Indie Telco Local Content Workshop Information
Quick Jump Menu to this Issue’s Articles July 21st, 2004 Overview OPASTCO’s Calgary Roundup Plenty of Cowboys, How About a Chief Entertainment in the Networked Home
by Ken Pyle ([email protected]), Viodi, LLC
July 21st, 2004 Issue
OPASTCO’s selection of Calgary as the home to this year’s summer convention proved to be quite popular. Held during the famous Calgary stampede, just about everyone came away with a cowboy hat and a fuller appreciation for the changes affecting all OPASTCO members. And one of the major changes discussed was the need for telcos to “diversify their revenues.”
As a bit of background, OPASTCO, the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications COmpanies, is a group consisting of over 500 U.S and Canadian, independent telcos (most are ISPs and many are also cable operators) in the United States and Canada. The summer convention offers a number of benefits to telcos and suppliers alike including multiple educational sessions and panels, a very intimate tradeshow and some great opportunities to interact with friends and families involved with telecom.
The need to diversify revenues was heard from many of the speakers, regardless of whether they were addressing technical, marketing or regulatory topics. The session on VoIP was a fast-paced review of VoIP and included speakers from four different operators, as well as several suppliers of the technology. The operators are finding that VoIP, allows them to reduce cost, provide better service and offer new products to a broader customer base.
The wireless session highlighted how independent telcos are using wireless as another tool to increase revenues and grow their customer base. Bill Stark, President of Excelsio Communications, an Engineering Consulting firm specializing in wireless, suggested that telcos are, “filling in the gaps [in existing service areas] with wireless technology “, and are using, “wireless as an edge out strategy.”
Raymond Henagan, CEO/Manager of Rockport Telephone explained that they are building a, “wireless moat”, around their existing exchange to solidify their position as the premier provider of telecommunications in their area. They envision adding video and VoIP to the wireless data they already provide. Again, these ventures were done to diversify their revenue and make them less dependent upon the uncertain future of access revenues.
Robert Russell of DCI Voice Solutions presented a practical way telcos reduce long distance costs by using VoIP to connect to multiple long-distance carriers, enabling “least cost routing”. Keith Scarzafava of WVT Communications pointed out, in the same panel, that VoIP is not the ends, but just may be merely part of the means of getting packages of services that customers want. I was honored to speak on the same panel about the importance of marketing in a telco’s operation. The panel moderator, Mike Fox of CCG, reinforced an important point that the big box retailers already pose a form of competition with their 2.9 cent per minute, pre-paid phone card offerings.
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IP Video Conference Agenda
Economic and Product Feature Considerations for Telecom Network Architectures
The Consumer Electronics Interface – Can You See Me Now?
Regulation 101 – What a Telco Has to Consider When Deploying Video & Other New Services
Get in the Game – How do Games Play in a Service Providers’ Plans?
Advertising and other Alternative Revenue Sources
Integrating VoIP Content Into a Telco’s Bundled Service Offering
Making Sticky Bundles – Baking up new ways to gain and retain customers
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