Ear To Ear Podcast | EPISODE 4: Telecom Past, Present, and Future with Phil Perdue

Transcript:

 

Introduction (00:00):

You're listening to Ear to Ear by Altaworx, a podcast for all things telecoms.

 

Forrest (00:08):

Welcome to the Altaworx Ear to Ear podcast, where we talk about all things telecom. Today I have a fellow Baldaworx employee Phil Perdue., I'm going to give you his title that I like to call him by, I call him an Agent Sherpa, but he likes his official indirect channel manager title. So, Phil, welcome to the show.

 

Phil (00:28):

Thank you, Forrest. Thank you for having me.

 

Forrest (00:30):

Glad you came down here from where you live. Chatham? Clayton? Where? Clayton, okay. And what's up in Clayton these days?

 

Phil (00:38):

Not much, except for Peach Park, every time I say the word Clayton, the first thing out of someone's mouth is Peach Park.

 

Forrest (00:47):

So, I know you're going to be getting on the road after this. Are you excited about seeing all the pine trees on the way back?

 

Phil (00:51):

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Very calming, a non-eventful drive.

 

Forrest (00:55):

Well make sure you stop by the Conecuh Sausage Factory, because you know, you can get a hot what Christmas spicy sausage. So, you need to make sure you can stop by there on the way back. Absolutely. Charge it to the company. It'll be all right. So, Phil, how did you get your start in telecommunications?

 

Phil (01:11):

I started way back when I was about, right at 19 years old, straight out of high school. I had other dreams and aspirations, but they didn't pan out. So, a friend of mine was working for a telephone company, an interconnect company there in Birmingham. So, I went to him and used him to get in the door there. I also enrolled in a night school and did my schooling at night. While I worked there, I started out as a grunt cable puller, putting on jacks, pulling cable, and things of that nature. So, I started very early in life.

 

Forrest (01:52):

Yeah. And I think we just hired a new guy named Wade that just started. His first day was Tuesday. And you got introduced to him yesterday. Tell me about how that introduction went.

 

Phil (02:01):

<laugh>. Yeah, so Noah brought Wade over to my desk and introduced us, and, and we started

 

Forrest (02:08):

For reference, Wade is 26, so yeah,

 

Phil (02:11):

He's young. Thank you. Yeah. So, we were sitting there, talking and I told Wade, I said welcome to the team. Even though I've only been here, at Altaworx for a couple of months now. I’ve kind of been doing this telecom thing for a little over 30 years. And his very quick response with no smile at all, back to me, he said, oh, wow. So, you started before the internet <laugh>.

 

Forrest (02:36):

Thanks, Wade. Yeah,

 

Phil (02:37):

Yeah. Thanks, Wade.

 

Forrest (02:39):

Yeah. So, I, got to spend the last couple of days with Wade getting to know him, and he's got a dry sense of humor, so you'll definitely see more of that.

 

Phil (02:46):

Yeah. Yeah. That was interesting.

 

Forrest (02:48):

So, you started off early on in high school before the internet? Yes. We, we got that part. So, what kind of roles have you held in the telecommunications space? Because I know you, you've been doing this for a while.

 

Phil (02:58):

Yeah, I think I've done it all just about every position that's available. Like I said, I started out as a cable puller, helper, ride alone, do the things that the technician didn't want to do. I was the guy that was sent out to the truck to bring in a can of dial tone, um, as a joke. Also, the guy that, was told to put your finger on the 66 block while they dialed the phone number, so you can get a little shock. So, I’ve been on the receiving end of all those jokes.

 

Forrest (03:31):

A can of a dial tone. What, what is a can Dial Tone?

 

Phil (03:34):

Well, just that it doesn't exist. So, but when you're 19 years old and you know eager to learn. Yeah. And, the lead technician says, hey, run out to the truck and get me a can of dial tone. We're out. What do you do? You run out to the truck, and you start digging around in the, in the inventory and looking for a can of dial tone that doesn't exist.

 

Forrest (03:55):

So, um, it's kind of like those videos I've seen on YouTube with the dads that take their child to the, um, auto parts store and say, hey, I need you to go in and get some blinker fluid. Just ask 'em for it and see what happens.

