Ctel-Embarq Merger Info

Thanks to Stephanie at Socket for this info about the CenturyTel and Embarq merger.

Noticed this: the CenturyTel and EMBARQ launch merger website. Stephanie says that there is "Some interesting insight if you haven't already seen it. Including messages to their employees which list who will continue to be responsible for what, like… 'Bill Cheek will be responsible for the combined company’s wholesale operations;' ... Timeframes, like… 'We continue to expect the completion of the merger to occur in the second quarter of 2009.'

Let Me Know What You Are Doing

Lately, I have been writing more about sales, marketing and strategy, mainly because that is what my client projects are about. For those of you looking for more financial results from the carriers and tech stuff, Let Me Know What You Are Doing and What You Want to See! (If I know, I can write about it).

Let me give you an example: I interact with many folks in all facets of the game - VC, billing, install, CLEC, wireless, customer care, voice, data, IP, VoIP, UC, Hosted PBX, IAD's, routers, sales, channel, hiring, etc. One client was buying Meraki gear. Meraki recently changed its business model and upped the prices which affects YOUR business model. So thanks to Dane at Sonic.Net telling me about a Meraki replacement - Open Mesh - I was able to tell my client. He was happy!

"You never cease to steer our business with your knowledge. Six thousand in hardware instead of twenty five thousand will make getting this order a lot easier if these work. The radius authentication and branding was all I wanted from Meraki they're not wanting to provide w/o paying mucho bucks..... I ordered five units and one each of the accessories so we can resurvey [a customer site] with both Meraki and Open Mesh for side by side performance comparison. This could really change how we do things if they work out. As always, thank you very much.

I would just like to say Thank You to my Clients. I enjoy working with you - and I am constantly looking for ways to make you even more successful. Let me know what you work on and maybe I can give you a money saving tip (especially if you cannot get to conferences to network with others in the industry). Happy New Year! See you next year. [Sign up for the blog via a weekly newsletter! Sign up a friend!]

5 Soft Phones

Blabotech has a list of 5 VoIP soft-phones No-Charge! X-Lite, 3CX, Express Talk, iaxComm, and Ekiga

Ars Says Tate is a Tool

Ars Technica has a review of FCC Commish Deb Tate's latest talk about DRM, ISP filtering, Net Neutrality, and the like. Not surprising, Tate is at UPenn to talk about Piracy and its impact on our economy. Tate is from Nashville and is has been a shill for Corporate America as part of the Republican party at the FCC. What is surprising is that ARS thinks she is shallow and says so.

"As one of the handful of people voting on crucial issues that affect the US telecommunications sector, one would hope to see clear thought, sharp analysis, and a grasp of the relevant facts. Some concern for the "public interest" might not be out of order, as well. ... It was therefore disturbing to see that, three paragraphs into her talk, Tate was already trotting out 20-year old industry propaganda points..."

This kind of sums it up:

"Regulation and legislation fit her definition of "humble" so long as they serve the interests of content owners, as though the FCC as an agency is charged with overseeing corporate welfare alone and not setting ground rules for the confusing tangle of interests in US business, academic, and private life."

Here's hoping 2009 brings us a new FCC that actually understands the concepts it is charged with regulating. (I'm not holding my breath since more than 60% of the FCC consists of lawyers instead of technicians or engineers, but then this country is over run with lawyers. Florida opened 2 law schools recently. Why? Didn't we have enough?)

Florida Minimum Wage Increase

NFIB/Florida reminds business owners that effective Thursday, January 1, 2009, Florida's minimum wage will rise to $7.21 - a 42 cent increase over last year's wage.

The state of Florida is one of 30 states that have opted to set their own minimum wage, which is recalculated yearly based upon changes in the consumer price index. Employees in states that have a higher minimum wage than the federal level are entitled to that higher wage.

Employers are required to have visible a poster stating the state minimum wage; additionally, any business covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act are also required to post a sign from the U.S. Department of Labor stating the Federal Minimum Wage. This poster can be downloaded at www.NFIB.com/FL.

Verizon FiOS Billing Issues

As I have mentioned, VZ sends me something almost daily about getting FiOS. Buy NOw! Special Offer! But knowing that it comes from VZ means that I know there is a GOTCHA! One big huge Gotcha! Like the quoted price is only half the story - the taxes and fees and extra charges and more fees are the other half of the story. Here are a bunch of stories from VZ customers about being burned. (Google "Verizon sucks" for 183,000 matches)

Note: You can advertise all day but Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000!

