Open Letter to the ILECs

Dear Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier,

We know you’re looking at offering IP Centrex to your enterprise customers. We know IP Centrex can offer most of the major bells and whistles that your current Centrex platform supports. Voice quality can be as good as or better than your traditional service. And we know that you can certainly offer IP Centrex for less cost than traditional Centrex. Maybe you can even keep some of the extra profit margins if you convert.

But something puzzles us. According to Steve’s recent survey results, IP Centrex was at the bottom of the list of reasons an enterprise would deploy voice over IP. Could this be because you are “hiding your (IP Centrex) candle under a bushel?”

Are you afraid to offer IP Centrex because:

a) It might cannibalize your traditional Centrex revenue, since you will need to price it lower?

b) You don’t think IP Centrex is “carrier class?”

c) You can’t figure out how to integrate it with an IP PBX?

d) You think your traditional Centrex can still compete against an IP PBX?

e) You have some concerns the regulatory community won’t approve?

f) All of the above?

Well, relax, Mr. Carrier. We’ll give you some medicine in the form of several newsletters to help relieve your pain. Next time, we’ll talk about what we mean by IP Centrex, and we’ll address the issue of revenue cannibalization to help you on your road to success. After all, we believe it’s your business to lose.

Best regards,

Steve and Larry