Telecom Straight Shooter

Meet a different telecom professional

The telecom industry shouldn't be a series of evasive maneuvers. At least that's what Dave Rusin believes. Having spent decades in the trenches, from sales and management to high level executive, investor and industry analyst, Dave understands the difference between shoot-in-the-dark-fads and telecom trends that are right on the mark. Dave's corporate philosophy is about getting rid of bureaucratic secrets and providing customers with straight answers to the tough questions facing telecom today.

Want to ask Dave a question?

Shoot him an Email.


Broadband for Regular Folk

December 3, 2008

This question on “do-it-yourself” broadband, came in on the blog recently, and it’s right up my alley.
Call me crazy if you want, but I want fiber so bad I can taste it.
I’m just a middle class guy living on a road with a bunch of other
middle class guys in rural upstate New York.  I know […]

More on Backhaul

December 1, 2008

Thank goodness it’s Monday… as we all come out of our food-induced comas of last week’s feasts. Here’s a question to volley to start the week off right:
Dave,
What sort of backhaul deals do you see nowadays.  Market-wide, or one tower at a time, or mostly in between?    Are they supplementing your fiber to some towers […]

Latest Meltdown a Blessing?

November 24, 2008

In my last post, Consolidation in an Unstable Economy, I talked a bit about the choices open to AFS given the economy and that we’re not compelled to sell for anything other than optimal value. That said, we are also pursuing acquisitions as I am most certain the latest economic meltdown will push a few […]

Consolidation in an Unstable Economy

November 21, 2008

With an unstable economy, we’re going to see more consolidation. Who do I see partnering and conjoining in all this?
I am expecting more M&A to emanate from foreign entities such as Reliance Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, T-Mobile, etc.  What you will see, given the financial mess the world is in, the consolidation will be driven and […]

Growth in Backhaul and Data Centers

November 18, 2008

I was asked to speak to the growth in backhaul demand as well as what we’re focusing on at AFS relative to that and other areas of opportunity. With the economy in a state of flux, we are seeing two areas of continued growth for all optical services: wireless backhaul and data centers.
Wireless backhaul continues […]

Guess Who’s Coming to the xchange magazine Blog?

November 14, 2008

You guessed it. This month I started a guest blog feature for xchange magazine on xchangemag.com. I posted my second xchange blog entry today entitled “Two Topics, One Conclusion” in which I wrote about how forbearance can help solve the fiber glut myth that exists. It also continues my commentary on the case for forbearance […]

Latest Peering War

November 13, 2008

I’ve received several great questions via email recently — thanks much to those of you who are participating in the discussions in this forum, both with your ideas and your questions. Here’s a question I thought may be of interest to you.
What do you think of the latest peering war between Cogent and Sprint?
In one […]

AFS Philosophy

November 10, 2008

I departed last week from telecommunications news and commentary to thoughts on choosing your attitude, individual contributions and personal excellence. I included a list of 10 expectations we have of the AFS team. These were surprising to some of you because telecom isn’t known for setting high expectations for its internal audiences. You may be […]

More on Expectations

November 5, 2008

I wrote an entry the other day on Thank Goodness Its Monday and referenced #10 on our expectations chart, “Be responsible for your own happiness.” Well, a funny thing happened. It created some curiosity, and some of you inquired as to what the other nine expectations were on the chart so I thought I’d share […]

A Little Prognosticating on Election Day

November 4, 2008

Several of you have asked me for my take on politics, and while I won’t get into any specifics about the candidates or their widely publicized policies on taxes, health care, defense, etc., I will throw in my two cents on how each leader might affect telecom.
First of all, I don’t see telecom high on […]