The Romeos: Nine retired telco men talk of transitional time.
The Romeo’s is a 9 minute documentary on MN telecom in the 50′s. The interviews are with retired telephone men describing a time of transition for telecommunications. They started at $16 at per week, climbed iron wire poles, converted crank phones to dial phones, installed suit case sized mobile phones, and sent 100 words per minute high speed data using punch paper.
The documentary was produced as a part of the Minnesota Historical Society’s greatest generation film project, coincidental with the 100 year anniversary of the MTA – Minnesota Telecom Alliance, and with plans for more in a series of documentaries on Independent Telco’s. Call or write me for details on sponsoring or helping to fund the production of these history of telcom documentaries. Roger Bindl at 608-268-5704. roger at viodi com
Paula Eller of Yukon Telephone, reflects on the life of a key industry figure that started in the industry that at age 16. TelAlaska’s Jack Rhyner, who lost his battle with cancer a few months ago, worked tirelessly to ensure Alaska’s rural areas received the support necessary to bring telecom services to the most remote reaches. Eller, a pioneer in her own way, worked closely with Rhyner on these common goals. She has seen and participated in many of the changes in the industry and her common-sense wisdom for balancing work and family have made an impact that would be sorely missed if she, her family and their company quit serving their community.
In this brief interview given at the IP Possibilities Conference & Expo, John Rose, President of OPASTCO, talks of the concept of universal broadband. OPASTCO represents 500+ independent telecom operators, which primarily serve rural areas of the U.S. and Canada. Rose suggests that broadband is not a one-size-fits-all service and, as such, operators will have to tailor services to meet the wants of their customers.
ViodiTV at IP Possibilities 2008 is being brought to you by Entone. 
Introductory pricing for telecom services has caused this author extreme frustration. Warren Lee, President and CEO of NeoNova, explains how one cable operator gradually gets their customers to pay more for services they might not have ordered in the first place. The operator has something like an 88% retention rate of its customers using this technique. Lee also implores telcos to look at bundles as more than just speed and to shape bundles to meet customers’ lifestyles and needs.
ViodiTV at IP Possibilities 2008 is being brought to you by Entone.
“Soon the Millennials and Gen-Xers will take over,” so said telecom analyst and journalist, Gary Kim. In this brief video, Kim talks about why this shift in culture is important to service providers. He also suggests that operators, particularly mobile operators, need to consider more than bandwidth when determining network robustness.
ViodiTV at IP Possibilities 2008 is being brought to you by Entone.
