One of my favorite TV shows was West Wing. It showed the more interesting side of politics and governance in a very entertaining way. One of the interesting concepts on the show was how politicians will make announcements either late on a Friday afternoon when the mainstream media outlets really don't really have their "A teams" out; or on a day when you have LOTS of news. In those situations, what you are announcing gets lost in the shuffle.

It appears that the FCC, either intentionally or unintentionally, will be making a major decision regarding the Universal Service Fund (USF) on Tuesday November 4. While I would like to believe that this is a government agency hoping to get some work done ( ... wow there would be a shock... ), it appears that the FCC is making this announcement/ruling under the "cloud" of the national election results. And I'm not the only one... According to Monica Alleven, there are 61 members of congress with the same impression.

BTW - I have the queasy feeling about those members of congress.... If you do the ruling on Election Day, their message of support/protest won't be heard/seen. They want their time in the sun on Election Day AND in the committee room... ;)

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, FCC, USF, Universal Service Fund, Monica Alleven

As we come to the end of an election season where ( at least in Colorado... ) political campaigns have been "carpet bombing" advertisements on TV and radio. My particular favorites are the ones for congressional races that I have no standing in...

However, in the not-too-distant future, I might be spared advertising from races outside of the relatively, uncontested Colorado 2nd district. Time Warner Cable is moving closer to an addressable advertising platform with their recent partnership announcement.

But this addressable advertising doesn't come without a price... Perhaps one day my district will become contested and I will be targeted with very specific advertising....

NOTE - These addressable adverts aren't being limited to me ( an older folk... ). These types of digitial adverts are focusing on college students as well:

Get 'em while they are young...

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Addressable Advertising, Traci Patterson, Time Warner Cable

Early Termination Fees (ETF) are one of those concepts that sound great on paper, but rarely if ever have the desired impact. Recently, a friend of mine was changing wireless carriers and ran up against a rather onerous ETF since he wasn't in the window for terminating his service. Rather than helping my friend with his issue, his legacy carrier held him to the terms of the contract. Needless to say, that friend of mine made sure that everyone knew what carrier had "done him wrong".

He paid his bill until he was in the termination window while at the same time subscribing to his new service never to return to the previous carrier. Sure the legacy carrier got an extra 3 months of subscription fees, but they have made an enemy for life and a very vocal critic....

NOTE - Sprint (not the legacy carrier in the above example) and others are moving away from onerous ETFs in an attempt to prevent just such situations.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Sprint, ETF, Early Termination Fee

I once asked:

If you have a meeting and no one shows up, do you really need meeting minutes?

While call center scheduling isn't quite the same thing, issues with call center rep attendance can be a big issue for many organizations. Greg Levin looks at how you can avoid issues even when you have the best processes in place.

NOTE - My favorite was "empowering employees". Nothing like making a person feel like they are actively contributing get them to show up to work... ;)

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Greg Levin, Call Centers, Absentee

While organizations like Alltel and Cablevision have significant capital acquisition issues, the credit crisis isn't necessarily impacting Hughes Communications the same way.

David Katz talks with Hughes Communications CFO Grant Barber in a recent article. Barber is focusing more on his customers' ability to afford his services more than the ability to expand via putting satellites in orbit.

I like how Hughes positioned themselves and is not ready to expand their offerings on their own platforms rather than relying on the variable cost of other satellite providers while other telecom organizations are scaling back/rethinking some of their expansion efforts.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Hughes Communications, Grant Barber, David Katz, satellite