Sunday, April 06, 2008

Rural Local Exchange Carriers and NTCA, What's Up?

You and I are in the Atlanta, GA airport section C 16 waiting for a flight to Chicago. A guy next to us is reading The Crimean War, stops to daydream periodically. A young girl wears a neon green headset and listens to/watches her Ipod. Several 40 something year old men's eyes are glued to CNN Headline news. A stewardess is studying her Slide.

You and I are laughing at the days when DIDX was the most made fun of service in the telecommunications industry... around 2005, and I am reading articles related to Rural Local Exchange Carriers, preparing for a meeting-packed week at NTCA's IP Possibilities where I know I am going to learn more than I have in a long time at conferences because of its emphasis on an acronym I know little about, the RLEC. It's time for me and my company to pay attention because compose a large majority of new DIDX.net members.

In the "D&E Communications Reports Fourth Quarter and Year End 2007 Results" article on March 11, 2008, James W. Morozzi states, "We continue to see the competitive pressures in our RLEC markets, demonstrated by the 4.0% reduction in traditional access lines in those areas. However, we continue to find ways to control costs in the business, evidenced in 2007 by our ability to maintain benefit costs without sacrificing our ability to attract and retain employees. These reductions in cost enable us to recognize increases in our operating income and cash flows, helping us to continue to pay down our long-term debt, which we were able to reduce by slightly more than $13 million in 2007."

True, one way to get ahead is to control costs, but even better is to develop new markets and services for new revenues. First, IPTV is a real alternative for cable and satellite in rural areas. Second, sales of access lines, at list direct inward dialing phone numbers will increase phenomenally with RLEC membership in the DIDXchange. Why? It's an instant market of global wholesale direct inward dialing exchange of 9000+ telephony companies from every part of the globe. Super Technologies, Inc. recently announced this tool for CLECs in this press release, "International and Domestic DID Number Sales for RLECs and Wireless Operators."

I'll close this post and return to to a book I'm reading, recommended in the most recent issue of Inc., named The Game-Changer. So far, I get the picture... a great new innovation, invention, or strategy is inspiring, but it's only the seed of growth. I like the idea of keeping a chart of one's most compelling flops as food for humorous anecdotes during presentations.

NTCA's IP Possibilities, BTW, was first introduced to me on Facebook.com.

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