Happy New Year
December 29, 2009
As the year draws to a close, I would like to wish many of you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!
To the carriers who simply compete on the lowest price, I hope you finally hit rock-bottom in 2010 to protect the health of our industry and the strategic broadband interests of our country. Try an economic concept to sell by: comparable differences. It’s a little more sophisticated than, “I have the lowest price” or “Just tell me what price you want.”
To enterprises, institutions, healthcare, government, hospitality, education systems, etc, I propose that you do your homework in 2010. The lowest price does not translate to network reliability, network diversity, on-time delivery, service availability or customer service. I submit that anyone with the lowest prices is cutting corners – caveat emptor.
I will and shall remain a bigot in 2010 – that is, a fiber bigot.
To a few of my favorite CEOs, may you find the following in 2010:
For Carl Grivner, CEO of XO Communications – some definition and clarity from Carl Icahn.
For Jim Crowe, CEO of Level 3 – a scratch-off lottery winning ticket that helps you pare down your debt so Wall Street can focus on your assets and potential.
For Dave Schaefer, CEO of Cogent Communications – a price increase to enhance your margins and increase shareowner value.
For John LeGere, CEO of Global Crossing – reparation payments and psycho therapy reimbursement for pre-LeGere Global Crossing./Frontier employees that were financially screwed by Gary Winnick and Co.
For Larissa Herda, CEO of TW Telecom – a new calculator that goes past two digits in the display and a better valuation by analysts.
For Bill LaPerch, CEO of AboveNet – more on-net buildings, you have the perfect business model (just like AFS).
For Randall Curran, CEO of ITC DeltaCom – the Civil War is over, head north.
For Jim Geiger, CEO of CBeyond – another year of growth. You have an algorithm, but be mindful, copper has its limits
For Arunas Chesonis, CEO of PaeTec – some more fiber in your diet.
For Danny Bottoms, CEO of Cavalier Telephone – a vacation trip to Dubai, I hear real estate prices have dropped substantially recently.
For Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon – another great year with FIOS…outstanding strategy – kudos to my Zen Master that made FIOS a reality.
For Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T – copy Verizon with a look-a-like FIOS, the regulators just might make you share your FTTC with others. See what they did in Britain as a clue.
For Glen Post, CEO of CenturyLink – a successful integration of Embarq…at AFS, we’ll miss you Embarq.
For Carmen Perez, CEO of FPL FiberNet – getting out of Florida for some network diversity and adding more women CEOs in 2010.
For Dan Caruso, CEO of Zayo – more pieces for that puzzle you are putting together.
For Howard Janzen, CEO of One Communications – more reliance on the knowledge and experience center in Rochester, NY. Most successful CLECs have CEOs, CFOs and senior execs from Rochester (Frontier Corporation).
For Peter Aquino, CEO of RCN – less cable TV and more enterprise.
For Ed Mueller, CEO of Qwest – a target of sorts … that’s what the Wall Street experts say.
For John Scanlon, CEO of Reliance GlobalCom (Yipes) – getting a 3x return on the $300 million for which Reliance bought Yipes a few years back, I know you can do it!
For John Purcell, CEO of FiberTech – just like AFS, another boring year of double digit growth in all categories.
For Mike Miller, CEO of FiberLight – larger pipe enterprise sales and a drink at MetroConnect in January.
For Jeff Gardner, CEO of Windstream – continued consolidation of the Tier 2 markets that translates to a high margin, low churn business with a national facilities-based footprint presence.
For my friends, Wall Street Bankers – more and better creativity on valuing companies … someone needs to look and act differently. You all look the same…why pay a fee without differentiation?
For my Venture Capital friends – avoiding ordinary income gains from the Obama Administration.
For my Private Equity friends – could one of you step up and buy a platform company to drive consolidation? You are all talking about the same thing yet no one is taking first mover advantage. (Please see Wall Street Bankers above)
For FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski – a Ouija Board to figure things out. Start spending time with the backbone of telecom…small companies. Simplify, simplify, simplify.
For Joe Nacchio, former Qwest CEO – a Hawaiian shirt to go with those khaki pants and a pre-paid calling card to call home.
For Bernie Ebbers, former CEO WorldCom – continued memories of better days gone by when things were simple and honest running a motel.
For John and Timothy Rigas, former CEO and CFO of Adelphia Communications – a basic channel package from Direct TV in your cells.
Finally, I’d like to wish a dose of reality for all the non-ILEC public communication companies and privately-held communications company for 2010…learn to partner. Our answers are not found by relying upon the government and FCC or by renting pieces and parts from our largest competitor – the ILEC – regardless of price or copper ubiquity.
The combined market cap of AT&T, Verizon and Qwest is over $262+ billion. Some brilliant, superstar Wall Street banking firm could orchestrate a super-mega-merger of the three and the rest of us won’t come close in market cap. What’s the lesson here? There is not any room for arrogance or condescension. The better focus is tackling ILEC market share instead of each other. The ILECs enjoy when the termites fight each other instead of eating the foundation out of their house.
Happy New Year! And cheers to a great start to the new decade!
Written by Dave Rusin - Telecom Executive
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