Quack

(this can also be found in the Communications Alliance March 2007 Newsletter)

The Telco Gospel, Chapter 1. In the Beginning, there was Long Distance Resale. And the Resellers saw that the margins were generous, and that arbitrage opportunities abounded. And the Customers saw that discounts were available, and flocked to the Resellers like the seagulls. And the Resellers enjoyed the simplicity of selling everything at a mark-up. And the Regulator saw that it was Good.

Yes, it was good back in those days. (more…)

More than I can recall for the last ten years, we find our industry at a stage of disruptive change. New products like VOIP and HSDPA are threatening to totally change the telecommunications landscape, and do so at all levels.

From a vendor perspective (carrier, service provider, technology provider), this is awfully scary. (more…)

The latest VOIP plans announced by Engin (also here) sound pretty hot - unlimited local and national calls for a very low monthly charge. It’s plans like this that have in the past struck fear into the hearts of resellers. That word “unlimited” has some scary connotations.

So let’s deconstruct this with some cold, hard, mathematics. (more…)

A couple of recent news items have me thinking about a possible further trend in bundling. Those Masters of the Universe at Google (mental note: write another piece about how they have changed the world) are going into the business of selling office-type applications through their Google Apps portal (also here). Are Microsoft shaking in their boots? Hard to tell.

They already have ways of selling their applications on a hosted basis. (more…)

A big splash for Telstra’s 6 months to Dec 2006 results. The spin doctors were at their best talking up the NextG network, now with speeds of “up to” 500 billion Gb, and trying to get the broader population of Australia on their side in the battle against the evil regulator (not that they really have an influence).

I wanted to comment on a few little details within the report that affect the service provider community. (more…)

Little fish, big fish swimming in the water. It’s the end bit of that fantastic PJ Harvey song – “Down by the water”. Google is just amazing: by searching for the exact lyrics, I found a site called www.songmeanings.net where people put forward what they think songs mean. I have no idea what this (or most PJ Harvey songs) means, but she’s got a superb voice, and this song has great rhythm.

Yet again, the talk of significant consolidation among Tier 2 and Tier 3 service providers has come up, and yet again, it will (more…)

I recently attended the MVNO Summit in Sydney, where I heard from and lectured to people interested in this important sector of the market. As part of a market analysis session, the question was raised “why don’t PSTN providers also offer mobiles?”

We started off providing billing for fixed-wire services, and this was pretty easy, from both a provisioning, rating and pricing perspective. The service being provided was very simple, and the way it was sold was equally so. Some of our Partners expressed an interest in billing mobiles as well, and we helped them do that.

But mobiles are a whole other story. Firstly, the provisioning systems (more…)