Shouldn’t it be simpler?

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This is true in anything, right?

Here’s a few examples of great questions (love the last one)

(please take a moment to watch the videos, promise, you’ll laugh)

 

Insurance     All State’s Mayhem proves this         

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw9hQNdXYbI

 

Food         Where’s the Beef?                 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6_eWWfNB54

 

Business    The Office-Jim asks a killer question     

http://tinyurl.com/c7gkmyh

 

The point is simple…we all want “national service”, but when stuff breaks we want “Bob” to fix it, right now!

I can hear it now… “But that’s more expensive”.

My Dad taught me, “Time and money are interchangeable; you can always gain more of one, by spending the other.”

So, what’s my point you ask?

I pay my lawyer, CPA, mechanic and others to solve problems for me, because they’re specialists.

If it’s Telecom or Tech, we’re specialists and you’re probably not.

We know the questions to ask and probably the answers also.

Perhaps we should talk?


Michael Bremmer, CEO, Telecomquotes.com

951-485-7371 xt 1101


 

 

 

 


 

Does it work?

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When Jimmy Carter first became president, he was told, anytime you want to go anywhere, Marine 1 (the Presidential helicopter) is on 24/7 standby. President Carter said, “Great, I want to go now”. Of course, at that moment Marine 1 wasn’t ready and the secret service was embarrassed.

What good is a flat spare tire, life insurance that doesn’t pay out or a corrupted data backup? They’re all worthless.

It is just as important to test your disaster recovery plan as it is to have a disaster recovery plan.

Yes, it’s inconvenient, but how much is your customer data or 3 hours of busy signals because your voice calls didn’t correctly reroute?

 

Thoughts?

Michael Bremmer, CEO


Up Periscope or iPhone?

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I hate it when I’m trying to work on something and I can’t see what I’m doing. Usually I try to fumble with a mirror (trying not to drop it) and then I saw a technician do something brilliant today.

He used the front facing camera of his iPhone instead of a mirror. This way he could take a picture or video to see what he was doing.

Brilliant!

Here is an example I took of the back of my router….

 

The nice thing is you almost always have your phone on you.

 

Michael Bremmer, CEO

Cloud Computing???……………. It’s future is Cloudy!

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Cloud computing isn’t new or even a fad, but a return to technology’s roots (all things old are really new again!).

The 80’s began the era of the “personal computer” with removable storage (remember floppy drives?) and hard drives.  Before this, it was all “cloud computing”, dumb terminals hooked to a larger and not very smart computer over expensive leased lines.

Here are just three challenges it currently faces…

  1. Metered broadband.   Cloud computing requires lots of bandwidth and if those costs grow significantly, that will have an adverse effect on the growth of Cloud Computing.  I think the business plan will eventually look like this….

The broadband carriers DREAM is to return the broken long distance model and they will try to discriminate between types of traffic, charging for on-net and off net use.  For example, “If you buy your cloud computing from us, we won’t charge you for that traffic because it’s on net”, but we will charge extra if you go over “bucket” for email, video or web traffic.  This of course is the heart of the net neutrality argument.  Cloud computing is absolutely reliant on affordable, fast, ubiquitous, unlimited broadband internet access.

  1. Quality of Service issues. Cloud computing only makes business sense if it reduces costs, increases productivity, and is easily usable by the masses.  So far, many dedicated connection exceed these requirements, however, as usage grows bandwidth will be squeezed and performance will suffer.  Broadband services already have widely varying SLA’s and traffic shaping/prioritization will become a “how much you got” charge.

With the potential profit from a reoccurring revenue model, metered broadband and additional charges for prioritization, cloud computing is absolutely the “better mousetrap” for ISP’s.

However, for consumers, the price of your data “anywhere anytime” may be very expensive.

  1. Unrealistic expectations & vendors.  Like any other “hot” item, lots of people are lining up to take your money.  This means that there will be many train wrecks along the way, vendors overselling capacity, poor security practices, lost data=lost business and expectations that aren’t met.  Cloud may eventually solve cold fusion and cure cancer, but like any other business investment, investigate who you are doing business with and have a plan B/C.

You’d feel better if you talked about it…Chat us up @ 888-829-5359

Michael Bremmer C.E.O. Telecomquotes.com

 

 

Taxes, Fees and other Telecom Lies…

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Every industry has their dirty little secrets. As you probably know, the mortgage industry recently had to make a few things right,

car dealerships are famous for mystery fees and who really knows what you pay your stock broker for (if it’s me, it’s to lose money).

 

The phone industry is no different.

 

Recently, a customer asked to me to explain, these fees on his phone bill (the former provider we switched him from).

“Taxes and fees” are almost 35% of his phone bill (see below)


 

Here we see the “EASY TO UNDERSTAND” breakdown of these fees…

 

 

 

The first part, Taxes, Governmental Surcharges and Fees, are actually paid to the Government.

The “Verizon Surchages and Other Charges & Credits”-(notice there are NO CREDITS!) This section is generally pure profit for the carriers.

 

At Telecomquotes.com, we work with our customers to make sure they make smart decisions about their communications.

 

Michael Bremmer, CEO

 


 

 

 

 


 

Danger Will Robinson, Danger! New Email scam targets Verizon Wireless customers…

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Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim and thieves have to steal, (unfortunately).

