{"id":174,"date":"2004-05-12T04:33:17","date_gmt":"2004-05-12T04:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/2004\/05\/12\/article2-19\/"},"modified":"2023-08-13T18:27:19","modified_gmt":"2023-08-13T18:27:19","slug":"article2-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/2004\/05\/12\/article2-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Company Caucus Gambles on Sacramento:"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a>
Indie Telco Local Content Workshop advertisement<\/a><\/p>\n

Quick Jump Menu to this Issue’s Articles May 12th, 2004 Overview CTA’s Supplier’s Showcase – Something New in Sacramento Small Company Caucus Gambles on Sacramento:<\/strong> VoIP – The Quadruple Play? <\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n

Small Company Caucus Gambles on Sacramento:<\/strong><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

by Ken Pyle (ken.pyle@viodi.com)<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a>
About Viodi, LLC<\/a> <\/p>\n

May 12th, 2004 Issue<\/strong><\/p>\n

Subscribe to Viodi View<\/a><\/p>\n

Last Issue<\/a><\/p>\n

Current Issue<\/a><\/p>\n

Next Article<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The USTA Small Company Caucus<\/strong> provided a snapshot of the regulatory, financial and independent telcos\u2019 viewpoints as to the current state of the telecom market. It is impossible to capture all of the good tidbits in one article, so I encourage you to get the CD-ROM when it is available. One thing I won\u2019t be able to adequately describe is the dinner event that USTA arranged. It was a great networking opportunity and a welcome break from the normal reception, as it was aboard an old fashioned riverboat on the Sacramento River. I did not prove to be a modern day Maverick with my gambling skills, but I had fun none-the-less and learned a few subtle things about black jack. <\/p>\n

Brian Strom<\/strong>, the CEO of SureWest<\/strong> and current Chairman of USTA <\/strong>welcomed the attendees. Mike Conrad<\/strong>, Chairman of CT Communications<\/strong> in Urbana, Ohio and Chair of USTA\u2019s Small Company Caucus, provided set the stage for the meeting. Walter McCormick, President of USTA<\/strong>, gave a good overview of the current climate in Washington as it relates to independent telcos. <\/p>\n

McCormick called Uncle Sam, the telcos\u2019 \u201csilent partner<\/strong>\u201d. He stated that it was very important to educate this partner and that that progress is being made. He said that USTA is, \u201cfighting in Washington for the right to compete.\u201d USTA has a campaign aimed at, \u201ccatching up the laws with our lives.\u201d This campaign clearly is aimed at lobbying congress to rewrite the telecom act to give clarity and remove uncertainty<\/strong>. He applauded President Bush\u2019s comments regarding the need to simplify regulation. <\/p>\n

Rudi Baca<\/strong> of the Precursor Group<\/strong> had some interesting insight, as he suggested that regulatory and technological trends are starting to chip away at telcos\u2019 protected status. He cited substitution of other products, such as wireless and VoIP, as evidence of telcos\u2019 vulnerability. He pointed out that the second and third largest telcos in California are cable MSOs. Baca indicated that telcos have to be aggressive<\/strong> and provide a, \u201cPanopoly of services<\/strong> that are attractive to customers and that are profitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The financial viewpoint was provided by Frank Gallagher <\/strong>of Legg Mason<\/strong>. He reinforced Baca\u2019s point by saying that the Triple Play is required as both a defensive and offensive move. He gave some interesting evidence of how the market values wireless substitution<\/strong> by stating that wireless stocks have increased by 150% while wireline stocks have only increased in the 15% in the same time period. <\/p>\n

Further, he called VoIP a disruptive technology<\/strong> as the Capital Expenditure is only $250 per line as compared to $500 to $700 for circuit switched telephony. Further, VoIP is cost effective in smaller deployments than is circuit switched telephony. He predicts 2005<\/strong> will be the year when MSOs and the big telcos \u201cduke it out\u201d for telephony in the bigger markets. <\/p>\n

Tom Soroka<\/strong> of USTA<\/strong> had some good advice for independent telcos \u2013 he termed it a 12 step program<\/strong> \u2013 for telcos transitioning to a market that is fully competitive and engulfed in regulatory uncertainty. He used the saying, \u201cthe best time to look for a job is when you have one\u201d as an analogy to spur independent telcos to aggressively look at how they are going to compete in an unregulated world. His 12 steps encouraged independent telcos to think outside of the box<\/strong> and to begin changing their mode of operation today<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

A very informative operator\u2019s panel was next on the agenda. The tidbits and insight from this panel will be covered in an upcoming issue. <\/p>\n

Back to Top<\/a><\/p>\n

Next Article<\/a><\/p>\n

Back to Main Page <\/a><\/p>\n

All displayed trademarks, logos and service marks are the property of their respective owners. \u00a9 2004, Viodi, LLC<\/a>. All Rights Reserved <\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/p>\n


Click Here to Learn More About FRED<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indie Telco Local Content Workshop advertisement Quick Jump Menu to this Issue’s Articles May 12th, 2004 Overview CTA’s Supplier’s Showcase – Something New in Sacramento Small Company Caucus Gambles on Sacramento: VoIP – The Quadruple Play? Small Company Caucus Gambles on Sacramento: by Ken Pyle (ken.pyle@viodi.com) About Viodi, LLC May 12th, 2004 Issue Subscribe to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":593,"href":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}