Confidential Preparing for VoIP Implementation & Lessons Learned Presented to the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organizations June 19, 2006

Confidential VoIP Case Studies Charles Ham Director

Confidential Mapcom Systems  Geographical Operations System (GOS)  M4 ® Software Suite  M4 ® Data Integration Engine  Accounting, Customer Service, Billing, Fiber, NMS  Help Clients Address & Improve Top 5 Telco Issues:  Customer Service  Improved Profitability  Information Accuracy  New Plant & Overbuild Management  Inventory & CPR Tracking

Confidential Mapcom Systems  Clients in Green  Case Studies In Red

Confidential Background  Serve As a Roving Reporter  OPASTCO AMC Presentations  Calgary, AB July 2004  Palm Springs, CA January 2005  Boston, MA July 2005  6 Independent Telcos  Hargray  WVT  Yukon Telephone  Wheat State  Telephone Service Company  ENMR Plateau

Confidential Hargray Communications  Bluffton, South Carolina  70,000 Access Lines  Initial Strategy:  Perform inexpensive trial  CLEC areas where we have no facilities  CATV areas where we have HFC facilities that support cable modems  Flat rate pricing: unlimited local and LD for $34.99/month

Confidential Twelve Months Later  Company Restructured- Stopped Roll-out  To Date there are 300 CLEC Customers  $29.95 per month  Plan for soft switch deployment  Combine CLEC and LEC customers on common platform  IP Centrex  Will not sell to ILEC customers unless forced  Become more involved in our customers networks

Confidential What Did We Learn?  Vonage Makes it Hard to Compete on Price  Deficient in IP Knowledge and Support  Hard to take existing staff and train on IP technology  Easier to take people who know IP and train them on telephony  Today, long distance is the reason for VOIP

Confidential WVT Communications  Warwick Valley, NY  30,000 Access Lines  Strategy: “To address the needs of the residential and business market segments by offering converged voice and data services that will reduce costs and provide a plethora of innovative services that were not possible on a traditional telco platform.”

Confidential Twelve Months Later  Intense Competition from Cable Companies  Issues Remain with “turnkey” VoIP Solution  Offer VoIP in both ILEC and CLEC Markets offer as Component of Triple Play  Offer No Long-Term Contract  “Earn the Business Everyday”

Confidential What Did We Learn?  Termination Agreements and Hardware Take Longer Than Expected  Cable Companies--Service Issues  People are Buying Functionality and Value, Not Technology  Triple play  Unlimited calling  Detail Study of Churn < 1% w/ Triple Play

Confidential What Did We Learn?  Offer Unlimited Dialing Plans… Not “Long Distance”  MOU Study – $29.95 works  People want 1000 minute plan for $29.95  250 MOU to 800 back to 600 MOU  VoIP Works Well as Component of Triple Play- Eliminates Vonage Advantage  Revamp Operations to Fit Strategy  Move to IP Requires More Training

Confidential What Did We Learn from the “Scouts”?  Can’t Compete on Price Alone  Need Expertise in IP/Packet Technology  20% Rule  Your organization must match your strategy  VoIP Must be Designed as Total System  Bundled Services Destroy the Vonage Advantage

Confidential ENMR-Plateau  Clovis, NM  13,500 Access Lines  Strategy- Original  Consumer focused in CLEC Areas  Long-Term – All Edge Devices will be VoIP Enabled  Bought Softswitch

Confidential What We Learned  Can’t Get Consumer $$ to Work  Business IP/Centrex $$ Work Well  SIP is Not SIP  Still somewhat immature as a standard  Vendors must work well together  Data Networking/IP Training Needed  Partnered with Community College

Confidential Six Months Later  Strategy- Revised  Business –IP/Centrex  Focused in CLEC areas where fiber is deployed

Confidential What We Learned  Entire Organization Needs to Embrace New Technology  Must Own the Pipe  Getting the Technology Working is not the challenge- it’s the Operational Aspects  Billing  Training  Operations  Setting up the CLEC business

Confidential In Summary: VoIP Lessons Learned  Can’t Compete on Price Alone  WVT, Hargray, ENMR  VoIP Works Well as Component of Triple Play  WVT, Hargray  Bundled Services Destroy the Vonage Advantage  WVT, Hargray  SIP is Not SIP: Immature Standard  TSC, ENMR, Yukon  VoIP “on a Dime” Works  Hargray, Wheat State

Confidential Preparing Operations for VoIP  The Hardest Part is “Reconditioning” Your People  And consider: How does your operational infrastructure help or hinder your people?  Network performance/reliability and enhanced customer service have their roots in operations…

Confidential Preparing for VoIP  A View of the Future is Necessary in Order to Prepare Effectively  Will VoIP be a catalyst for change at your company?  What inherent advantages does VoIP have over the legacy phone business?

Confidential Assessing Your Operational Readiness In most companies, the technology available to offer new services such as VoIP outpaces the ability of internal operations systems to manage them.

Confidential Each Application Must Collect/Share Specific Bits of Information VoIP Monitoring

Confidential Thank You! Charles Ham