Here’s a link to an unfortunately “fake” Verizon Wireless email that could empty your bank account.

http://www.jsonline.com/business/wireless-phone-bill-scam-makes-its-way-through-cyberspace-nv6oko7-168705676.html?

When in doubt about any email from a major company, send it to spoof@(majorcompany.com website).

Michael Bremmer

CEO

Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor gloom of night Or losing power…stopped Telecomquotes.com

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We lost power for a full day last week in my office.  Normally, this would have meant everyone had the day off (my employees are thinking “and what’s wrong with that?”).

However, we didn’t miss a beat because our business runs from the cloud…

Phones, email, server, everything…”safe as houses”  in several different data centers.

The best part?  It doesn’t matter what “pane of glass” you’re using it from, Ipad, home computer, Android device, internet cafe.

Or we could have just lost the day, in this economy and tried to make up for it the next day.

But I’m not sure my clients would appreciate that.

How about yours?

 

Michael Bremmer

CEO Telecomquotes.com

 

Is Free Wifi Going to Die?

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Information Week has a great article that inspired this blog entry here…

http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/network/240004335

Say it ain’t so Joe!

I could, but that would be a lie. Free Wifi is going to die and here is why…

Carriers are greedy pigs who don’t care about you and me.
See they’ve spent billions to cover America from Sea to shining Sea
With 4G (wait really 3G but who cares) it’s fast and it’s not free.

But wait, free wifi is everywhere so why do I need 4G…?
Oh, said the evil carriers we can’t have that can we?

We have to bill by the byte, don’t you see!
It’s not fair that you get to innovate and think differently.

Wait, PLEASE DO innovate and we’ll just find a way
To steal your ideas and make you pay…
Either through crux or crook, PIPA, or SOPA, we’ll just say
You are using to much, Google or EBay….

We really don’t think it’s fair use for you to outsmart us.
So we’ll get together, oh yes we’ll all get on that bus.

Charging for what used to be free because we can..
Welcome to the world of metered broadband folks…
Where nobody rides this train for free, no way man…
This isn’t for laughs or it ain’t no joke

Free WIFI threatens carrier profits and we can’t have that.
So we’ll cap and we’ll cry, saying brother, put a little more in the hat
Saying it is about making sure things are fair and good for you
Don’t worry, big brother knows best, we always do.

Don’t worry though because we raise the cost, not all will be lost
This will lower prices, wait you’ll see it will be more fair for you and me

Because if we meter broadband, then Starbucks won’t have such a crowd
And you’ll really be able to think because it won’t be so loud.

The WIFI won’t be free of course, but that’s ok
We know you’ll just pay…

I hope my little poem makes it clear why, Free WIFI must die!

Michael “to be or not to be” Bremmer
CEO TELECOMQUOTES.COM

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Data Loss, What’s the Cost?

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(Which is worse?)

My throat tightened, tongue thick, a cold sweat covered my entire body.

  1. I was, alone, in a store and I’d lost Mommy….
  2. Our server crashed and along with it, all our business data…
  3. I’d lost my car keys and we were at Disneyland….

Ironically, I’ve survived the 1st and 3rd events.  I’m not sure my business would survive the 2nd.

Data Loss’s impact on a SMB/MSB

43% never re-open

80% fail within 13 months

53% never fully recoup their losses

Pepperdine University’s own newspaper says…

69% of data loss is caused by hardware failure and HUMAN ERROR.

Source http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/2010/08/the-cost-of-lost-data/

Yet, most businesses assume as if this will never happen to them, (just like a cash flow crunch or a key employee leaving).

Remember, “The Thing You Don’t Want To Talk About Is The Thing You Need To Talk About.”

Telecomquotes.com is here for you, when you’re ready for cloud services and backup.

Just don’t wait too long! (we can’t resurrect the dead or recover lost data–both are really expensive and hard to do!)

Michael Bremmer, C.E.O. Telecomquotes.com

 

Answers you should KNOW when buying Telecom!

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What is your time budget for this project?

  1. Most customers don’t realize the time required to gather 3-5 bids.  This is usually the beginning of black hole of time (hours/days are expensive, you can’t get them back).   For this process, plan on investing at least 3-5 hours to collect these bids, then additional time with the final 1 or 2 bids, before making a decision.

Sound fun?  With Telecomquotes.com, we can INSTANTLY QUOTE 38 different carriers and compress this time to about ½ hour, plus we actually know what we’re talking about, so you can get back to running your business.

How have you assessed your network to make sure it’s VOIP/cloud computing ready?

  1. Be careful of the price quoters….would you make a decision on a medical procedure based on price?

Your INTERNAL network is just as important as your telecom services.  Too many businesses expect home grade network routers/switches to perform beyond their capabilities.  Often, it’s not that expensive to upgrade an internal network so your cloud/voip performs flawlessly.

“You are what you eat” and your network is only as good its design.

Finally, who are you doing business with?

  1. What makes your business different from your competitors?  Customer service, quality of service, price point?  Every business makes these claims, but in the real world service levels vary greatly.

Before deciding on any provider, make a few phone calls into customer service repair and ask for customer references you can SPEAK with.

The people are the difference with any business.  Telecomquotes.com selects the best the breed providers because happy customers refer us to other customers.  Besides, who likes working with jerks?

Michael Bremmer, (not a jerk) C.E.O.