 

Phil (04:04):

Exactly.

 

Forrest (04:05):

Exactly. Yeah. Blinker fluid does not exist.

 

Phil (04:07):

I started with that long story short, progressed up through technician, senior technician, operations manager, phone systems sales. When I say phone system sales back when phone systems were still hanging on the wall and, and all the wired connections and all that good stuff. So, I sold for a little while. Then became a sales manager, then a branch manager, then moved, left the interconnect business and went to the provider side, worked on the provider side in account management, customer advocacy, and cult customer success, both as individual contributors and leadership roles. Um, and all of this was working in the channel with channel partners and, and agents and such.

 

Forrest (05:05):

So, what kind of companies have you worked for? Has it all been local businesses or regional, or has it been bigger carriers?

 

Phil (05:12):

A combination of both. I started out with local, just a couple of local companies. Um the first company that I worked for was very prominent in the Birmingham area, had a large customer base. Went to work there in, I don't know, 91. And, a year later we come in to work from one day in the afternoon. There was a note on the door that said that they were closing business. And not to return to work the next day. Soa year into that job, they just basically shut down. A handful of us went over to another company in town. There were only about three major players in the area at that time. We went over to one of the others, that individual hired us all on the spot, because there were a lot of customers suddenly without a vendor. That took me to my second local job. Then I got tired of working in the Birmingham area and went to the Montgomery area because living in Clayton, being right there and nestled in between the two, is about the same commute either way. And I worked for another company in Montgomery for about 13 years before I went to a large, nationwide provider. Um,

 

Forrest (06:39):

You can say their name.

 

Phil (06:40):

Okay. <laugh>. I went to Windstream for the last 17 years. I was at Windstream Communications, until April of this year or last year, 2022. Then in November of 2022 I came here.

 

Forrest (06:58):

Well, we're glad to have you here enjoying, taking advantage of your experience. So, let's talk about the industry as a whole. How has the industry changed over the last 30 plus years? II know that the internet wasn't around, we got that part covered earlier, but, how did the internet come to being? Did Al Gore invent it or did somebody else invent it? How did, how did this come about?

 

Phil (07:19):

Yeah. Well, I don't really know who invented it, but, I think it was in about 1995, the internet became publicly used in the home. Yeah, now the internet was actually developed and, started being used by government in the eighties. But, as far as telecommunications goes, some of the things that I've been involved in, I've seen in this short 30 years is I remember when we got as technicians, we received our first cell phones. I know a lot of folks who listen to this podcast and probably can't imagine not having a cell phone. But progression of voice services from pots lines to T1s to SIP, the internet being used, more than just to get out to the worldwide web. But, having the MPLS and the connectivity between locations and offices. The thing about this industry is, there's a lot that's changed over the 30 years, 30 plus years that I've been in it, but there's a lot still changing. You know, I tell people all the time, you work one day, you go home and go to sleep and come back the next day, something's different. It's always changing. Right.

 

Forrest (08:48):

So, one of the opportunities we were talking about earlier this morning, over at the coffee shop, was an opportunity where a customer is still using Centrex. I bet there's a whole lot of people on this podcast that don't even know what Centrex is. So why don't you talk for a minute about Centrex? What is it and why did people use it?

 

Phil (09:06):

Well, the easy way to explain Centrex, that a lot of people really don't think about, is that was the, we know modern day is a, a hosted PBX or UCaaS. So it was basically a POTS line that had all the features of a phone system programmed on it. But the phone system didn't reside at the customer's facility. Yeah. You know, so very similar to a UCaaS or a hosted PBX, phone system solution. It was just an early, early form of a UCaaS. It was just a very inexpensive way at the time for, a business too, to get the full functionality of a phone system without purchasing and spending the capital money to buy a phone system.

 

Forrest (09:54):

But that didn't transfer over a, a fiber connection, I guess it was over a copper, right?

 

Phil (09:58):

Yeah. Over the copper connection.

