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Editor's Perspective
Pondering
lessons not learned
By Carol Wilson
Nov. 14, 2005
Kenny Van Zant lived through one period of telephone company history
that he hopes he isn't doomed to repeat.
Van Zant, originally part of the NetSpeed team that developed the DSL
modems Cisco Systems then acquired, was a key figure at BroadJump, the
company that spent several years convincing telephone companies that
they needed a simpler way to deploy and troubleshoot DSL if the service
was ever going to be cost-effective. BroadJump, acquired in 2003 by
Motive, ultimately succeeded in its mission, but only after the telcos
had almost become broadband roadkill.
Now executive vice president of marketing at Motive, Van Zant is hoping
to convince telcos that their new services--IPTV, voice over IP,
security, etc.--also need simple tools for deployment, troubleshooting
and customer service.
"We were able to succeed in DSL because we could go into the operations
organization and say, basically, 'Your arm is broken, and I can fix your
arm now,'" Van Zant said. The software BroadJump provided was easily
paid for by the opex savings within the first year of deployment by
reducing the trunk rolls required and the calls to the contact center.
There isn't yet any opex associated with IPTV because it is only in very
limited deployment, so Motive must try to remind telcos of their DSL
experience--and hope the corporate memory isn't a short one.
"Some remember the DSL experience, and some don't," Van Zant commented.
"Some of them have created a vertical product group around IPTV that
isn't connected to the rest of the company, and the result is a kind of
corporate amnesia."
In other cases, telcos are relegating the decisions to IPTV software or
set-top vendors, he said--and that could be its own formula for
disaster.
One thing is certain not to work, and that is deploying an over-hyped
service to an eager populace that quickly discovers it isn't as
available as promised or doesn't work as planned. By aggressively
marketing DSL and cutting their prices, the telcos are working their way
back into broadband now, but if the cable companies can sell their
bundle--voice included--there may be no bouncing back a second time
around.
E-mail me at
cwilson3@primediabusiness.com
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Top News
Motive
targets digital home, ease-of-use
By Carol Wilson
Nov 14, 2005
TelephonyOnline.com
AUSTIN, Texas--Motive announced a new customer, a new
partner and a new strategy aimed at helping service providers deliver
converged broadband services that are easy to deploy and use.
Back to Top
Linksys,
MCI team to target small biz
By Carol Wilson
Nov. 14, 2005
Cisco Systems subsidiary Linksys unveiled an IP-based
services platform for voice, data and video that specifically targets
service providers, value-added resellers and their small business
customers.
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Question
remains whether telcos will surpass cable
By Carol Wilson
Nov 14, 2005
A quarterly report on broadband deployment from IGI
Consulting Group says the telcos' aggressive price cuts on DSL service
and their marketing of service bundles is going so well that they will
catch up to the cable companies in high-speed access deployment in
mid-2006.
Back to Top
FiberNet
finding paths to growth
By Carol Wilson
Nov 14, 2005
TelephonyOnline.com
FiberNet, the interconnection, co-location and transport
provider, is branching out in a major way, seeking to become a
voice-over-IP peering point, a professional services company and a major
point of interconnection between legacy and next-generation Ethernet
services.
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In Print
Building
on the three Cs
By Carol Wilson
Nov 14, 2005
Telephony
Incumbent telephone companies are currently engaged in
the race to parity--they must first add video services to their product
portfolio to match the cable industry's major push into telephony. Even
as they do so, however, telco executives know that just getting a video
product to market isn't enough, they must also be able to differentiate
their bundled service, both to lure new customers and to retain the
current customer base.
Back to Top
IPTV's
interface challenge
By Vince Vittore
Nov 14, 2005
Telephony
When the first paying subscriber flips on his or her
U-verse TV service from SBC Communications early next year, it's
unlikely to look all that different from traditional cable TV. Perhaps
the video signal may be a little clearer, maybe the set-top box will be
cooler, but what's shown on the screen will look pretty much the same.
Back to Top
XO
spins off CLEC business
By Carol Wilson
Nov 14, 2005
Telephony
After months spent pondering its future, XO
Communications took the unusual step of breaking itself apart, spinning
the existing competitive carrier business off to its largest investor,
Carl Icahn, and creating a new wireless business in the process.
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