The New York based telecommunications giant racked up top rankings in six our of nine reputation attributes: innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, quality of management, long-term investment and quality products and services.

“It’s an honor to have the dedication and innovative drive of our employees recognized by our peers and competitors,” said Tom Tauke, Verizon executive vice president of public affairs, policy and communications. “Every day, more than 100 million people around the globe communicate via Verizon’s advanced networks. It’s a responsibility we take seriously, and it’s what drives us to find brand new ways for people to communicate.”

A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of approximately 222,900 and last year generated consolidated revenues of more than $107 billion.

The complete list of the World’s Most Admired Companies is published in the March 22nd, 2010 edition of Fortune magazine.

Looks like Google is at it again, but this time in the world of broadband. Google unveiled plans to connect U.S. homes to the internet with lightning-fast service.

How fast you ask?

Try 1 Gigabyte per second fast.  A full ten times faster than Cablevision’s top speed of 100 megabytes per second.

But alas,  the telecommunications world gave but a passing glance to Google’s ambitious plan.  Industry executives were quick to point out that Google has no experience in the slow and labor intensive process of upgrading networks. “If this were easy, everybody would be doing it,”quipped one industry executive.

The key to Google’s plan is replacing what is referred to as the “last mile”, (the copper connection from home to the network) with fiber optics. This task has been daunting for other carriers, however. Verizon has been replacing its copper network with faster fiber-optic cable for the last several years and it is far from completion - even after spending a whopping $23 billion.  Other telecommunications companies are also upgrading their networks, but in a more limited fashion.

Google’s plan is to work with local governments, although a Google spokesman noted that is was too early for the company to “get into the specifics of our deployment techniques.”

Only time will tell whether Google will emerge as a threat to broadband behemoths such as Verizon and AT&T. Judging from Google’s success, (and stock price) over the last decade or so, it might be wise not to bet against them.

Submitted by: TelCon Associates

One of the goals of this research is to differentiate between those organizations that cut costs and maintained services from those that struggled to cut costs and made painful sacrifices that destroyed expected service levels for telecom and network services (Figure 1).  Read Full Article Here

Figure 1: Top Pressures Driving Telecom Lifecycle Management

Source: Aberdeen Group 2010 Read Full Article Here

Rumors were circulating that AT&T would not be the exclusive provider for the device, but those rumors turned out to be completely false.

AT&T, in fact, WILL be the exclusive 3G provider for the new iPad, as it now is with the extremely popular iPhone.

Could the addition of handling iPad traffic
push the AT&T network to its limit?

Let’s face it, AT&T is not tops in customer satisfaction when it comes to handling heavy data bandwidth from its business (and even consumer) customers.

Did you know that AT&T now has twice as many smartphone users as its nearest competitor?   Since the iPhone was introduced, the company has experienced a 5000% increase in broadband data usage!

Is it any wonder that they want the iPad business too?

AT&T execs must have been anticipating consumer concern over issues of the increased bandwidth needs of the iPad.  The did, in fact, address this topic on their latest quarterly conference call.

John Stankey, president and CEO of AT&T Operations, said on the call: “We’re very pleased to say that one of the 7.2-enabled devices that will have connectivity on our network is Apple’s new iPad…”

Stankey added “we’re really excited about the device, and we work closely with Apple in planning for its connectivity on our network. AT&T is a natural fit for the iPad, given the combination of the ever-improving speed of our 3G network and our robust Wi-Fi capabilities. We have a thorough technical understanding, with a good read on the iPad’s usage requirements and characteristics, and all that is included in our network plans for 2010 in the plans I’m sharing with you this morning.”

So apparently the company IS ready for the onslaught of die hard Apple users firing up their iPads.  The plan is to spend $2 billion dollars in 2010 to keep the 3G network running like a fine Swiss watch.

Our advice is this:

If you are going to purchase the iPad, we suggest you go with the Wi-Fi only version.   AT&T will charge you $30 per month for a 3G plan, but you really don’t need it for use at home, school, or your local Panera Bread.  The last few years has spawned more widespread availability of free Wi-Fi.

Opting out of the $30 per month 3G plan will not only save you a few hundred bucks per year, it will also help save AT&T bandwidth for the rest of us. :)

Submitted by: TelCon Associates

Although “outsourcing” seems to be the buzzword these days, there are things you need to know and be aware of before you take the plunge and enter into a telecommunications outsourcing relationship.

What exactly is telecom outsourcing and how do you know when and if you even need to hand off your in-house tasks to an experienced specialist in the field?

To answer this, let’s take a look at the different aspects of telecom outsourcing in more detail.

The 4 Main Areas of Telecom Outsourcing

1. Telemanagement

Outsourcing telemanagement tasks can be as simple as ordering a new line for a specific office or location, or handling moves/adds/changes for a multi-location conglomerate company.

You can think of most telemanagement tasks as the ones that your staff probably complains about or dislikes doing the most. (No one enjoys being put on hold for an hour with a carrier just to make a small change to an account or a bill.)

Adds, moves or changes to a bill or account, questions on a bill, ordering new service or features on existing service are all considered “telemanagement” activities that can be outsourced very inexpensively.

You should consider outsourcing telemanagement tasks if you have ever had any or all of these concerns or problems:

You are understaffed to deal with them and complete them in a timely manner;
Problems that arise are not being solved correctly and/or efficiently;
Company growth is making it less cost effective to handle telemanagement duties in-house;

2. Bill Management

Years ago companies (and individuals) paid one phone bill to one company each and every month. Those were the old days!

