Matt and Mark (and others), This is a general rant about posts from the last few weeks.
When I read the posts about who is better and what is missing, it reminds me of a kid's christmas wish list. There is no perfect CPE. Everyone has their favorite. And much like politics and religion you aren't going to persuade someone to change.
You have to ask yourself: Is Good Enough, good enough to base your business on?
If it won't scale or has a limit, is that limit good enough for your market? Chances are it is because more than two-thirds the ISPs I have dealt with have less than 300 BB clients. Less than 300. So their network is Good Enough.
(Why 300 is a whole other rant -- sales, marketing, humping the boxes instead of the prospects).
There is often talk of valuations - and like Mark said - the customer is the asset. That being said: No one is buying your network or your "Potential". They are paying for your customer list and contracts.
Your fortunes will probably not be made on just connectivity. You need to start moving up the layer stack and get closer to Layer 7 - the application. With the Mega-Mergers now complete, your customer base is now the target. The price point is $10 - and they are coming. You need find a way to capture your customers like banks do with Bill Pay.
I often speak with cable operators who are getting their lunch eaten by DBS, because to upgrade their current network is millions - even for 6000 homes passed. So the shift is coming. The big are eating the small in ever segment on the market.
People will want/need bigger pipes - and probably won't care where it comes from. But security, data protection, pc support, help, and knowledge is yours to sell.
Sorry for the rambling. - Peter -- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