 

Forrest (10:01):

Yeah. So, what's interesting is there are still customers to this day that are operating off Centrex. So, you've got an opportunity you're working on right now. I've also got another larger opportunity I'm working on, which is surprising that there’s, there's still large clients that have Centrix complex accounts out there that we’ve even found that the carriers that are selling 'em or that sold them 20 years ago, don't even know the people that are there now, the technology has changed so much, they don't even know how to operate it, nor how to support it.

 

Phil (10:34):

Right. Yeah. I mean, from a customer point of view, it works. You know, it’s durable and it works. The problem there is I understand the customer says, hey, if it's, if it's not broken, don't fix it. But when it breaks, nobody can fix it. You know, or it's not going to be fixed. Because that technology has been overlooked and the newer technology is coming out and, we, the telecom industry, are doing away with the old technology. You know, we want to get it replaced and you as a customer will want to get it replaced. Because, you're just not going to be prioritized with a Centrex service if something fails. You're not going to be prioritized over a newer product.

 

Forrest (11:29):

Yeah. I think it's when something fails, not if, when right. So, I remember Ricky, who's our CEO, I've been a customer of Altaworx. I was a customer 18 years before I started working here. And I remember he gave me a tour of an AT&T, central office over in Mobile. And it was this was15 years ago, probably that tour that I went on. And it was amazing that they walked us through a room, and I don't know if it was Centrex, I don't know what it was actually, it was clicking, it was so loud because there were clicking switches going back and forth, mechanical switches going back and forth, and they walked us through that and took us through to another room, and they said, you see that room over there? That I don't know, 2000 square feet. Everything that that giant room can do is in this one server cabinet. Now, that's one cabinet. And it was just neat to see them visually, the technology has changed, but there's still old technology running out there.

 

Phil (12:25):

Oh, yeah, no doubt. I can remember one of the first telephone systems that I ever worked on as a technician, where I kind of halfway knew what I was doing. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the Homewood Police Department. I walked in and asked where the telephone closet was, and, they took me to the room that was about the size of this room here, 8 by 10 or 10 by 10 size room. And the entire room was wall to wall, three full walls, ceiling, the floor wiring devices, yeah. Blocks and, and switches and relays. And, it was called a, it was an 80/20 phone system. And a lot of people don't know what an 80/20 system is. You didn't plug a laptop in to program it. There weren’t laptops then.

 

Forrest (13:19):

It, was it punch cards or what, what was that?

 

Phil (13:21):

Well, it wasn't punch cards. It, you wired it. So, if you wanted a button to light up and ring on a certain phone, you had to wire it with, small copper wire, with cross connect wire, you had to wire certain pins to certain pins to make that happen. That was how you programmed the 80/20. Now, there are some other phone systems, the old Horizons and, and that look like. Where you used the punch cards and, and things to program 'em. So, um, we need to get off this topic because this is really showing my age.

 

Forrest (13:59):

Was getting ready to say, Wade, is going to be totally confused when he listens to this episode, getting into telecom now. So, I think we've covered how the industry has changed. It's different than it was when, when I was managing telecommunications for businesses as well as when you were selling it. So, let's talk about what's your favorite part of this line of work? So, there's a lot to this line of work. There's obviously a lot of history there. What's your favorite part?

 

Phil (14:23):

Obviously, my favorite part well, I say obviously, but my favorite part about this particular line of work is the smallness of this large industry. The relationships that you build telecommunications, I've always made comment that it's probably one of the most incestuous businesses in the world, meaning that everybody is each other's competition, but they're also each other’s, customer, friend, and mentor. Yeah. And I mean, I have a friend and or mentor probably at every major telephone company in the country right now because over those years, we have all worked together at some point in time and moved on to other companies. Um, and it’s just, for me, it's all about relationships and being able to build relationships that, that last longer than just, um, just that sale.

 

(15:26):

Yeah. For example, one little story I like to tell about relationships and how long they are is, um23, 24 years ago, um, I was at a company in Birmingham working. As a matter of fact, it was the company I was talking about earlier where the company, the initial company filed bankruptcy and closed the doors. Then I went to a second company, that second company, while I was there, my wife and I were pregnant with our first child. So, while I worked there, um, that child was born. Um, my son was born there. I continued to work for a couple of years while I was there and then moved on to, to another company. And, um, over the years23, 24 years later, my son came to me and, um, had a desire to get into this industry.

