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Quick Jump Menu to this Issue’s ArticlesMay 12th, 2004 OverviewCTA’s Supplier’s Showcase – Something New in SacramentoSmall Company Caucus Gambles on Sacramento:VoIP – The Quadruple Play?
THE VIODI VIEW
by Ken Pyle ([email protected]), Viodi, LLC
In this Issue: VoIP Quadruple Play, Cheap or Groupie?, Sacramento….
May 12th, 2004 Issue
Someone recently said that this is the time of the year for tradeshows and meetings. Whoever made that statement was sure accurate. In this issue we will look at some of the tradeshows that we have attended in the past few weeks, including California Telephone Association’s Supplier Showcase, the USTA Small Company Caucus and NTCA’s VoIPossibilities conference in St. Louis. One of important take-aways from USTA and NTCA’s conferences is that the momentum is building for a rewrite of the Telecom act…probably won’t be this year, but 2006 or 2007 seems to be a pretty good bet.
There were several good shows we missed, including the NCTA’s National Cable show and Parks Associates’ Connections conference. Next week, I am looking forward to the California Telephone Association’s Focused Telecom Symposium on the Triple Play in San Diego. That will followed by Ad-Tech in San Francisco during the week of May 24th. In the meantime, Viodi is producing the Local Content Workshop today in Atlanta and next Wednesday, May 19th in San Diego.
CTA’s Supplier’s Showcase – Something New in Sacramento
Of course, the CTA’s Supplier’s Showcase has been around for years and is a heavily attended west coast telecom event. This year marked a big shift in the showcase, as the venue moved to the controlled environment of the Sacramento Convention center. The format was a bit different as well, as the presentations were a little longer, more objective and well attended.
A couple of the presentations I had the opportunity to sit in on include a presentation on wireless 802.xx network design and the presentation from Fred Arcuri, Sr. Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for SureWest Broadband, an operator with the distinction of having the most fiber to the premise customers in the United States. To read some of Arcuri’s insight, please click here.
Small Company Caucus Gambles on Sacramento:
From the cobwebs of my dusty mind, I remember some economic theory that stated that similar kinds of businesses that locate near each other can actually increase the total market size. In other words, each entity could actually increase their sales through some of sort of proximity effect. I had a chance to see this in action, as USTA held their Small Company Caucus in Sacramento right after CTA’s supplier’s showcase. This theory must hold some water, as attendance was up 40% at USTA’s event. In fact, I noticed a number of folks who attended both conferences.
The topics at the Small Company Caucus were very timely for independent telcos that are considering bundled services. In fact, the day of the conference, the Wall Street Journal came out with article highlighting some independent telcos, such as CT Communications, that are providing a bundled service offering of telephony, Internet, video and pizza-on-demand (to learn more about that application, come to the IP Video Show at Supercomm and hear Brian Strunk explain what they are doing). Appropriately, Mike Conrad, President of the Champaign Telephone Company and Chair of USTA’s Small Company Caucus, opened the session. Click here to learn more about the insight he and the other speakers imparted.
One of the reasons I have been critical of the term “Triple Play” is that it is too limiting. The presentations at NTCA’s excellent VoIPossibilities conference in St. Louis convinced me that VoIP is another service that could be wrapped into a package that includes POTS (Plain Old Telephony Service – Plain being the operative term), Internet and video services, creating a “quadruple play”. Again, a new term, such as “Bundled Services” or, as Dave Irwin says, TeleInfoServices may be more applicable to describe a telco’s offering going forward.
VoIP is clearly a hot topic, as this was the most heavily attended NTCA TechNet Conference and Showcase I attended. As usual, the topics were timely and the speakers were very informative. Fortunately, like the USTA conference, I have the advantage of having recorded the conference. As I synchronize the audio to the overheads, I am sure I will pick up a number of subtle things that I missed the first time. I highly encourage you to purchase the CD-ROM. To learn about some of the insight regarding regulatory, technology, marketing and general business issues of VoIP, please click here.
The Korner: Am I a Groupie or Just Cheap?
A few years ago I realized how having kids had changed my life when I observed that the only time I ever go to the “Shark Tank” (where the play-off winning, San Jose Sharks make their home) is to see Sesame Street Live or some other kid’s show. It is obviously fun to see the kids enjoy these shows, but the entertainment can be torture for the adults. Then, to add insult to injury, one ends up shelling out as much for tickets and souvenirs as he would for a playoff hockey game.
So, you can imagine my delight when I found out that I could see Real Wheels Live for free. The only hitch being I would have to pack the car, load up the family and drive 400 miles to Northern San Diego. Well, we did and it was well worth the trip, as the show was entertaining for kids from three to eighty-three. It was free because “Dave” was testing new live material and wanted to include some of the highlights as “bonus material” on his DVDs. Real Wheels Live, is a stage version of the hugely successful Real Wheels Video series.
So, what does all of this have to do with independent telephone companies and why is this even in the Viodi View? It’s all about marketing and promotion.
Dave Hood has success – over 6 million videos sold – that any producer would find enviable. Even with that success, he realizes that marketing and promotion are continuous. Similarly, telcos need to be able to go beyond the normal customer communications techniques, such as bill stuffers, newsletters, etc. and find ways to really draw attention to the new services they offer and the great customer service they have always provided. Live events, like the Real Wheel’s Live show, are a way to create both something memorable for a telco’s prospects and customers, as well as a way to reinforce the telco’s transition as a distributor of entertainment services.
[Clarification of the Korner from the March 31st issue. In that issue, I did some simple math to calculate the value per access line for the regulated portion of the Cal-Ore Telephone company. I overlooked the value of their CLEC operations in that calculation. From what I have heard lately, these operations are much bigger than I thought, so maybe the valuation is not as crazy as I thought].
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