5 Companies people hate (strong language)

Smoke Alarm Reminders

This from Peter Shankman: "Follow @SmokeAlarm to get monthly smoke alarm reminders over Twitter. Home fires are the most common disaster every year."

"Welcome to LAFD's free Smoke Alarm Test reminder. We send only one message a month reminding you to test your smoke alarms. That's all!"

What can you do? Set up a Twitter account to remind folks to back-up digital pictures, hard drives, MP3's; to run anti-virus updates and malware scans; run service packs and O/S upgrades.

I set up a Twitter account at fixyourpc to help you do that. Have your customers follow the updates out of goodwill. It's also a chance for you to upsell and cross-sell external hard drives, flash drives, media, and services and maintenance contracts.

Let me know if you want to work with me on this "Alarm system". All part of the marketing package being revealed in mid-January!

7 Steps to Smarter Hiring

From the Harvard Business Review, we have 7 Steps to Smarter Hiring. The article certainly makes good points but it comes down to a couple of things:

• Hire Slow. Fire Fast. First time you think they have to go, let them GO!
• Interview candidates more than once - at different times of day to see what they are like.
• It's about Attitude. Friendly and Enthusiastic, especially for sales people.
• Get team input from a team interview.

There are many folks looking for employment right now, but the best salespeople are likely still working. If you are looking for salespeople, interview carefully. Look at recommendations (like on LinkedIn). Trial period.

How Does Your Company Compare?

My pal, Jack, has been trying to find a hosting partner. He relates his experience with 2 different companies. Is this how your company reacts? I can honestly tell you that you should hire a Secret Shopper -- every one of you. Doesn't matter what kind of service provider you are - ISP, ITSP, CLEC, MSP, VOIP, or hosting company. CHECK!

I don't care if you don't get complaints or you think that everything is okay. Hire someone to prove it to you - a buddy, a relative, me -- but someone. Why? Do you want Jack writing about you? And twittering about it? And telling everyone how frustrated he is with you? That's what could happen.

How is your phone tree? Can someone actually talk to a human or find the right department or leave a message? Do you use Live Chat or IM? Do you have a Trouble Ticket System? What kind of written escalation process do you have in place? (My bet: None).

Many of you are shaking your heads or thinking "Whatever". I have more important things on my plate or this isn't my company.

Well, from my experience of talking to and calling service providers the last 9+ years, um, hire a secret shopper -- or you may find yourself the recipient of a Jack - on a blog; on DSL reports; on a review site; on Twitter.

Last point: What do you do to Retain the Customer?

24 Tips to Recession-Proof Your Business

Robin Robins, author of the Technology Marketing Toolkit, has 12 Tips to Recession-Proof Your Business and 12 More. Here are some of hers and some of mine.

1. "Communicate with your existing clients MORE – offering them more services, more products, and reminding them of all the things you can do for them."
2. Sell with FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt)
3. The magic of 7 touches (or more) in sales
4. Referrals and Testimonials
5. Co-marketing with your vendors or partners
6. Financing, payment terms = make it easy to buy from you (although nothing is easier than a credit card or maybe working with AMEX or BillMeLater or PayPal)
7. Teach: "Hold free, educational teleseminars, webinars, and seminars."
8. Partner with local charities to do fundraisers and events. (Cause Marketing)
9. Upsell and Cross-sell.
10. Network. Network. Network.
11. "Offer an incentive to ALL employees (not just the sales and marketing folks) for bringing in new clients or finding new sales opportunities."
12. Target your marketing to highly qualified prospects with high-margin services.
13. Stay in touch weekly with your Top 5 Customers.

"Take massive action, and don’t do things just because they are easy, cheap, and convenient. Now, more than ever, you have to get out of the “magic pill” mindset, roll up your sleeves, and go to work." In other words: Revenue Generating Activities only. Not just Customer Acquisition, but Customer Retention.

Happy New Year

The RAD-INFO, Inc. offices will be closed starting Dec. 23 at 3 PM Eastern time until Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. I will only be checking email on 12/29 & 12/30. (If it is urgent, please call the office and leave a message).

Thank you for being a part of my success in 2008. What can I do for you in 2009?

What are your goals for 2009? Email them to me and let me help you achieve them.

