Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Yes, you can get a discount from AT&T (and from other service providers) if you just ask, and manage your account by making sure that when your offers expire, you call them back to re-new or re-negotiate new offers.  

Doing this was documented last January when I was onGood Morning America demonstrating how this is done.

On December 8, one of my U-Verse discounts expired, so I called the phone company again to re-new.  So now I am good until June 13, 2010.  This will go in my calendar and I will call them yet again on the 14th of June, 2010 and do the same dance.

On January 6, 2010 another one of my discounts expires, so I will call them back on the 7th of January to see what they will do to work with me.

I really like AT&T as a company and I love U-verse.   

No, I don’t want to switch to cable or satellite, or for that matter to Hulu mostly because I really do like the experience of watching live TV and doing so in HD on a nice home theater system.

$10 x 2 = $20 = $260 per year in savings.  Add in another 33% to gross up for taxes and that’s another $85.  Add it all up and that comes to $350 just for picking up the phone, spending 5 minutes 4 times a year and doing this dance.

$10 per month may not be a big deal to one person, but if you had 2,000,000 customers (AT&T has more than 2,000,000 U-verse customers) that comes to a $700,000,000 savings in gross dollars.

Even if you don’t need or miss the $10 per month, do something good with the money. 

Manage this savings and give the $350.00 to someone in need – maybe a charity that was obliterated by Madoff.  Maybe someone less fortunate than you.  Maybe your local PBS station, your church, mosque, or synagogue.

Or, if you are not in the giving mood, take someone you love out for an amazing dinner, a night or two in a nice hotel. 

It’s the little things that add up, and just by calling the phone company, you can save like I do.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Tadiran Telecom will be providing advanced communication solutions for the Beijing Subway, which is planned to become the largest subway in the world by 2015. Under the new agreement, Subway Line 15 and Daxing, which is a subway line in the southern city quarter, will include 87 units of IPx3000 system and FlexiCom 5000 system connected across 57 km of tracks. That will provide converged voice, data and video communications, dispatch and system-wide management applications for the monitoring of the whole network in real-time.

“Mission critical, converged communication systems that support voice, data, video and advanced communications have become a necessity in the transportation market. Tadiran has been leading this technological ground,” said Zeev Aviv, VP Sales & Marketing of Tadiran Telecom. “The Beijing Subway is an ambitious project with special communication requirements. Tadiran Telecom will make use of the experience, customization capabilities and know-how that it has accumulated in the transport industry over the past decade. Our flexibility and reliability have yielded success in past projects and have made Tadiran the company of choice for China’s transportation projects.”

According to the company:

Tadiran Telecom solutions are already providing mission-critical communications to much of Beijing’s public transportation, including the Beijing Subway lines 4 and 5, the Airport Express subway line, and the Beijing Airport Command Center. Due to the successful installations, Tadiran Telecom has been chosen again over competition from major players such as Siemens, Alcatel, Feihong, Ericsson and Harris. Line 15 is the sixth line awarded in the Beijing subway to KTT, Tadiran’s subsidiary in China.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Vertica Systems and Sigma Systems are holding a webinar about new internet protocol detail record mediation and data warehousing solutions for cable and telecom service providers. The solution being discussed allows providers to analyze terabytes of usage and subscriber data at any level of detail and in real time.

Here’s the detes:

DETAILS:
Attendees will learn how to:
– Do fast, ad-hoc reporting on real-time IPDR and other telecom data
with minimal impact on equipment and systems performance.
– Gain better insight into service fulfillment, rating, charging,
billing and profitability that result in competitive advantage, tight
regulatory compliance and a better customer experience.
– Examine network and call data in real time to improve quality of
service.
– Query years of data at any detail level.
– Eliminate revenue leakage and reduce customer churn.

– Identify fraud.

WHEN:
Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 10:00 AM Eastern time

To register: http://www.vertica.com/.

Source: www.voip-news.com

tw telecom inc., a telecommunications company that specialized in Ethernet and transport data networking, Internet access, local and long distance voice, VPN, VoIP and security for enterprise organizations and communications services companies, will be presenting at a conference next week.

Here’s the detes:

Barclays Capital Worldwide Wireless and Wireline Conference
New York, NY, Thursday May 28th @ 2:15 (EDT)
Speakers: Larissa Herda, Chairman, CEO and President
Mark Peters, EVP and CFO

In addition to the live conference, the event will be webcasted. Go to twtelecom.com and click on Investor Relations to read more or listen in.

Source: www.voip-news.com

tw telecom has installed a 25-site IP-VPN for RS&H in Jacksonville, Florida. The facilities and infrastructure consulting firm offers engineering and architectural design services for aerospace, aviation, defense, education, science and techology facilities, among other industries in the U.S.

