Martin Resigns!

Well, after I finishing celebrating that the back-stabbing, lying b@stard is leaving, I can tell you that Julius could be the shot in the arm the FCC needs.

I don't think a new FCC will move to re-regulate. Sorry. It's too hard to reverse things that Martin's FCC did, since the FCC doesn't really have the power to break up mergers or reverse forbearance. It would take long drawn out court cases, which is not going to happen under the current conditions.

That said, you need to accept the status quo. If you are a farmer, complaining about the soil, wind, rain and sun doesn't work. Accept it and Work With What You Got!

The FCC was due for a Triennial Review Report (and here) in 2006 and again in 2009. (If you remember, the key provisions of the last TRO in 2003 ended up being overturned by the Court. We ended up with the TRRO - which largely was fought in court by the ILEC's - that left us with "non-impaired wire centers". (see article here for some history).

Also, the new FCC can't do anything about the State PUC's that have little desire or in many cases legal authority to help ISP's and CLEC's. Deregulation happened in 2005 at both the state and the federal level.

My advice to all of you is to get to Layer 7. If you are not solving problems for your customers, then you will lose them.

Also, customer retention is more important right now that acquisition (except in cases of new tower or new Central Offices). So is Accounts Receivables. Many CLEC's are reporting Bad debt, slow payers --- stay on top of it or risk cash flow problems or worse being burned by lump sums.

Lastly, I would look for ways to stay in front of your target market. Maybe Twitter (maybe not).

Are you sending out a Newsletter? If not, I will be offering a generic one for you starting next month. Contact the office for details.

BTW, Martin will join the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, where Powell went to work when he left things to Martin.