Best Wishes for a Happy New Year!

Magic Jack Breakdown

Telephony has a nice article about Magic jack: Can Jack make VoIP Magic?

By operating its own network, Magic Jack has a much more favorable business model, Burns said. "We were in the SunRocket process – the unwinding – as a potential suitor, and we saw what they were paying," he said. "We found that for every telephone number they purchased, which was $4 a month, to terminate their calls, they paid $3.80 a month and $1.25 per customer for 911 service. With our own captive CLEC network in 31 cities, you actually make money on originating calls through the assessment and collection of access charges – balanced out by what we pay to terminate calls. For what [SunRocket] was paying $7, our costs are nothing." ... Borislow originally built the 31-city network and acquired CLEC certifications, which now span 49 states, intending to deliver a fixed/mobile convergence service using dual-mode Wi-Fi phones.

"The device itself was invented by Dan Borislow, the man who brought Talk.com to AOL, and the service is being marketed by Don Burns, the guy who created the 10-10 dial-around service." [from the Telephony article]. The CLEC is YMAX Corp. I think the success of Magic Jack is infomercials. They are on all the time on DISH network - selling a consumer device nationwide. It's not a bad approach.

RIAA Wants ISP to be the Cop

The Recording Industry has decided that suing customers one at a time is not slowing things down. So the next step? Get the ISP to do the work for the RIAA. The RIAA now wants ISP's to be cops.

In my understanding of the DMCA, if you start checking the content on your system, you lose DMCA protection.

In my understanding of privacy, the RIAA (and its sibling, the MPAA) still need to get a court order for action. How does an ISP know if the letter is legit or if the sender even owns the copyright or if the IP address was spoofed etc. etc. In the story on CNET with Bayou Internet's Jerry Scroggins, the letters Jerry showed did NOT match the form letter that the RIAA said they would use (see here).

Here's a question for the RIAA: What happens if the ISP does shut down the offender? He moves to another ISP. So all you are asking the ISP to do is to lose a paying customer. That's dumb.

An analogy for you: If I shoot you, do you sue Smith & Wesson? No. Do you sue the gun store? No.

Piracy happens. Is it decimating your business? I don't see it. Did I miss the announcement that Warner Music was bankrupt or in need of a bailout? Does all of the piracy mean that you have to change your business model? Absolutely. But just like the newspaper industry, you would rather try to put your finger in the dike. Oh, well. That's your problem, not the ISP's. In cases of heavy users, your concerns may be parallel but that doesn't mean you are friends.

UPDATE: RIAA's New Policy Isn't About Deterrence, It's About Sidestepping Due Process on TechDirt

UPDATE2 from ARS

The Connected Home

Back when Powell was the FCC Chair (and we thought that THAT was bad!*) he spoke about the Converged Living Room. Even with Verizon FiOS and its work with MoCA, most folks don't even have a media player in their living room. Certainly, HP has been doing its best to get us there, but 22" TouchSmart is over $1500.

Hardly anyone has remote DVR or lighting or thermostat controls. Nonetheless, Telephony has an issue on The Connected Home. I'm thinking that if you are mainly B2C (or a Residential ISP) new revenue streams can be attained in installing wireless media servers, etc.

SimpliSafe

From Uncrate, another wireless security system.

Get custom-quality security protection for apartment-level prices with SimpliSafe ($225 and up). This ingenious security system uses wireless technology to let the keypad, remotes, motion and entry sensors, and panic button connect to the main base station, which emits an 85-decibel siren and wirelessly contacts the service's dispatch center in the case of an emergency or break-in.

Motorola, D-Link, Panasonic, WiLife, and TRENDnet - all sells wireless security product (through Amazon). An affiliate link on your website or in your newsletter is an easy way to make a few extra dollars, while helping to keep your customers safe.

John Todd Keynote video

Suzanne Bowen of DIDX captured John Todd's Asterisk keynote from ISPCON on video. Here you go. (Direct link to The Long Tail part on viddler).

Guy's Art of Customer Service

Guy Kawasaki has a post about the Art of Customer Service on his AMEX blog. Here are my highlights:

1. The CEO’s attitude toward customer service determines the quality of service that a company delivers.
2. Take responsibility and Don't Finger Point.
3. Keep customers in the loop.
4. Follow Up.
5. Integrate customer service into the mainstream. Let’s see: Salespeople make the big bucks. Marketers do the fun stuff. Engineers: You leave them alone in their dark caves. Accounting cuts the paychecks. And customer service? They handle angry people when something isn’t working, and something isn’t working all the time. Customer service largely determines the company’s reputation, so do not consider it a profit-sucking necessary evil.