 

(16:31):

Yes, I did try to talk him out of it, but you know, it's in the blood. Yeah. He grew up with me working on phone systems in the spare room and, watching me, punch down Amphenol connections and things like that, getting ready for the next day. Um, so he grew up around it, but he had a desire to get into this industry. So20 some odd years later, I pick up the phone and I call the guy that I used to work for many years ago. And I explained to him the situation and, I don't ask him for a favor. I asked him for an opportunity. So, he gave Devin that opportunity and, and lets him interview with him.

 

(17:13):

A week later, he was hired, so20 some odd years later, my son, who’s almost 30 now, is working at the company that I worked for 30 years prior when he was born, so again, big small world. Yeah. It is those relationships, had that relationship not been there then that opportunity to get my son started in a career that he wanted to be in would not have happened.

 

Forrest (17:55):

Very cool. Yeah. Relationships are crucial. Um, I've known Ricky, our CEO for over 20 years, 22, 23 years, something like that. And I bought lots of things from him. He bought stuff from us and, at the company I was working for before. So, you don’t want to burn bridges, and you want to maintain those relationships. Um, so let's move on to kind of the challenges for Telecom. What are the challenges that you're seeing in the telecom marketplace for people to operate at Telcom? Because it's easier to become a reseller of telecom now than it was before. I mean, years ago, you needed to have to have millions of dollars to get started, but it has become easier, but there's still challenges,

 

Phil (18:35):

So. Oh, absolutely. I mean, Um I’ve seen everything from the big companies starting off big, to the one man shows, um trying to, to start their, their telco or, or their business. But probably one of the largest, one of the biggest things, challenges, for somebody getting started out is going to be like compliance. Um, being able to, and knowing how, or having the ability, to address the taxation of the voice services, specifically, um, I

 

Forrest (19:11):

Thought whenever the internet, it was free, there are no taxes,

 

Phil (19:15):

<laugh>. Yeah. Well, and that, that's part of it, that is a challenge. So that’s, that's kind of why that, why that's a challenge, because so many times they, like we’ve talked before, think, oh, as long as they can collect the local sales tax, u and pay that to the, to the tax and authority, then, then they're good. But there's so many other compliance issues involved with that. states, locals, federal taxes and, and such that, that are not being collected. Yeah. With somebody just trying to wholesale or resell service, um, resell a wholesale service, to a customer and not collecting those taxes. Um,

 

Forrest (20:01):

Well, and there's a lot of companies out there that they'll buy service to resell from a wholesaler. They'll pay the taxes not being tax exempt to the wholesaler, and then mark that up, but not collect taxes on the total price to the end client. So, they think they're in compliance because they're paying taxes, but the government wants taxes on the retail rate to the client, not the wholesale rate. So, there is a big issue that we've seen in the marketplace., some of the acquisitions we've tried to do, almost everyone ends in a bad, light because it's compliance, so, right.

 

Phil (20:36):

Another big issue, in the modern day for sure, is integration. , being able to integrate with various, business apps and, and, because so many companies now there, so many things out there like your CRM tools and your, um, your, um, communication tools, that are cloud-based, computer-based, and being able to integrate them in with your, phone system and, and services. There's, there's all kinds of licensing and, and things like, like that, that, that get in the way. And if you don't know what you are doing, it just simply won't work. And, but your customer wants that one throat to choke mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they, they want that ability to be able to say, Hey, this is what I want my phone and my computer to do. Right. Make it happen, and don't make it happen by pointing me to 14 other providers. Yeah.

 

Forrest (21:33):

One throat to choke is definitely a, a, a good, methodology from a management standpoint. What about service level agreements?