“RS&H is a highly collaborative company with architects, engineers, designers and planners throughout the country sharing large project data files, such as CAD drawings every day,” said Harold Hamm, Vice President of Information Technology for RS&H. “Our decision to deploy tw telecom’s IP VPN capability within RS&H was predicated on the scope, performance, and cost effectiveness of their network.”

According to tw telecom:

tw telecom’s IP VPN is a fully-meshed IP-based networking solution that provides any-to-any connectivity to businesses with multiple locations in a metropolitan area or across the country. IP VPN also allows for a greatly improved ability to manage and prioritize their traffic with Class of Service (CoS) as well as monitor network performance via a customer portal. Additionally, the versatility of IP VPN lets companies easily add new locations to their network as they grow.

“Our customers’ projects are highly time-sensitive and we rely on our network to meet deadlines,” said Hamm. “We converted from a high performance private network with a central hub connected with high-speed Ethernet to our collocation facility to an even higher performance network. With the implementation of tw telecom’s IP VPN, we have been able to significantly improve network operation and speed while reducing the overall cost of our network. Not only were we able to increase the available bandwidth for our larger offices, but now every office can connect directly to any other office including our Peak10 hot site collocation facility without having to go through a central hub in Atlanta. IP VPN gives us the ability to dedicate our company resources where and when we need them.”

Source: www.voip-news.com

OneAccess will be assisting TeleCable in providing new telecommunications services with VoIP technology for their Asturias business customers. TeleCable will be using a One Access ONE100 router among its new technology.

“TeleCable has a strong track-record as one of Spain’s most innovative telecoms operators. Its selection of our ONE100 multiplatform router demonstrates that the ONE100 is the best solution available in terms of the services it enables and therefore the new revenue streams it provides for the operator. It also cements OneAccess’ position as a leading supplier to the Spanish telecoms market,” said Alan Brazier, CSO of OneAccess.

According to the companies:

The ONE100 equipment allows TeleCable to offer digital telephony services without having to modify its current network, which already has two interfaces for ISDN Basic, or four interfaces for larger businesses.

With this move, TeleCable reaffirms its trajectory as one of the most innovative telecommunications operators and OneAccess strengthens its position as the leading provider within the Spanish market.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Alternative workplace strategies are a cost-cutting measure that can help companies  save their budget without having to make bigger staff freezes or salary cuts. With the prevalence of VoIP, Wi-Fi, workers willing to work in temporary spaces or at home, telecommuting technology and more, working beyond the traditional office environment has gotten easier to do and to manage.

However, senior management is slow to support the use of alternative workplace strategies (AWS),  according to a recent survey of CoreNet Global Dallas Summit registrants.

Microsoft and CoreNet Global have partnered for an international survey to see how AWS is working or not around the globe. According to the survey, 55 percent of people surveyed said that commitment to the overall AWS strategy has increased as the economic conditions have continued their negative path.

“From our global survey we have consistently seen two main reasons corporations are implementing existing AWS. The first reason is about people — the ability to attract and retain talent and provide a better work-life balance by enabling employees the flexibility to work remotely. Second, improving productivity and collaboration. Cost, whether right sizing the portfolio or overall cost cutting, were also important, but less than the people issues,” said Katherine Randolph, Director, Unified Communications for Microsoft. “Empowered by the latest realities in mobile technology, Corporate Real Estate is working closer with IT and Human Resource departments build a joint vision for the best possible workplace and make it a reality within the current global economy.”

According to the survey:

Companies are currently looking to reduce operating expenses wherever possible with 62% of respondents agreeing that current conditions are likely to continue through 2010. Travel is the highest area of reduction followed by hiring freezes, staff reduction and bonus/salary reduction.

Fifty-seven percent of companies state that AWS strategy of Telework is a component to the reduced travel policy. Within Telework, Email continues to be the number one form of communication. Web conferencing is used by 80% of respondents’ companies, and instant messaging, voice over IP and video conferencing are all being utilized.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Cablecom, the largest cable-network operator in Switzerland, is going to use SmartNode 4630 Multiport BRI VoIP Router for its connect PBX ISDN VoIP and data service for SMBs.

“As a business service provider, we require innovative technology with the highest level of reliability, and SmartNode hits both targets. Partnering with Patton-Inalp enabled us to establish our voice service at the highest level of quality,” said Sacha Jooss, Cablecom Product Manager

SmartNode 4630 provides up to 5 BRI ports and 8 VoIP channels.

“The SmartNode equipment works so reliably that management never hears from them, and that is a good sign. Selecting SmartNode enables us to meet the demanding expectations of traditional ISDN users,” said Jooss.