Direct Mail

I have been helping some clients with some direct mail campaigns and the results are typical. About 1% response and about 0.5% close ratios. Doesn't sound good, but when you mail out 1000 pieces at about $0.30 each is $300 to talk to 10 people and to get 5 sales. That's a $60 customer acquisition cost. Actually, not bad.

There are places to get good lists like Melissa Data, Marigold Tech, and Harte-Hankes. Harte-Hankes is an expensive, but detailed leads list and should only be used with an experienced tele-sales person for high-margin services.

Direct mail is about two things: targeting and repetition. You need to keep sending out the mailer. Verizon sends me one almost daily for FiOS. A different mailer each time - postcard, letter, carbon envelope, yadda. And it needs to be going to folks in your demographic. For example, your tower has signal there or out of the Central Office you are collocated in.

More to come about direct mail over at the Marketing Idea Guy.

Do You Have Online Reviews?

According to a Rubicon survey, "Online Reviews Second Only to Word of Mouth as Purchase Influencer in US".

"Many companies downplay the importance of online communities because only a few percent of all Internet users contribute to them heavily. What they don’t understand is that most other Internet users read those reviews and rely on them heavily when making purchase decisions."

Last week I wrote about the Top 3 Ways to marketing Locally, but missed that you should be listed on DSL Reports / Broadband Reports.

No One Gets UM

No one understands Unified Messaging especially Gary Busey in this funny ad for a UM company, who obviously doesn't get it either.

This was a good commercial though, Wassup, and these music videos about voting for Change made Top Ads for 2008. Why? They tell a story and evoke emotion (emotive).

People are not looking for Hosting

According to this article, people searching for "web hosting" are 75% less than in 2004. Probably because they don't call it hosting any more. Now people want a blog platform or a CMS (content management system) like Joomla or Drupal or a website management company. Don't laugh, a friend of mine was looking for a Linux programmer to admin his website as well as be the hosting provider in Tampa. Hard to find such animal. LONG TAIL!

Politics 101

Dave Rusin is CEO of AFS, a fiber network company based in Atlanta. He writes a post about the spectrum auction politics. Kleiner Perkins is a VC that backed Frontline and M2Z in their bids to get AWS-3 spectrum really cheap. How? By putting conditions on it, like some of the spectrum has to be used for nationwide free filtered Internet.

"My advice to CLECs: stop lobbying Congress and the FCC — they don’t give a rat’s ass about what is best for America. Sure they will meet with you and your highly paid lawyers to act interested, but unless you are driving party politics by stature and cash, you are nothing."

Of course, those of us that were lobbying DC in 2005 are well aware that the cards are stacked against you. At the time, a guy from COMPTEL said it straight: The CLEC Industry has spent millions of dollars with hundreds of lawyers to lose every battle. It goes back to the definition of insanity: if you keep doing the same thing and expect a different result...

Dave adds some more political advice here.

Congress issued a report about the workings of the current FCC. Not good: "The Chairman’s office appears to have ignored evidence that rate payers have been over charged, while the companies providing Telecommunications Relay service has been over compensated, potentially by as much as $100 million per year...... Chairman Martin manipulated report findings and policy direction ... when he ordered that a report to Congress previously issued by the Commission be rewritten with a completely different outcome .... There is a climate of fear and intimidation at the FCC."

Spend money building infrastructure and gaining customers - get DEEP not Wide.

Embarq's Marketing Moves

Even though Embarq is being merged with CenturyTel, Embarq has been making some moves in marketing. One big thing is that Embarq created a social media campaign. WHoa! Web 2.0 from a wireline company.

iCrossing, a global digital marketing company, today announced the results of "48 Seconds," a branded YouTube channel ( http://www.youtube.com/user/EMBARQ) and video submission contest to build awareness of EMBARQ's high speed Internet service while connecting with customers via social media channels. .... Based on the premise that 48 seconds is the amount of extra time it takes to download an average web page with dial-up Internet as opposed to EMBARQ high-speed internet, the contest encouraged people to post and share videos showing what they can do in that amount of time.

