looks like the POTS wars may be starting, especially if VZ would bundle VZW with its POTS lines.

Rural Grant Money

On the WISPA list we were talking about the blog from Alex Goldman at ISP-Planet about the USDA announcement that it has awarded $342 Million to 18 companies. (PDF is here). Of course, this resulted in outrage from the WISP's. When TD complained that the government should help boot-strapped (and cash strapped) ISP's, I responded:

It is not about the Providers per se. It is about getting a reliable Utility service to consumers at an affordable rate. That is what the USF is for.

Government's job is NOT to prop up businesses (even though we are seeing that now with yet another bailout). (Government agencies like the F guys (FTC, FCC, FDA) were established by law with a mandate to protect Consumers. Some of the agency chairs seem to interpret that as give everything to the big guy, but that's a different rant.)

The sooner folks get it in their heads it is ALL about the Customers (not the technology, not your company, not your people, not even your Price), the better off you will all be.

And if this subsidy bothers you so much, please contact your Congress Critter and comment on the open docket at the FCC to revamp the USF.

Or GO GET a grant yourself! It doesn't knock on your door, ya know? You have to go find it. Do some research. Talk to some people. Outreach to your community leaders. Then jump through the paperwork hoops to get it. It has already been done by quite a few companies that I know or work with (as we discussed Friday in Atlanta at FISPA).

UPDATE: grants.gov

It's All About You

This is an ad from a Free Landslide Webinar with bestselling author Jeb Blount:

What’s most important for your sales and business success? Your price, collateral, marketing, response times, service guarantees, features and benefits, testimonials, the color of your business cards, job title, territory, or latest press write up? What if I told you it was none of the above?

In this webinar Jeb Blount reveals five levers that are essential for increasing sales, creating customer loyalty, and crushing your competition. Learn strategies that will help you:

• Be Likable;
• Connect;
• Solve Problems;
• Go the Extra Mile; and
• Create Positive Emotional Experiences.

Your customers don’t buy your products, services, prices, marketing or even your company’s reputation. Do these things matter? Of course they do, but they are only tickets to the game. When all things are equal, and in the competitive world we live in today they almost always are, People Buy You! Your prospects, customers and even your internal support team buy you and from you because they like you, trust you, and believe in you. The most powerful competitive edge you have can’t be found on your features and benefits list or in any of your company’s literature. It can only be found by looking in the mirror. Because, it’s you!

Hosting Ad

A Good Managed Services Ad

Advice from John Moore

Fiber Replacing Copper

We were talking about this at the CLEC session at the FISPA meeting in Atlanta last week.

Public Notice from the FCC

WIRELINE COMPETITION BUREAU NETWORK CHANGE NOTIFICATION FILED BY AT&T SOUTHEAST

AT&T Southeast, an incumbent local exchange carrier (LEC), has filed certification that public notice of network change has been provided through its publicly accessible Internet site as required by section 51.329(a) of the rules of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). See 47 C.F.R. § 51.329(a). Upon initial review the filing appears to be complete. See 47 C.F.R. §§ 51.325 through 51.335. Specific network change information can be obtained on the Internet at: http://www.att.com/gen/public-affairs?pid=3137 The incumbent LEC's certification refers to the change(s) shown below: Number Type of Change Planned Location of Change ATT20080709L.1 Under the USF Plan (Universal Service Fund) Copper Facilities will be replaced with fiber fed digital loop carrier (DLC). Mount Olive, MS. The network change(s) identified herein shall not be implemented within six months of the date it was filed with the Commission. See 47 C.F.R. § 51.331.

Secret to Open Source

There is an article on CNET with the CEO of Red Hat about the Secret to Open Source Success.

"How to make money (in open source)? A lot of people started with the support model...What Red Hat did was fundamentally different...It's not about trying to monetize the bits or the services. Everybody can do that. The key insight is that the development model of open source is around iteration."

As Elliot Noss has stated, it is about making the tech experience wicked easy for the user. That's what Apple did with the iPod and the iPhone. Both have a consumer based GUI, not a GUI made by some techie that never used the interface (cause he does everything by command line). That's your job: Make it easy for Grandma to use a video phone or a photo sharing site or a webcam. Period.