Today, companies now must pay local, long distance, wireless and internet bills to multiple vendors in multiple locations.

Bill management is an outsourcing function whereby ALL of your telecom bills go directly to the outsourcing firm itself.

Telecom bills are paid, moves/adds/changes are implemented where necessary, and ideally a routine system of auditing is in place to keep bills “clean” from crams, slams, fraud and abuse, overbills, etc.

You should consider bill management outsourcing if you have these problems or concerns:

• You have multiple field locations within your company and you lack a comprehensive and uniform system to pay bills on time and to deal with moves/adds/changes effectively;
• You are paying a full-time salary and benefits to one or more individuals to handle bill paying duties;
• You need an experienced outsourcing firm to not only pay bills but to implement a system of routine auditing to maximize savings and reduce waste.

3. Cost-Reduction and Auditing

Before outsourcing telemanagement or bill management duties, it is first advisable (although not absolutely necessary) to conduct a thorough audit of your telecom department.

A cost-reduction study will help you maximize savings before systems are put into place for paying and/or maintaining your bills. Chances are that the savings found when conducting a cost-reduction survey first will pay for subsequent outsourcing many times over.

You should consider a cost-reduction audit if:

• You need a comprehensive study and inventory completed to help you determine the “baseline” of all your company’s telecom needs - and you need help in identifying exactly where savings and waste can be eliminated ;
• You have experienced or been concerned with any of the following items appearing on your bills in the past: billing errors, fraud and abuse, unneeded/unused features, overprovisioning of lines, cost-effective local service plans, and/or correct long-distance assignment;
• You lack the time, the manpower and/or the proprietary knowledge to conduct a thorough audit in-house.

4. Telecom Training

If you are fully staffed to handle the above outsourcing tasks within your company, outsourcing basic and/or advanced training may be in order.

The telecommunications industry is in a constant state of change. Comprehensive training will keep your staff sharp and current to handle these changes.

Telecom training can be customized and on location or can be acquired in a variety of 1-2 day seminars conducted by experienced and reputable training companies. (CCMI is a terrific source for intensive auditing seminars and training)

The Bottom Line

Outsourcing some or all of your telecom departmental duties can save your company money. In the process, it can relieve your staff of time-consuming tasks and headaches better left to an experienced outsourcing firm.

Submitted by:  TelCon Associates, Inc.

The next generation of smart phones for business people and consumers will be RFID capable while making wider use of NFC  - a wicked combination that is sure to unlock the enormous potential of expanding the current capabilities of wireless phones.

What is RFID?

At 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974, a customer at Marsh’s supermarket in Troy, OH, made the first purchase of a product with a barcode, a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit Gum.

Barcodes were the first practical use of RFID, an acronym for “Radio Frequency Identification”.   Barcodes store information, such as price, volume, etc., about a product where it is then read by a scanner at checkout.  The barcode essentially “tags” the product with this information.

RFID tags are an improvement over bar codes because the tags have read AND write capabilities.  Data stored on RFID tags can be changed, updated and locked.

One common use of RFID tags today is highway toll passcards and subway passes.  Because of their ability to store data so efficiently, RFID tags can calculate the cost of tolls and fares and deduct the cost electronically from the amount of money placed on the card by the user.

What is NFC?

NFC (short for Near Field Communication) is a short-range wireless communications technology standard that allows electronic devices to communicate with each other.  The most common current use of NFC today is to make payments using only your NFC-equipped cell phone.

Because NFC is used for secure transactions, close proximity is needed to allow it to work.  RFID is capable of accepting and transmitting well beyond the few inches commonly used for NFC transactions.

Cell Phone Applications Using RFID and NFC

Cell phone makers are beginning to take a serious look at potential applications of these emerging technologies.

Apple has reported that it plans to build RFID capabilities into the next generation of iPhone.  The success of Apple’s App Store and the huge amount of currently available applications, make this news a software developer’s dream come true.

One advantage of RFID is that it does not require a direct line of sight for the information contained with a tag to be read.  And because RFID tags are very small, they can be hidden easily within every day objects.

Multimedia content and information will soon be accessible from physical and inanimate objects that are embedded with RFID tags.  Cell phones will soon begin to interact and communicate with all kinds of physical objects contained in the world around them.

Below is a video showing how an RFID capable iPhone interacts with a set of children’s toys.  Each toy in the video is embedded with a small RFID tag.  When the phone is passed near the object,  the tag triggers distinct content associated with that toy onto the iPhone screen.

As you can see, the potential of RFID-embedded products is staggering.

Some useful applications could be:

• A maintenance manual and/or repair video RFID tag embedded in your car for easy access
• Product information video and tutorial RFID tags embedded onto packaging or purchased products
• Local information embedded on tags that are placed throughout cities, towns and popular tourist attractions
• Fashion accessory information embedded into clothes, boots, shoes, etc.

The possibilities seem endless.  You can be certain that ultimate uses for NFC and RFID have not yet been conceived.   If Apple’s plans for utilizing this technology are true, don’t be surprised to see very cool applications emerging sooner rather than later.

Submitted by:  TelCon Associates, Inc.

What is a Telecom Trouble Ticket?

Trouble tickets are formal records that identify a problem, then assign responsibility for diagnosis and resolution of that problem.  A ticket could be as simple as a pad of paper with notes about the description of the issue, its status, the date(s) of carrier contact, name of carrier representative, resolution date, etc.  If your company is small, the chances of having chronic telecom issues are remote.  As the number of employees and field locations increase, it becomes imperative that a system for handling telecom trouble tickets is established.