In other marketing moves, Embarq has elected to have Humans answer the phone. According to an Embarq press release:

"We're committed to providing the best possible service for our customers," said Bob Crawford, Director of Customer Satisfaction for EMBARQ. "Customer surveys show that consumers are dissatisfied with automated customer care, so we are conducting this trial to see if our customers agree." ... As part of a nationwide trial, the EMBARQ representatives answering the phone calls are located in the company's North Carolina office and not outsourced overseas. They will greet customers to find out their question or concern and then direct them to the appropriate person.

I can't believe someone had to do a survey to figure this out, but: "Yankee Group's Anywhere Consumer: 2007 US Communications/Customer Satisfaction Survey (July 2007) shows that the biggest frustration in dealing with companies is long hold times, confusing automated menus and being transferred too many times." Hmmmm.

In other Embarq news: "Embarq and Sprint Nextel retirees who sued the companies last year over reductions in their health and life insurance benefits can pursue their case, now that a federal judge has ruled that a class action can proceed."

27 Ideas That Will Transform Every Organization

We live in uncertain times (if you believe the news - the same folks that told us everything was fine). Tom Peters has 27 Practical Ideas that will transform every Organization (if implemented).

1. Learn to thrive in unstable times—our lot (and our opportunity) for the foreseeable future.
2. Only putting people first wins in the long haul, good times and especially tough times. [Editor: Putting people first has a number of subset points from Tom Peters]
3. MBWA = Managing By Wandering Around. Stay in touch!
4. Call a customer today!
5. Train! Train! Train! (Growing people outperform stagnant people in terms of attitude and output—by a wide margin.)
6. Make "we care" the company motto — a moneymaker as well as a source of pride.
7. Great Execution beats great strategy—99% of the time. (Make that 100% of the time.)
8. EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. (What else?)

Other points include Innovate, Try Stuff, The Little Things and more. Like my 50 Ideas, "The "obvious" may be obvious, but "getting the obvious done" is harder said than done."

Tom Peters also says get back to The Fundamentals.

Top 3 Ways to Market Locally

Most of you are local or regional. Here are the top 3 ways to market online locally for FREE.

1. Local.Google.com which is part of Google Maps. It will say: "Put your business on Google Maps" and "Display your ads on Google Maps"
2. Set up your business on Merchant Circle. You are probably already listed on Merchant Circle. (They spam me to start an account because "people are talking about me"). I wouldn't mention it except that it usually shows up on the first page of SERP (search engine results page)*
3. Create an account on Yelp

Invite your employees and customers to add reviews and comments as well.

Google is all about key words and phrases, so pick them carefully and enter them in your business description.

Yahoo Local and MSN Live local would also be places to list. Maybe Ask.com has a local site as well.

*Can you tell I reading SEO and SEM blogs and listening to podcasts.

UPDATE: Top 5 Ways People Search for your business.

Hardware ROI

There is plenty of talk about subsidized cell phones and payment defaults that leave the carrier with bad debt, no phone, no customer, and an unpaid subsidy. Then I read where Vonage and its ilk are having issues as well. Although the ATA is just $35, shipping, handling, turn up, porting numbers, and bad debt on their razor-thin margins are hurting VoIP Providers as well.

So if you are providing an Edgewater or an IAD or a Router or a PBX or Handsets or a Radio or a Subscriber unit or CPE of some kind, what is your ROI? How long must the customer be with you for the customer to be profitable?

I have to run. More on this later.

Let's Say Thanks to the Troops

Let's say thanks is a free website that Xerox runs to pick out a card that children created, put in a message and have that card sent to the troops in the Middle East. Please take the 90 seconds.

Who's on Your Wealth Team?

Are you getting information from your advisors? Is your CPA in contact me with you about end of year activities to alleviate some of your tax liabilities? Is your Financial Planner calling you to remind you that you can put up to $10,500 in your Simple IRA? Has your banker called you to discuss your credit line? Is the leasing company being proactive with you?

It's not a time to have passive person on your Wealth Team. You need folks that know what is happening and are concerned with your success. I'm just saying because my job is to talk to clients and know what is going on in th evast world of telecommunications, Internet, Web 2.0, VoIP, etc. Not what Wall Street is doing today or the latest tax strategies to reduce my tax bill. That's their job.