 

Phil (21:44):

Well, service level agreements are that’s, different people look at those different ways. That's kind of a catch all an end-to-end service level agreement from the time you agree to do business with a, with an organization, through the installation, the service, um, and the billing of the, of the product. But, the SLAs, the, the problem with that is a lot of, again, back to the, the old service, the copper, the pots lines, the, the copper T1s, anything, being delivered on the old switching technology, the old copper technology, um, FCC doesn't mandate the, the, a service level, to be maintained on those anymore. Um, so companies are trying to promise their customers that, hey, if your, if your elevator phone goes out, your, your pots line, if your elevator phone comes out, we’ll have it up and running within the next 24 hours. Mm-hmm. You know, it'll be back. But then, the person or the company providing that line, they don't have that same SLA. So being able to have an SLA that both can be delivered, that that's end to end from the customer all the way to the provider. Yeah. Um that’s, that's becomes difficult when you're somewhere in the middle there.

 

Forrest (23:11):

Yeah. You are using multiple providers upstream and they have different SLA agreements, and so you got to make sure your SLA can be accomplished with the parameters that you've got. So that makes sense. So what about, what are you seeing as far as the latest trends in telecommunications? So, what are the things that you're seeing in the marketplace changes that are coming? Well,

 

Phil (23:32):

The big thing, um, that everybody has heard about is, um, is fiber. Everybody knows, well, fiber's been around forever, Phil you’re, you're not talking about anything new. Well, the, the part of that that's new or very recent is the elimination of the copper network. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>the, over the last couple years, the talks of POTS and, traditional T1, that stuff's going away. It has deteriorated over the years in the ground. Copper just has not held up. It's been in the ground for a long time. Yeah. I mean, so I mean, it, it served its purpose, but if a carrier is going to dig up the ground to put a new line in, put a new cable in, why would they replace it with an old technology? Yeah. They're going to replace it with fiber technology, so therefore the copper, um, is going to be, is going to become obsolete. There are only so many pairs there. So, when your internet or your voice goes out and the technician comes out and they change the F2 cable pair or then they change the cable pair, there's only so many times they can change that cable pair before they run out of cable pairs. And then they're going to tell you, you have no option. Yeah. You, you must go to fiber.

 

Forrest (24:54):

And I think the other thing that's going on too is from a support standpoint, not just the infrastructure, but also the technicians that know how to work on that older technology. Sono offense, these, these guys that are coming up that are getting older and they're starting to retire, and these young kids don't even understand, toning out, a pair or figuring out how to, do that with those boxes.

 

Phil (25:17):

Right. No, you're, you're absolutely. Um, the other thing is, is, like fixed wireless. Broadband, that’s becoming more and more, um, as you know, there are areas in rural America, um, for example, that you, they can't get fiber yet. Yeah. And again, like I said, companies are not deploying copper anymore. Yeah. And you just can't get fiber to certain areas of town. You, but you have a demand and a need for high speed internet. Um that is where fixed wireless, broadband comes in. And then you have situations like temporary customers, for example, a construction company, and there, they're setting up a temporary trailer for a short period of time. You know, do, do they really want to pay to have a fiber connection run to a trailer that's not going to be there in six months? Yeah. Eight months. Um, so fixed wireless, it's brought down, plug it into power, and you're done. Yeah.

 

Forrest (26:25):

And you can take it and move it. So, let's say that construction trailer, they finish a job after a year, they can just pick up that trailer and move and drop that device in another location. Oh,

 

Phil (26:33):

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I remember having customers that were construction companies and every 12 months they would call me and order a new t1 mm-hmm. because they moved their trailer to the other side of the, the facility, or yeah. They move to a completely different place, so they would have to cancel one, and they were paying premium dollar because the, they, the long longest contract they could sign would be a 12 month term.

 

Forrest (26:57):

So, they had to pay for all that construction up front. Right. Which, or not upfront, but in that 12 months rather than over 36 months or 50 months or whatever.

 

Phil (27:05):

So That's right. And, this fixed wireless, um, the future of the 5g, becoming available everywhere is all been, eliminates that issue.

 

Forrest (27:17):

Yeah. Well, the speeds are, are faster too. So, we’ve seen speeds that are faster than the customer can geta wired connection, even a broadband connection like a Comcast or a Mediacom or some kind of, um, cable provider, in certain areas, you can get faster fixed wireless broadband than you can get wired broadband. So, all right. Well, what about LTE failover? You know, we talk a lot about that as a company, but what are you, what are you seeing out there? Yeah.

