This article originally appeared in the January 2011 issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY Magazine.
Letting more and more people go. All the telcos are doing it. To their detriment. It continues to be a struggle to use the AT&T (News 
- Alert) portals to order anything. It's challenging to get an update, to get circuits installed and turned up properly.
What makes me go “huh” is no one at AT&T sees it or cares.
What else makes me go “huh”? It's the perfect opportunity for CLECs to take business away, but they can't articulate what their value proposition is or figure out who they are targeting.
Cablecos are ready to launch hosted PBX (News - Alert) in multiple markets. (I'm writing this in November 2010). Windstream already has launched hosted UC in its many markets. Owning the network means better control, which leads to improved quality of the service. What makes me go “huh”? That the ITSP companies have not grabbed more market share and now will be in the fight of their lives with cablecos, some of whom are the underlying transport for their services.
What else makes me go “huh”? How is an ILEC or a large MSO going to install and support hosted PBX sales? This isn't like T1 or a data pipe. This is to the desktop of each user. So many moving parts; it will be a challenge.
Telco TV makes me go “huh” too. Cablecos moved from TV to Internet to voice, getting higher profits with each new service. Telcos went the other way: voice to Internet to TV – from high profits to small profits, while outlaying huge piles of cash. In a zero sum game. In a depressed economy. While OTT video is starting to take off. Huh?
Clearwire (News - Alert) has burned through much of its cash and still doesn't have a nationwide 4G network built yet. Along comes Harbinger Capital Partners to dump $5 billion into SkyTerra (News - Alert)/LightSquared for a nationwide 4G wholesale network. Put that against the $5 billion and $7 billion capex that AT&T and Verizon Wireless spend annually to maintain their network and you have to wonder, huh?
Peter Radizeski is head of telecom consulting agency RAD-INFO (News - Alert) Inc. (http://rad-info.net/).
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Edited by Stefania Viscusi