Cogent

Lots of stuff about Cogent in the news lately (see Forbes for instance). CEO Schaeffer will be at ISPCON. He has been saying that Internet growth is slowing (because his sales are down even at $4 per MB). Now Schaeffer is buying Cogent stock at the lower value. Some say smart. Some say he de-valued it to buy it.

"A few quick facts. Cogent acquired 13 companies during the meltdown. The most significant were PSINet and Allied Riser. PSINet was one of the 4 original Internet backbones, and exploiting their peering infrastructure is at the heart of Cogent’s go-to-market strategy. Internet transit is its primary product. Though Cogent has invested only $500M directly, the companies it acquired had consumed at least 10 times this amount. .... Cogent has 41,000 fiber route miles, including quite a bit in Europe. Its run rate revenue is approximately $220M per year and annualized EBITDA is $66M (excluding $16M of non-cash stock options)." [Bear]

I think one reason that Cogent is flat is due to the Lit Building list. Most fiber companies - AFS, XO, AboveNet, KDL, FPL and others - have lit buildings - and that is where they need to sell deep, to saturate sales. But for some these guys those lit buildings are carrier hotels like the NAP or 56 in ATL or CO's, which means that the potential client list is limited - and in fact may be saturated. There aren't that many folks willing to pay for a GigE port (or a 10GB port) to make build out worth it. And as HE and Cogent drop the per MB rate to $3 and $4 respectively, others must follow. Remember that for some fiber guys they all ride either in the same conduit or in the same sheath (like XO which buys IRU's from Level3). Makes finding route diversity difficult. But that's the value that Zayo and AFS (supposedly) bring - and why they charge way more than Qwest, Level3, XO and others. AFS, AboveNet and Zayo have the Incumbent mentality: we have exclusively what you want. [If you are looking for fiber or bandwidth or IP, give RAD-INFO a call on the telecom hotline - 813-963-5884 - for quotes from 20+ carriers including many of those listed in this post]

In Atlanta with FISPA

I'm at the Annual meeting of FISPA in Atlanta. Arrived in time for a quick lunch before a 4 hour CLEC session. That's right 4 hours and 30+ folks discussed the CLEC business.

• What equipment in the CO?
• How do you collocate?
• Why would you collocate?
• What are the costs?
• What can you do with your CLEC license, collocation and copper?
• How do you access Remote Terminals?
• What about SS7?
• Can you access fiber - dark or lit?

One key point is that your ICA (inter-connect agreement) is mainly boiler-plate about access rates for TDM voice termination and origination. Your ICA is all about TDM Voice. It is not about getting access to EEL's or UNE's to deliver data/ IP. That is for copper pairs and Special Access circuits.

Hunt Brothers held a crawfish boil for 3+ hours after that. Then it was off to watch the VP debate, which ended up being folks debating politics, the mortgage problems, and bailouts.

This morning we huddled around to discuss grants, sales and marketing before the metting got back on track.

You should have been here!

Shout Out to A Friend

Just a quick shout out to Shahab Kaviani at HyperOffice. Apple just put them in the iPhone store. CONGRATS! HyperOffice is a collaboration suite like ZoHo. I met Shahab at the II4A ISP Expo in Tampa in December 2005. Good to see them doing well.

Speaking of iPhone dev. That's one of the things that we will be talking about at BarCampaTampaBay on Oct. 11. It might be a topic at BarCampNOLA in November.

One more iPhone mention: my client, FreedomVoice is beta testing its Newber app for the iPhone. It a location based app that allows you to transfer calls to any phone. [more at TMC]

As long as I am shouting out, I met Alex Muse of Layer1 fame the day after he had just done the demo for his 2 winner Android apps. The one I saw is called ShopSavvy. No way to see it since it's only on Gphones that T-Mobile has sold out! Guess I stay with Sprint a little longer.

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More EarthLink Cuts

Talk about squeezing every ounce out of the employees. EarthLink (ELN) announces more job cuts. About 60 folks going after the 900 that were cut 4Q07. I wonder if the EarthLink dude will be at FISPA tomorrow.