INCOMPAS Show (Spring 2016) - Day 1 Show Daily

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« 4 » THE INCOMPAS SHOW I APRIL 10-13, 2016
DAY 1 THE INCOMPAS SHOW
He said the new format keeps meeting rooms,
education and keynotes all in the Expo Hall to let
members optimize their time.
Pickering offered some advice to first time
attendees: “Take advantage of every networking
opportunity – both formal and informal. It is our
members and their experiences and connections
that make the show what it has long been known
for – THE place to do business in our industry.”
He added that “any company that provides
competitive communications services to busi-
nesses and consumers, as well as their supplier
partners, can benefit from INCOMPAS. In addi-
tion to supporting our advocacy efforts, members
receive tools to compete in an ever-changing
marketplace, and relevant information about
new technologies and services, as well as policy
changes, that affect your day-to-day and long-
term business operations.”
According to Pickering, INCOMPAS has grown
its membership while it has enhanced its programs
and benefits in recent years, which makes being a
member more valuable and relevant.
This growth includes a diversifying popula-
tion of professionals that is more involved in
disrupting current technologies and the status
quo. This was made even more apparent at a
panel called “The Disrupters, Innovators and
Investors” during February’s Policy Summit.
“What was clear from that panel is that partic-
ipants were hesitant to predict what their compa-
nies would be doing five years from now,” Pick-
ering said. “I recently heard that we are still in
the early stages of the
Internet. It already has
transformed our lives,
it’s hard to imagine how
it may transform it even
more in the future.
“But with more
connectivity of devices
and machines, I’d
expect we will see
things we cannot possibly predict today,”
he forecasted.
Evolving technologies are leading to the
opportunity for many devices to be connected
to the Internet with the potential to help
consumers save time and money – from smart
home monitoring to more efficient shopping,
Pickering said.
“It’s an exciting time for consumers and busi-
nesses to improve their efficiency and effective-
ness through technology. And at INCOMPAS,
we are advocating every day for pro-competitive
policies that will help ensure that consumers
and businesses have choice for their broad-
band providers, which also promotes a healthy
ecosystem for over-the-top service providers
seeking to connect with consumers and busi-
nesses,” he said.
This year’s INCOMPAS Show comes during
the 20th anniversary of the Telecommunications
Act of 1996, which paved the way to the inno-
vations and disruptions we are experiencing
within the industry. As a young staff member
on former Sen. Trent Lott’s staff from 1992-96,
Pickering played a key role in shaping this land-
mark pro-competition Act. So he will be espe-
cially interested in the Federal Communications
Commission Chairman Thomas Wheeler’s
return today as a keynote speaker, and how the
commission might address special access and
other competitive issues.
“Special access reform is perhaps one of the
most critical issues at the FCC now from our
perspective,” Pickering said. “Special access
services are the high-capacity dedicated trans-
mission connections that are the foundation of a
wired and wireless economy, enabling providers
of all types to connect banks, airlines, schools,
libraries, hospitals and even our cell phones.”
“We all rely on them each and every day,”
he continued. “But this $40 billion market is
controlled by a few powerful incumbents, and it
negatively impacts the entire economy.”
The CEO explained that special access
services bridge a gap where “it is not economi-
cally feasible for our members to build their
own networks. Without these last-mile connec-
tions, our members are unable to connect to
their customers.”
According to Pickering, the Act provides for a
functioning wholesale market for special access
services, but with unreasonable pricing and terms
and conditions, the Bell companies are “trying to
choke off competition.”
“We’ve been talking about this lack of
competition in the high-capacity broadband
market for almost a decade, but thanks to
Chairman Wheeler and his fellow commis-
sioners, we have reason to hope that this issue
will finally be resolved during the first half of
2016,” Pickering said.
He added the FCC has undertaken the most
comprehensive data collection in its history, as
well as been provided significant additional infor-
mation. This record confirms what competitive
carriers have been saying for years:
• The incumbent LECs own the only loop
connection to the vast majority of commer-
cial buildings in the U.S.
• The prices, terms and conditions offered by
the large, incumbent telcos are unreasonable;
• That special access services are used
by competitive carriers to serve their
customers;
• That incumbents are delaying the transi-
tion to all IP with their excessive pricing of
Ethernet and lock-up plans.
Pickering said FCC action to ensure
the Bells provide rates, terms and conditions
that reflect a functioning market will promote
more competition, innovation and investment
opportunities by competitive and incumbent
providers. o
C ommunications Data Group (CDG)
announced the recent migration of its MBS
online databases to CDG’s AIX platform.
With this move, MBS online companies now
have the ability to directly control their own bill
processing and verification, from the pre-extract
audit to final bill run, as well as the capacity
to personally manage the setup, automation,
approval processes and scheduling of their
invoicing modules.
“With the AIX platform comes a whole host of
new tools that give our clients a level of control
they have never had access to before,” CDG’s
Vice President of Product Support Mike Runyon
explained. “We know that nobody knows their
usage and processes better than our clients,
and now they are able to capitalize on that
knowledge to further increase their revenue
assurance and maximize their billable revenue.”
Many of CDG’s MBS clients already are using
these new billing control tools successfully.
CDG’s subscriber billing and invoicing solu-
tion, MBS, is a highly flexible, modular system
for managing and billing wireline, Internet,
cable, wireless, VoIP, IPTV and non-telecom
services. MBS interfaces to customer care,
mediation, customer invoicing, plant records,
trouble reporting, e-care, cash drawer, service
activation manager (SAM) and patronage, as
well as third-party financial, mapping and facili-
ties management products.
Besides those solutions, CDG also offers
scalable, accurate billing and operational
support solutions for voice, video, and data
for retail and wholesale telecommunications
carriers and service providers. o
For more information on CDG’s products and
services, visit booth 219 in the exhibit hall or go
to
CDG Expands MBS Online
Client Billing Controls
(INCOMPAS, continued from page 1)