According to SmartNode’s manufacturer, Patton-Inalp Networks AG:

Cablecom’s decision was driven by Patton’s unique price-performance equation: SmartNode delivers voice quality comparable to ISDN combined with first-line stability and reliability in a low-cost, standalone form factor. A rich ISDN feature set allows users to use their handsets and PBX features exactly as they are accustomed.

Another deciding factor was the high-precision clock, unique to SmartNode, which eliminates interoperability failures with DECT, PBX and FAX communications that commonly occur when VoIP is deployed in ISDN environments.

Source: www.voip-news.com

The Metropolitan Nashville Hospital Authority now has data and voice services from tw telecom, the company that also does their data and internet services.

“The Hospital Authority needed to upgrade communications capabilities to meet the growing needs of Metropolitan Nashville,” said Robert Stillwell, CPA, Chief Financial Officer for the Metropolitan Nashville Authority. After a thorough RFP and search we saw that tw telecom could provide the solutions and expertise required for this transformation. As essential care facilities for the residents of the City of Nashville and Davidson County, we see tens of thousands of patients each year and this improvement to our infrastructure will support our mission to provide seamless, high quality care to our patients.”

The Authority now has two 10Mbps Ethernet circuits, a point-to-point data connection, a 500Mbps Ethernet connection to an off-site disaster recovery and business continuity location, and voice services at Nashville General Hospital and other locations.

“We were very pleased with tw telecom’s Internet and data services, and these additional services were the next component required for our upgrade,” said Ken Irwin, Telecom Manager for the Authority. “Today we have a single provider that delivers a converged, SONET-protected communications solution to the Authority. Having one provider streamlines network management capabilities as well as providing real expense savings that ultimately benefits taxpayers.”

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Ok… test time.  

Source: www.voip-news.com

Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union in Tampa has had tw telecom’s 51-site IP VPN installed. The new networking solution includes offsite data center connectivity, Ethernet Internet Service and voice services.

“We were seeking a provider that could increase our connection speeds, boost our network capabilities and enable us to reach all of our locations with a single provider,” said Michael Parks, vice president of Information Systems for Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union in Tampa. “We looked at several providers and the decision to select tw telecom was based on how well they could support us in serving our members. Suncoast is extremely member focused, so we don’t tolerate downtime well. If a location goes down, serving our members becomes much more difficult, but the tw telecom IP VPN gives us an extremely reliable network.”

The credit union says the upgrade will help them better serve their customers.

“We elected to reinforce our offsite datacenter connectivity and the dual entry MPLS allowed us to achieve that goal,” said Parks. “The new circuits provide much better usage capabilities than we had with our previous DS3s. In fact, data back-up that used to take up to four hours daily to complete, now takes about 20 minutes. In all, the new services save us a great deal of time, provide significantly better service than we had before and reduced our monthly expense by about $40,000.”

According to tw telecom:

Suncoast’s 51-site IP VPN, with Class of Service (CoS), replaced a limiting, point-to-point architecture with a robust, fully-meshed, SONET-protected network with any-to-any connectivity for all of its locations throughout Florida. tw telecom’s network delivers Class of Service capabilities allowing Suncoast to maximize their IP VPN to not only transport critical data as needed but also allows them to prioritize voice traffic on their network. tw telecom connected all Suncoast’s location that were within easy access to tw telecom’s network, and built fiber into eight locations including a 120 seat call center and their remote data center.

“Our teams worked closely with Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union to design a solution that would provide them the connectivity they needed as well as the flexibility and reliability they wanted,” said Rich Santoro, vice president and general manager for tw telecom in Tampa. “IP VPN is a great solution for businesses that need connectivity for multiple locations. IP VPN is versatile since not only can it connect locations throughout a city, it can also connect to locations across the country.”

Source: www.voip-news.com

A new report from Pyramid Research indicates that Russia’s telecommunications market is facing significant changes thanks to government initiatives and changing demand. According to the report, technologies like WiMAX, IPTV and VoIP are new and spreading.

“Government policies could have a negative impact on the revenue opportunities for competing network operators and their technology suppliers,” said Andrei Tchadliev, analyst at Pyramid Research and author of the report.  “Russia remains one of the largest and most promising markets in the world, but its increasingly closed way of doing business, first exhibited in the energy sector, is quickly spreading to all levels of the economy. In the past year, foreign-owned companies, such as Telenor and Tele2, have seen the Russian market and regulators becoming markedly hostile to the concept of majority foreign ownership of telecommunications firms.”

Tchadliev also says that mobile voice revenues will level off in the next few years before beginning a decline.