 

Phil (27:46):

Um, what I'm seeing is not enough of it. Um in, in today's society, businesses are so dependent on the internet to function. Yeah. Um, because people, most people, people don't carry cash anymore. They're going to use a card. They're going to use their phones, their whatever mobile device or, um, plastic that they can use because they just simply don't carry cash. So those credit card swipers and those communications devices in these restaurants and businesses all depend on the internet. So, the internet goes down, somebody puts a backhoe in that, that cable or tears down a, an overhead line, um, the internet goes down, that business has virtually no choice but to put the close sign on the door. Right. And, um that business owner might say well, my internet hasn't been down in two years, and, I don't want to spend the extra money, to have a backup internet that's never going to be hardly ever going to be used.

 

(28:58):

Um, so I mean, the question to that business owner is simply well, okay, I, I understand what you're saying, but let me ask you this, when the internet does go down, and it will, it might not have, you might not have noticed a problem in two years, but you know, it's technology and, and it's going to fail at some point, or human error is going to occur, whether it be a backhoe, a big truck going down an alley, or somebody in a switch unplugging the wrong device. But what happens when that happens, do you have to put up a closed sign? Yeah. Do you have a backup? And how much money are you going to lose by having to close for a day or half a day? Right. You know, and that one time that it goes out every couple of years, how much money are you claiming that you're losing by not being able to do business that day? Yeah. You know, um, but it, it's just that there's, just with the cost, the low cost of an LTE backup, it's just insane to me why somebody would not have that in a business.

 

Forrest (30:06):

Yeah. We were talking with a group, earlier this week about, we’re trying to educate some, some software sales guys that have a billing platform about, um, LTE failover and how they need to encourage their resellers to start selling LTE failover because it's, it's really an insurance policy. You know, when I talked to a client about LTE failover, I said you have that flat fee, that's that monthly fee to have that active device that is your insurance premium. Like you would pay for your car, but then when you get in a car wreck and you must have a deductible to pay to get that car fixed, that's the usage that is out there that you would pay for that consumption. So, um, it’s really an insurance policy. And I know you and I were talking earlier today about again, the copper issues and the, the fact that there's not a lot of companies that are still supporting it, but drive around and look. And those green boxes that you and I talked about that are in ditches that are just like sitting in a ditch and into those poles.

 

Phil (31:05):

Where all the water pools,

 

Forrest (31:06):

See how many of those are open and leaned over. Right. See how many of 'em are not being repaired? They're everywhere. I mean, you just drive around town, and I would bet half of 'em that you see are leaning over or have been hit by a car and aren't repaired. And then, the California connections companies are just not prioritizing fixing them anymore. Oh, no. They're just, there's not being any resources to fix 'em. So

 

Phil (31:30):

Absolutely. I mean, I can just think of driving down my street and, there’s at least two pedestals, in a ditch, like you said, that's, that's where they put 'em. Mm-hmm. and, one aerial Yeah. The casing where all the wires just look like someone slaying an animal. <laugh>all the wires are just hanging out and they have been,

 

Forrest (31:52):

Head trails are hanging out. Right. 

 

Phil (31:53):

They Have been for the last 10 years that that I've been driving up and down that road. Yeah. And like you said, um, they're just simply not interested in, in fixing that because that's going to be replaced Yeah. At some point in time soon as the demand requires it.

 

Forrest (32:09):

Yeah. So, the other area we've seen, um, people use, that need LTE fail over, if they're in a, let's say a branch office and they're using a, a broadband provider that doesn't provide high quality internet. And if you get packet loss and you're trying to run voice over that, internet connection, even though the internet connection is, is quote working, it may not be working well enough to carry the voice because voice transmission cannot, voice packets can't be remitted. Computer downloading data, downloading a video, an Excel file, whatever, that can be remitted, but voice cannot. So, we've seen situations where a remote office is using a, a broadband best effort product, and they need LTE fail over to kick in when that broadband is not, um, holding the packets and not transmitting all the data. So, it's not just for downed internet, it's also, potentially for voice traffic that's not working well enough. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, um, talked about trends. Let's talk about the latest technology that you're seeing out there, in telecommunications.

