Comments
clrmoney
2/9/2017 3:01:39 PM
User Rank Platinum
Century Link Rewards
They say virtualization is completed in 2 years and they will save 200 milion a year and that is a whole lot of revenue and century like virtualized 60% and hope to be at the 100% they siad by 2020 so let's see how this goes for them,
dcawrey
2/9/2017 10:31:25 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Century Link Rewards
Saving $200 million is going to get the attention of executives from other companies.
How many times do you think an executive has been told IT systems can save money? Too many times to remember...
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.
mhhf1ve
2/9/2017 3:06:06 PM
User Rank Platinum
Good for CenturyLink...
It sounds like CL is firing on all cylinders now (if that analogy isn't too outdated...). I expect to hear many more innovative things coming from CenturyLink as it folds Level3 into its business. It's truly combining the datacenter and telco operations, and that will be the future of CSPs, I think.
afwriter
2/9/2017 10:45:08 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
It does sound like they are making some major improvements. Hopefully they can upgrade their customer service while they are at it.
dcawrey
2/10/2017 2:24:03 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
@afwriter Customer service remains a huge issue for these companies. While I think virtualization can help this by automating some service requests, there has to be a greater focus on making sure customers are properly served, that's for sure.
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.
elizabethv
2/28/2017 8:46:11 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
@freehe - Spending time and money on customer service would probably be ideal. But they may not have to do as much as you might think. There is likely a fair chunk of consumers who are so fed up with the local cable option, that they'd be willing to put up with slightly subpar service from CenturyLink if they knew the quality of the product was pretty similar to the local cable company. CenturyLink is probably in pretty good footing in most areas to see this work out in their favor, if they can roll it out successfully.
elizabethv
2/25/2017 5:28:51 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
@afwriter - Upgrading their customer service could potentially mean the biggest difference for them. Generally the internet from local cable companies, while it may come with great speed and reliability, tends to come with crappy customer service because the businesses know customers have limited choices. CenturyLink brings the speed and the customer service, I have no reason to stay attached to ComCast.
JohnBarnes
2/26/2017 7:21:22 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
elizabethv, dcawrey, afwriter,
A huge part of the customer service problem for internet/cable providers is the "last 50 feet" as opposed to the last mile; the reason they have to send out Larry the Cable Guy is because what is at the other end of the line is very unpredictable. And you pick Larry because you know he will "git'r'done" because bad and costly and annoying as service may be, it's better than no service at all. Then you economize by outsourcing Larry's contact to a call center that may not be in the same time zone or language and hope he'll always be able to improvise.
There are a lot of better ways to do customer support but they all cost money, and margins are narrow. The classic fix for that would be to set a bunch of minimum standards and enforce them, and allow prices to rise accordingly (since this is a classic price-inelastic demand) but the political climate is all wrong for that now. Might be a generation before people reacquire the wisdom of 1910 or 1935 and realize that when you don't want the free market result, don't allow the free market.
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.
JohnBarnes
2/25/2017 5:22:22 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
mhhf1ve,
One of those imponderable questions: Is CL's melding telco with data center operations something they're doing because it's really, necessarily, inevitably the future, and they're going with it rather than fighting it -- or has CL's strategy of acquiring Level 3 and moving in that direction guaranteed that that will be the future? Who's the driver and who's the road here? (To continue your automotive analogy ...)
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.
mhhf1ve
3/4/2017 12:58:48 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
What's wrong with the non-linear model, though.. is that no one likes to admit things are complicated and unpredictable. Linear models are simple, and even polynomial/continuous/exponental models are fairly easy to wrap your head around.
But as they say, past performance has little bearing on future outcomes....
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
Mhhf1ve,
And hardest of all for most people to accept I think is a well done model that reveals essential stability -- a model that declares "do whatever you want because it will make very little difference."
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.
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.
elizabethv
2/25/2017 5:27:05 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Good for CenturyLink...
@mhhf1ve - I think you're right, CenturyLink is really working to bring themselves to the forefront of the business. Which is great considering I have hesitated being a customer for years now because the local cable company was just always better, not making you "share" your speed with your neighbors. My in-laws have CenturyLink and for the few brief months we lived with them (a few years ago) they just weren't reliable enough for me to even consider once we were able to get into our own house. If they keep moving with this kind of progress, that will very likely change.
srufolo1
2/10/2017 1:34:48 PM
User Rank Platinum
CenturyLink Banks on Virtualization
Sounds like CenturyLink has a solid plan. Virtualization is allowing it to reach out to more businesses, now at 4.8 million, due to virtualization. I wonder what kind of increase in businesses that represents.
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?
elizabethv
2/28/2017 9:04:06 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: CenturyLink Banks on Virtualization
@JohnBarnes - If I were in a position to bet, I would say the majority of customers for CenturyLink are turn arounds that they have successfully been able to convert. It almost seems a fairly easy approach for a lot of businesses, reach out to your existing customers and offer some kind of incentive to move them over to your latest features. Or force them, that works too. That's actually why I left DirecTv, they signed me up automatically for NFL Sunday Ticket, without any kind of warning or heads up except a small blurb on the actual bill they were sending me, where I was only paying attention to the electronic bill that was being sent to my bank. By the time I realized they had done this, I was supposedly too far into the season to be able to cancel it, despite never even using the service. I raised cain to get out but it ended up being such a nightmare, I ended up leaving anyway.
JohnBarnes
2/28/2017 2:55:38 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: CenturyLink Banks on Virtualization
ElizabethV,
It is also probably indicative that there doesn't seem to be any feature linked to virtualization that is directly being used as a selling point. Rather virtualization is being used to make the same basic service available to a larger potential customer pool.
CenturyLink Banks on Virtualization Rewards
This is excellent for CenturyLink because virtualization is getting huge and is becoming a total sucess. They are smart for getting involved in virtualization they arn't going to regret this move at all. This ca bring CenturyLink to the next level exspecially with the technoogy these days.
|
|
Italy's 5G auction could exceed a government target of raising €2.5 billion ($2.9 billion) after attracting interest from companies outside the mobile market.
The emerging-markets operator is focusing on the humdrum business of connectivity and keeping quiet about some of its ill-fated 'digitalization' efforts.
Three UK has picked Huawei over existing radio access network suppliers Nokia and Samsung to build its 5G network.
Vendor says that it's its biggest 5G deal to date.
Verizon skates where the puck is going by waiting for standards-based 5G devices to launch its mobile service in 2019.
Orange has been one of the leading proponents of SDN and NFV. In this Telco Transformation radio show, Orange's John Isch provides some perspective on his company's NFV/SDN journey.
10/16/2017
Huawei Network Transformation Seminar
The adoption of virtualization technology and cloud architectures by telecom network operators is now well underway but there is still a long way to go before the transition to an era of Network Functions Cloudification (NFC) is complete.
The Small Cell Forum's CEO Sue Monahan says that small cells will be crucial for indoor 5G coverage, but challenges around business models, siting ...
People, strategy, a strong technology roadmap and new business processes are the key underpinnings of Telstra's digital transformation, COO Robyn ...
Eric Bozich, vice president of products and marketing at CenturyLink, talks about the challenges and opportunities of integrating Level 3 into ...
Epsilon's Mark Daley, director of digital strategy and business development, talks about digital transformation from a wholesale service provider ...
Bill Walker, CenturyLink's director of network architecture, shares his insights on why training isn't enough for IT employees and traditional ...
All Videos
|
On-the-Air Thursdays Digital Audio
Special Huawei Video
Tweet This