The Letter: Spring Cleaning

Posted: 04/2002

Spring Cleaning

A broken tile in the entryway. A ratty reclining chair. Kid’s toys on the stairs. Year-old magazines on the coffee table. Isn’t it funny how we can look over these things a hundred times and not think anything of them … that is until company is coming.

A similarly clarifying event — the indefinite postponement of bandwidth trading — has made us editors at PHONE+ take another look at state of our “house.”

We have concluded that while some principles of trading remain, they are going to be incorporated more seamlessly with wholesale buying and selling strategies. So, we are retiring TRADING DESK with this issue and replacing it with CARRIER CHANNEL. This new section will contain features about buying and selling carrier network services, such as metro bandwidth,
which is the focus of this month’s section.

By doing that, we left our reseller community, whose issues had been covered with wholesale carriers, homeless. So, we created a section just for them. RESELLER CHANNEL focuses on rebranding transport, communications and computing services. The debut of this section on page 14 talks about the gaining momentum of UNE-P.

PARTNER CHANNEL’s signature coverage of distributors, agents and affiliate sales partners stands. But, we have added a new feature,
T@G, which will be focused on the nuts and bolts of being a master agent or independent sales rep. Many of you may recognize the T@G brand from the Telecom Agents Group, a membership-based information portal sponsored by PHONE+. It is one and the same. What’s different is that we are channeling greater resources into the portal to beef up our coverage of issues, such as pricing, online tools, contracts, equity programs, and compensation, that are unique to doing business as an indirect sales representative.

We will be spotlighting select articles in the pages of PHONE+ each month. But you can read all of the content by becoming a T@G member. It’s FREE; you need only register online at
www.telecomagentsgroup.com.

Members receive password-based access to the articles, news and competitive intelligence posted at the T@G website. Plus, every week, an e-mail newsletter keeps you informed of what’s new at the site.

We are excited to debut this new and improved information service concurrently with our Channel Partners Conference & Expo. If you see me or PHONE+ associate editor Tara Seals at the show, please pull us aside and let us know what you would most like to read on the site. Or send us a note at
[email protected] or [email protected].

As far as you, the reader, is concerned, we suspect most of these content changes will be barely noticeable. That’s OK. We are seeking to tweak a platform that is performing well. It’s PHONE+ 2.0 if you will. What you will notice, however, is the fresh, new look of the magazine with updated typography and contemporary layouts. Let us know how you like the upgrade.

By Khali Henderson

Editor in Chief