 

Phil (33:14):

Probably what's been brought to my attention most recently, the most, um, because for 30 years I've been dealing with voice and internet when it was finally invented. But, um for, for 30 years, I've been dealing with voice and internet, but one thing that I have not dealt with most of my career, um, that I work with a little bit more now is the, the IOT devices and, and mobility and just opening my eyes to how many things in our daily life that we interact with.

 

Forrest (33:47):

Was that a pun? Internet of things, IoT

 

Phil (33:50):

Things Yeah. Yeah. Um, the, the, the things that we interact daily with that have a SIM card in it. Yeah. And, the vehicles that we're driving just about anything on the road that's even remotely new, um, has a SIM card in it. Um, the vending machines and coke machines that we use, that, that take a, debit card granted some of those could be plugged into an ethernet connection, um, but most of them are not because you’re, you go to a state park and you walk around and out in the middle of nowhere there's a Coke machine that takes a debit card. Do you think that's plugged into an ethernet connection mm-hmm. or connected to a, a Wi-Fi hotspot somewhere? No. Yeah. It's, a SIM card in it, um, taxi services, limousine services, bus service, any type of, any type of transportation service. You know, one of the re world's requirements is, being able to have internet access while you're sitting in the backseat because we can't unplug anymore. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that mentality of you, you have to be connected 24 7 and not be able to unplug when you're riding in the back of a taxi or, a bus, like a charter

 

Forrest (35:18):

Bus or something like

 

Phil (35:19):

That. Yeah. Anything like that. some of these school systems there, because of the, the distance that they're cover these, the school bus rides in the afternoons for some kids can be two hour, two hours or more longer, more in length before they can get home. And having, um, wireless internet access on that bus allows these students to be able to start on their homework, do some of their homework while there, while they are doing their commute. Um,

 

Forrest (35:58):

Well, even during covid, that was one of the things that we noticed, right when Covid happened they got all these kids with Chromebooks, and they tried to send 'em home. Well, they sent 'em home to houses that didn't have broadband. Right. And so, my sister-in-law worked, for the school system up in Monroeville, Monroe County, um, in the middle of nowhere, and they had to deploy internet on Wi-Fi on the buses, needed a sim card, so they would actually drive the bus out into a neighborhood and park it Right. And let it sit there and be a hotspot. Right. For those kids to get around there and do their homework. So Covid has, has driven internet connectivity, especially through LTE.

 

Phil (36:37):

Too. Oh, yeah. No, it certainly, it, it changed our mentality. Yeah. Um, on, on everything. Yeah. Not just the need for the internet but look at cloud computing mm-hmm. How that has increased, since, just since Covid. Yeah. You know, because of the remote workforce, you know. Yeah. I, I'm, I personally, I've been working remote for, um, probably eight plus years mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, but a lot of people just started you were.

 

Forrest (37:08):

Doing that before.

 

Phil (37:09):

It was cool too, h? Yeah, I was doing remote work mm-hmm. before it was cool. Yeah. And, now that I'm here, I guess it's more of a hybrid environment. Yeah. Um, because I work remotely most of the time and, and commute to the office, a couple times a month. But you know, that that remote environment is companies when they were forced to go remote, realized, Hey, we can operate remotely. Yeah. And we're saving a ton of money by operating remotely, um, and we're still getting work done. Yeah. You know, as long as you can trust your employees why not go remote and set have everything in the cloud and being able to being able to function like this real time, um, has just really opened a lot of doors for mobility space.

 

Forrest (37:58):

Yeah. Very cool. So, let's talk about the future. What do you see in the future of the telecom industry?

 

Phil (38:09):

You know, it's hard to tell because the future in telecom, the future is 20 minutes from now that, that we get an email that something has changed. You know, Jamie sends out an email that we are, we're updating this or that, or, or, or whatever. But then, the world is changing fast. Mm-hmm. and telecoms have to be able to change fast and be very rapid and trying to do this yourself without some sort of, um, support like Al Alter works or, or, or some other company is, it is just you, you're not going to be able to keep up. It's just, it's just that simple. Um there’s, it just changes so fast.

