News You Might Have Missed (Part 213)

A round up of news and tidbits from the past month.

The top ILECs - Ma Bell, VZ, C-Link, Level3 - have rolled out SD-WAN. So have the CLECs - TelePacific, EarthLink, Mettel - as a way to manage the network for their customers, especially with varying carrier partners like cable.

Isn't interesting that Level3 became the 3rd Enterprise choice after Ma and Pa Bell and not CenturyLink? After Sprint collapsed under its former CEO (Hesse), C-Link could have become the # 3 with its Qwest network, but it lost to a Level3 that was hampered by too many integrations that look good on the surface but internally make them look like AT&T.

Next year XO will become part of Verizon Business and probably Level3 will become part of Comcast Enterprise. No idea what Comcast would do with all that wholesale business because there isn't enough epi pens in the US to help them get over their allergy to selling wholesale. The other rumor is that Sprint is selling its fiber network. I guess Softbank just realized they had one.
FYI… Sprint pricing at 56 in ATL: 100MB is $1259 and 10MB is $528 --- If you need bandwidth or circuits, I am still an agent for 50+ carriers.

What does VoIP Churn look like? Good read.

Growth Hacks are ways to short cut sales by using marketing tricks. Here are 21 tactics.

As I emphasized in the marketing workshop, marketing is about telling a story that resonates with your target audience.
Humans have been telling stories since before paper and books.
This article is about startup stories but as someone who deals with startups regularly the definition of startup has broadened to mean any business launching a product or re-branding.

Good read from Fred Wilson on Strategy vs. Execution with a little Simon Sinek (Start with Why) thrown in.

Google Calendar’s new Goals will help find you time for self-improvement. See Here. Dwayne The Rock Johnson has a clock app that keeps him in touch with his audience every day - both as an alarm clock on your cell phone and with a daily message. Also, you enter your goal and it tracks it with you. Kind of brilliant.

Great read from INC and Google about Time Management.