Tips for Cash Flow in this Economy

Everyone is worried and bunkering down. Especially mentally. Here are some tips for cash flow management in this troubled economy (from NFIB's MyBusiness magazine)

These 4 from NFIB's magazine by Megan Pacella:

1. Keep customers close. Retention more important than acquisition.
2. Decrease your debt. Or at least don't add more.
3. Know your banker.
4. Set daily financial goals.

More from Alyson McNutt English:

• Figure Your Fuel Financials
• Check Your Competition
• Communication Is Key

25 ways to save money in your business today (from NFIB MyBusiness magazine)

Employees, Freelancers and Entrepreneurs - How to recession-proof yourself - from Carsonified that runs the FOWA shows

Do You Have Systems?

Whether you read the E-Myth or Franchise magazine, they take-away should be Systems.

The whole idea about working ON your business instead of IN it centers around the concept that IF you have Systems in place, you get repeatable activities and less fires to fight. In 2007, many clients asked about provisioning systems. They had reached the scale, where manually handling each order was unwieldy. trouble ticket systems because they weren't properly tracking help desk. In some, there was a disconnect between ordering and billing. In other words, people were installed but didn't bill for 6 months to 2 years! Oops! Lost revenue.

Trouble ticketing, Provisioning, Billing, Accounting, Ordering, Sign-up, Inventory -- these are systems you need to in place, especially now, to become more efficient and cost effective.

In Pamela Slim's blog, Escape from a Cubicle Nation, she writes:

With flawless systems, clearly defined roles and excellent communication, the business would survive, improve and eventually thrive. ... So that is what he did, with the help from his staff. The process took a long time, but by rigorously examining and documenting every step of every key process in their business, they were able to make leaps and bounds in efficiency. Providing better service, they raised their rates. Retention improved, and training new employees was much easier.

You should even have systems in your personal life to get some time back. (Golden marketing rule: People will pay for to get Time back! Convenience stores are about time, convenience, and a surcharge to deliver those). In the interest of said systems, Google Tasks transform email into task.

Email Backup

How many of you are offering email backup? This popped up on twitter today: KLS Backup

The VoIP Channel 101

Over the years I have worked with many VoIP Providers. A good chunk of my consulting is on The Channel, Referral Systems, and Sales Compensation.

There are a number of landmines that can destroy a relationship with an independent sales agent. These include but are not limited to:

1. Your quoting system (or time to quote)
2. How you track the sales and provisioning process
3. How you track Compensation
4. How you handle agents calls / issues / sales / payments

All of these mines have subsets as follows:

• What is your number porting process like?
• What is your training like for customers? for Agents?
• What does your marketing collateral look like and say?
• Issue Resolution

It is no small thing to acquire an Agent. You are asking someone to spend the effort to:

1. examine your service offering
2. negotiate and sign an Agreement
3. Learn all about your service offering to the Comfort Point
4. Now go market & sell it

It is similar to buying a franchise agreement. Foremost, you are asking for the Agent to trust you and to lend his reputation to your company and its services. Big Step.

You have to ask yourself: Why would he take a chance on me? Here are some things for you to think about:

1. Do you have a clear USP?
2. Do you sell to Verticals with a concise ROI or TCO?
3. Do you know who your best customer is and why?
4. Do you do any marketing?
5. How much time and effort can I give each agent to get off the ground?
6. What happens if he sells something?
7. What systems do I have in place for that?
8. Will those systems Scale?

Some companies have a Referral Plan now. (I won't even call it a system because it isn't.) What does it consist of? Mentioning that free month if they refer someone? WOOT! Yeah. That won't cut it. A System is a consistent process that involves a plan, a goal, and how to get there. If you want a Referral Plan to work, you have to work the Plan (as they say in Amway). By that, you have to remind folks that you have it in creative, mentally sticky ways. You have to even give them a script on what to say or a coupon or email link to send to their family and friends network. You have reward them tangibly and thank the best referrers publicly. Then start all over again. (it doesn't happen automatically).

Now back to the Agent Channel that you want selling your VOIP Service. Why not just hire a Sales person? Too expensive, right? Too time consuming? Don't want to manage a sales guy? These are reasons that your channel will fail as well. Imagine spending money, time and effort on people you have Zero Control over. Imagine them forgetting to propose your services for months, then call with a White Elephant and not close it. And disappear. Lots of work; little return. Welcome to the Channel. The Channel is a case study in Pareto's Principle - the 80/20 Rule. About 80% of the sales will come from 20% of the agents. About 80% of your time will be consumed by the least productive 20%.

