Comments
mhhf1ve
2/26/2017 7:25:59 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
> "Who's the driver and who's the road here? (To continue your automotive analogy ...)"
Ha! I think the automotive analogies have been taken way too far here. The automotive industry itself is changing too much to be a reference for other industries!
JohnBarnes
2/26/2017 7:37:21 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
mhhf1ve,
Excellent point, but I'm not sure that any analogy that invokes classical physics -- i.e. forces that push against masses that have inertia and friction, that sort of thing -- is really appropriate to technological change. Rather, change happens where some balance of evidence, reasoning, estimation, prediction, etc. all converge to make it appear the best bet to enough decision makers. The real mistake may be in thinking of it as a linear situation, where
Likelihood of Change=b0+b1current market conditions+b2firm's current position+b3availability of new options ....
when a better model would be nonlinear, like
Likelihood of Change=b0(current market conditions)b1(firm's current position)b2(availability of new options)b3
What's wrong with the linear model is that it suggests that if one area isn't working you just push harder somewhere else that is working; a nonlinear model suggests that balance, proportion, and coordination matter more.
elizabethv
2/27/2017 6:13:12 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
@JohnBarnes - The "last 50 feet" is why, at least for me, going with ComCast right now, despite the horrible customer service, has been the better option. Because everything in my area is ComCast. So I suffer through their insufferable customer service, and enjoy my good internet. (I suppose in all fairness to them they did give us a credit on our last bill without us asking because they had an outage in the area for about 12 hours. So perhaps their customer service is improving some.) I do think some are slowly coming to realize that a free market is not the best for every business that exists, but you're right, at best it's going to take a generation to get that message to the majority. Some are slow on the uptake.
JohnBarnes
2/27/2017 8:54:06 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
ElizabethV,
Well, consumers and legislators are so far slow on the uptake. I think with the volume of consumer response data that telcos have, they're apt to realize soon that they would like to have some higher costs "imposed" on them because they can just pass them on as long as cut rate, poor quality services can't rush in to grab price advantage.
freehe
2/27/2017 9:33:38 PM
User Rank Platinum
Century Link Article
@Mike Robuck, interesting read, great article. Thanks for sharing.
freehe
2/27/2017 9:48:23 PM
User Rank Platinum
CenturyLink Virtualization
This just makes good business sense for CenturyLink. I suspect if most companies could save money implementing virtualization it would be implemented more often but either companies cannot see the money savings or are too afraid to implement it.
"We also have almost 50% of our network capabilities currently controlled through our SDN network, so (we have) virtualization of those capabilities," Post said in the transcript. "We have virtualized WAN service availability, virtualized interconnect between VPN customers; just a number of virtualization steps we've taken. Again, 50% of those capabilities are virtualized today."
Once the virtualization efforts are completed in about two years, Post said CenturyLink expects to save more than $200 million a year in capex.
freehe
2/27/2017 9:49:46 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Century Link Rewards
@dcawrey, I totally agree. Someone is going to get promoted or employees will receive a bonus with that kinds of savings. Shareholders will also be happy.
freehe
2/27/2017 9:51:27 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
@dcawrey, I agree. Virtualization will not solve all their problems. They also have to spend money to improve customer service with their customers in-person, on the phone, via email or chat.
JohnBarnes
2/27/2017 9:52:13 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: CenturyLink Virtualization
freehe,
I suspect, like all great tech deployment projects, they're going to run up against the "95%" rule -- "The first 95% of the job takes 95% of the time, and the last 5% takes the other 95% of the time." Right now they're picking the low-hanging fruit. Those last few hard to virtualize functions and spots will, if history is any indicator, prove to be where the time and expense really starts to mount.
JohnBarnes
2/27/2017 10:29:53 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: CenturyLink Banks on Virtualization
srufolo1,
According to FierceTelecom, last year CenturyLink only had about 6 million subscribers (down from almost 7 million at their peak) and was losing about 10,000 per quarter, so this represents a pretty drastic turnaround (and note it's not new subscribers that they're talking about here). So the answer would seem to be that that 4.8 million is about 80% or so of their existing base. How much of that is old customers converted to virtualization and how much is new customers gained by virtualization, I wonder?
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