 

Forrest (38:53):

Well, and there's so many people out there that are, they're comfortable with what they've been doing. , there's, there's some, some guys that I know even in this area that are still, promoting premise-based phone systems, and it's because it's what they're comfortable with. It's, it's because of what they know. And there's guys that I've, I've been to their office that are telecom providers and it looks like, an inventory swap meet of phone systems that are 20 years old. They've got handsets lined up and down the halls that they're never going to be able to sell. So yeah, in telecom, you've got to constantly be prepared and ready for change. And that's one of the things that we've, we talk about internally a lot is go back and look at what we were doing15 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago. And it is very, very different. I mean, it’s still communication, but it's different ways of communication. And, I know our company, before I was here a long time back, actually back when I was a customer, used to buy Centrix. And we sold a, a ton of Centrix over the years, and we are still to this day, migrating people off of Centrex, which surprises me that it's been out there that long, and people haven't changed. So

 

Phil (40:01):

Yeah. We were just looking over a potential opportunity this morning. Yeah. We had 20 some odd Centrex lines. Right. Um, in a hotel that, that needs to go Yeah. And needs to be replaced and it's going to save this customer a ton of money while improving their, um, their product set and, and what they're using. Yeah. But, the, probably the biggest change in future change is going to be wireless. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>with the deployment of 5g, once fly 5G really gets out there and, and gets accessible, that’s going to change the world. Yeah. I mean, it, it's going to change things. It's, it's just, it's going to eliminate the need in a lot of areas for hardwired Yeah. , whether it's either fiber or copper. Yeah. people are going to be able to function mm-hmm. <affirmative>,solely on a wireless 5G connection. Yeah. And, it’s, it's going to change things. , we just don't know to what degree yet.

 

Forrest (40:59):

Yeah. All right. Well, what about, what is an omnichannel strategy? Tell me what that is.

 

Phil (41:10):

The best way that I can explain that is a customer has several touch points in their organization. You know, they have a brick and mortar, um, they have social, they have websites, apps, all, all these things. And, and an omnichannel strategy is a strategy that can address all those channels. Mm-hmm. for, with, with one person with one organization. You know, can, can you address my brick and mortar? Can you address my mobility? Can you address my, my website, my apps mm-hmm. Can you address everything? Um, and you know, that's something that that Altaworx has built and something that we can do. Yeah.

 

Forrest (41:58):

So, helping people with all the, the, basically the complete product portfolio, voice, internet, mobility, all the different things they need to, to run their business from a telecommunications.

 

Phil (42:06):

Right. And everything. And even down to the, the CRMs mm-hmm. <affirmative>the integrations, the integrations internally with, with the, the software that you use as employees. Um that all can be integrated, um, without dead ends, without multiple carriers, without, having so many different touchpoints. Everything is just, it just happens. Yeah. It's magic.

 

Forrest (42:33):

Yeah. It's magic. That's a, that's a good way. It's magic. That's a good way to put a punctuation mark. All right. Any other words of wisdom from your 30 plus years before the internet started, how many AOL discs did you get,

 

Phil (42:45):

During your lifetime? I'm curious. I would've saved all my AOL disc. Yeah. , couple of years ago, a hurricane actually made it up to central Alabama. And, um, unfortunately, we, we lost and had to re replace our, our roof mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but, if, if I would've saved all my AOL and, um, EarthLink, if I would've saved all those CDs. Yeah., and I know some people who listen to this may not even know what a CD is, <laugh>. But, um, if I would've saved all that, I could've probably re-roofed my house and it would last forever. Yeah. With, with CDs. Right. With the CDs and, and it would last forever. And, you know. Absolutely. Yeah. I, I, yeah. Let’s move on to a different topic.

 

Forrest (43:32):

Those of you who don't know what that is, go watch, you’ve got mail and you'll learn more about what AOL is, and That's right. How that worked. But everybody got CDs in the mail. All right. Well, thanks Phil for coming by. Um, appreciate your time. I know you're going to be getting on the road, it’s back north. But, thanks for coming by and sharing your wisdom on telecom and where it's going, and where it's been. It

 

Phil (43:53):

Was my pleasure. Thank you for having me. All

 

Forrest (43:54):

Right. Thanks.