Posts tagged Sprint

Spring Comptel 2010

Mar 23rd

Posted by Marc Alciati in Blog of a Telecom CEO

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Catching up after an active Comptel, I am finally back to get everybody caught up of what is going on in the industry. It seems there is still plenty of capacity and fiber in the ground.  Prices are still dropping and more and more dark fiber providers are popping up. Intelletrace does not run into a lot of dark fiber opportunities, but have picked up 3 more providers which can assist our customers. As equipment costs also drop, customers are looking into dark fiber to run 10 Gig networks. 

Due to costs, all the big Carriers are no longer exhibiting, except for Sprint. The Carriers are participating by hosting large suites with food and beverages. These are nice meeting places, except when the suite is crowded and there are multiple conversations going on. Qwest, if you are listening, I do not recommend having such a large suite. Verizon Business had multiple suites which were private and can have a very effective meeting. We didn’t get a chance to meet with Sprint during the day, but they had a great party on the Music Queen River Boat. Here I got to speak with several executives and their customer to get a better understanding where Sprint is heading. While most companies are cutting back on the entertainment, Sprint still comes through with a good time.�
While IP pricing is still dropping, Verizon Business feels the market has reached a bottom. I certaintly hope so, although I feel a large provider will have to file for bankruptcy before this happens. Will we see a 2000 bust all over again???

Most importantly, I get to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.  We had a fun time in Nashville, catching a Predators Hockey match and bar hopping down town.  The live entertainment is great.  It is a city I enjoy visiting.  Hope to see you at the fall Comptel in Dallas.

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Really… More than a week?

Jan 27th

Posted by Marc Alciati in Blog of a Telecom CEO

1 comment

How does Level 3 continue to stay in business? We are going on a week of them still not getting back to us on pricing for an Internet circuit that does not leave their own network. Most Carriers have a pricing tool or flat rate pricing for all circuits which are completely are on their network. Verizon Business and Global Crossing make it easy, when we have Internet opportunities at their IP POPs. Both Carriers give us a flat rate and due to our volume, they actually decrease our pricing as we continue to add bandwidth.

Get a hint…Make it easy for people to do business… Sprint kept asking me for years how to get more business from Intelletrace. I had one answer which Sprint could not understand, “Make it easy to price and sell!”. Sprint is still playing catch up with most Carriers.�
Back to Level 3… They are the only Big Carrier who does not have a pricing tool for their services or flat rate pricing. Level 3 continues to fall behind and misses out on opportunities. Level 3 cannot continue to do business this way if they are going to stay around. Verizon Business even gives us flat rate pricing for services which leaves their network. An amazing concept… This enables Intelletrace to turn around quotes quick and most of the time chooses Verizon Business because of this.   People move very fast in telecom.  Intelletrace cannot afford to continue waiting for vendors to get back to us, when we expect to get to all of our customers with pricing in 24 hours.  Now I do expect pricing for large capacity circuits, such as 2.5gig or 10gig to take a little longer, as this is a new service which has only been around a few years and most backbones are still being built out to accept these type of services easily.  Companies must continue to improve their systems and need to move faster if they want to continue to be ahead of their competition and grow in the market place.

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