How do you get it going then? A system. A plan. A goal. In reverse order. More to come. Stay tuned. Sign up for to get this blog via a weekly email.

WiMax Outlook is Clear

Sprint has announced its 4G plans:

Sprint has announced that it intends to offer a joint CDMA-WiMAX device and service as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) to the new Clearwire service. The product which has apparently in the works for some time will be marketed as "Sprint 4G." Plans are that dual mode CDM-WiMAX phones will hit the shelves by the end of 2008.

CLEAR is the new brand name for the Clearwire-XOHM-Sprint-Google-Intel-MSO company service. (It was changed from Clearwire to Clear after the XOHM-Sprint/Clearwire merger was complete). It should be interesting to see what the handsets are like and how much battery life. WiMax uses more battery power than Wi-Fi (supposedly).

In other Sprint news: were you wondering about the Cogent-Sprint Peering fight? If so, ARS has a nice read about it. Forbes.com has a write up too.

Ma Bell is using Alvarion WiMax in Alaska, where is a challenging landscape, according to DSLReports.

VoIP Pricing on Sale

In the midst of this economy event, 8x8 sent out a press release to bloggers about their new pricing. It's a sale. Why send it out as PR? Because people will write about it. But if people mention how your news is no news and you are trying to trick the press, how do you think consumers will feel about your company? Will they think you are Creative? That you put one over? Or that you are likely to be too devious to be their vendor? Um... the last one most likely. BTW, the "sale price" is not really a sale either.

7 Lessons in IT for SMB

PCworld has an article that Managed Service Providers should take a look at: "Seven Lessons That SMBs Can Learn from Big IT"

These lessons include security, back-up, standardization, and VoIP.

Encrypted Email

Is anyone offering secure, encrypted email? When I was up at TU in Chicago this year, their Outlook came with PGP encryption installed. Then I saw this today: SEND [on Mashable] a free, easy-to-use email encryption service.

"It’s not that there aren’t other secure methods to send an email … It’s just that they’re too hard to use. We think everyone should be able to send a secure email … and we all have better things to do than spend an afternoon installing and configuring an encryption solution."

Fastest Broadband in US is 781

PCMAG says that the best download speed in America is 781 kbps - in Nevada. Just barely past the FCC definition of Broadband (768k). "Satellite averaged just 145 kilobits per second (Kbps)." OUCH!

According to our results, the average cable service provider gets you online at 688 Kbps, while the average DSL lets you surf at just 469 Kbps—cable connections, on average, are 47 percent faster.

It's sad, really, especially as TWC and AT&T roll out tiered service to one town, Beaumont, TX. The Duopoly probably thinks if we had REAL broadband speeds we would really use our pipe.

Much like how our Auto Industry has been so selfish and couldn't fix itself to help our economic future, our Telecom Industry is going to let greed hamper future economic prosperity.

On the other hand, 781 kbps might be as fast as any server can send out a web page.

Connected Nation

BusinessWeek has an article titled Bringing Broadband to Rural America. Here are some interested excerpts:

According to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, released in July, only 38% of rural American households have access to high-speed Internet connections. That's an improvement from 15% in 2005, but it pales in comparison with 57% and 60% for city and suburb dwellers, respectively.

Comcast is constantly looking for where to expand, and looks for areas that have at least 25 homes per one-mile stretch while meeting other criteria, says company spokeswoman Terri Weldon. "We are in business to make a profit," she says.

Connected Nation, a Washington (D.C.)-based group run by Bryan Mefford, a 35-year-old Kentucky native, aims to spread the broadband gospel in small towns, while convincing companies like Comcast and AT&T of the benefits of rural investment. [paraphrased] However, herein lies the rub:

Public Knowledge, a DC-based consumer rights group specializing in technology, alleges that Connected Nation's eCommunity teams are little more than sales forces for broadband providers. "Why should taxpayers in these states be paying for market research?" asks Public Knowledge spokesman Art Brodsky. Connected Nation's board includes representatives of telecom and cable giants - VZ, Ma Bell, Comcast. Also represented are the Communications Workers of America union and groups that advocate for consumers, children, and people with disabilities.

Please note that the Duopoly is famous for Astroturf groups like "advocates" for disabilities and children. It's so much bull. BUt when you pour millions into Congress' pockets, pols will pull the wool over their own eyes.