If you're a company like AT&T or BT, Telstra or DT you start to look around and say, "in times like these...... what can we do to be better tomorrow."

That means you look inside, assess who's on First, and What's on Second, then look outside and say, who should I hire to make my company better and stronger and ready for 2.0. Given my history in pro sports, and having actually run a draft in my early days and staged some draft day events, I figured it would be fun to look at the players and figure out what's ahead. Some are sleepers, meaning you would expect others to be listed ahead of them. Others are known quantities who have the chops to stand out in a crowd, but as a GM trained team builder one has to look past the usual suspects and find the gems in the draft. That's what makes teams champions, not only winners.

Here's my hit list if I was the head of VoIPScout of people to take off the playing field in the first round of the draft:

1. Martin Geddes-Without question, Martin is the player to pick. His insight, foresight and ability to assess, target and pinpoint what's next are the skills the super carrier need to have or even for them to be really 2.0. Martin will be the ideal dealmaker, playmaker and most of all, the ideal out-thinker of the competition at every match. Now that BT has Ribbit, Geddes is either the Messiah for another company or the Moses to bring the promise to the promised land.

2. Thomas Howe--Mr. Mashup. He's the king and well documented here in the past for his accomplishments. He's also the former CTO of Comverse and well versed in more than just telephony. Thomas gets data. He nails business process cold. A solid two way player, Howe would be as comfortable in the executive suite as in the lab, as his infectious personality, quick mind and agile programming ability makes him a consistent high scorer.

3. Lee Dryburgh--many consider Lee the foremost authority on SS7 networks. As the father of the eComm Conference, Dryburgh has spent hours looking at the many "me different" companies out there and sees what fits where. He's a pal of Geddes so the two would be an interesting Strategy/Technical connection and a dangerous 1-2 punch. Think of Dryburgh as the midfielder who does the heavy lifting, sets up the plays and makes the team run right.

4. David Beckemeyer-he helped Sky Dayton with Earthlink as the co-founder and CTO, when he traveled to L.A. with a few servers. Then he created the easy to sign-up CD Rom for Earthlnk, well ahead of AOL, giving many millions of people easy access to be really on the Net. Of late he's tinkered with PhoneGnome but remains one of the key technology experts who understands both networks and software and how to make them work together. If Dryburgh is the SS7 God, Beckemeyer is the SIP productizer to grab. What he did with PhoneGnome is really widely overlooked. Using an off the shelf ATA, open source and open standards technology, he made any phone a VOIP phone with an Internet connection and delivered SIP based services in an open way, before OPEN was being evangelized.

5. Alex Kurganov, CTO of Parus Interactive, and the mind behind Webley/CommuniKate, perhaps the most feature rich virtual PBX platform on the planet that does both VoIP and PSTN seamlessly. He's also a master at IVR and Voice XML, and a martial arts master. A player that most don't know, from long time experience we know he'd be the sleeper pick in any draft, but would be an all star on any team that grabbed him.

6. Alec Saunders, co-founder of iotum. Many people forget that Alec was the guy who brought Internet Explorer to market for Microsoft. He's a marketing and product management maven, with a healthy dose of social media know how. What's more he knows how to take code, productize it and make it work for the masses. Proof point. Look what he's done with Calliflower and iotum, winning a Demo God for his dazzling on stage performance there. Saunders scores and also plays a consistent game.

7. Carl Ford-no one has more contacts in VoIP than Carl and his understanding of "whose who" makes him an ideal HR/recruiters dream team member. He knows who has done what, which engineers really wrote the code, and most of all what and who plays well with what. He's also a well versed all around communicator. He'd be an ideal component as the evangelist (ala what Dan York is doing for Voxeo) and there's very few people in telco, especially VoIP who won't take a call from Carl.

8. Stuart Henshall--A product manager with technical ability who can articulate his thoughts well, Henshall knows the ins and outs of social media or as Jeff Pulver calls it "Social Communications". He's bright, speaks very well, plays the game smartly, and is very apolitical. As such he's very good at being an all around player on a team.

9. Alan Duric--Duric is one of these great minds who architects and steers things in the right direction. He's well regarded both at the IETF and within Cablelabs, was part of Global IP Sound/Solutions efforts with iLBC then went to Camino as founder before it was acquired by Skype. Like Dryburgh, Duric is a workhorse, but needs be surrounded by a team that will take vision and work with him to make it reality. A proven player who finishes in the money.

10. Will Stofega, IDC--Will has been steadily becoming one of VoIP best analysts. He did such a good job he got promoted and moved into mobile. That only makes him a stronger candidate and a winner for someone's team in a Research or Biz Dev role. His experience at IDC and with many corporate customers gives him access and understanding. His ongoing reviews of what's coming up, what works with what and how the business models work (or don't work) makes him ideal to join a company needing a smart, no-nonesense biz dev champion.

Others to look at who may make the the top ten picks....James Enck, Jamie Siminoff, Jay Phillips and Erik Lagerway.

So--I've laid out the picks...now lets see who grabs who, and how soon!

A few days ago, USA Today ran a story that describes how more and more universities, and companies, as well as local governments are cutting the cord, ditching the land line and going mobile.

The trend is nothing unexpected, as cellular calling rates, bundle plans, rollover minutes and newer handsets every few years outweigh outmoded the PBX and desk phone approach of the landline. With more and more telework also occurring, this also means the so called "off premise extension" has been eliminated, as well as the FXO (foreign exchange) two big money makers for the landline telco that with the way cellular plans are set up in the USA no longer relevant.

But, with the cutting of the cord and the move to cellular, we have also seen something happen in business. No one can transfer a call from a mobile to another mobile phone, meaning if Party A calls Party B and Party B deems Party A is better off talking to Party C, at best Party B can do is give Party A the area code and phone number for Party C.

Mobile lacks a PBX environment because of the nature of the way the cellular network is established. The call, which originates at point A and goes to point be is a linear, straight line connection going only through the mobile operators switch. There's no way to hit the so called switch hook and simply "transfer the call" to the person who can help the calling party.

The closest thing to this I've been able to find is Broadsoft's Mobile PBX however it seems this is geared more for the enterprise than SMB, and despite it being in their line of offers, I've yet to see it being offered via any of the USA carriers, let alone any carriers around the globe so while what is needed is technically possible, how many companies and their employees actually have it available to them to use?

Then a quick search of TMC' extensive story library gave me a better picture, thanks to a Rich Tehrani penned story about OnRelay and their capabilities. But unfortunately while the service looks like it's exactly what the market needs, they don't support either the RIM Blackberry or the Apple iPhone, both of which have pretty much become the business executives handset of choice in the USA. As a matter of fact I've even watched the steady migration of some very serious long time executives migrate from a regular handset to the Berry, and now to the iPhone because of one reason unrelated to business. Their kids. Moms and Dads text with their kids (and their kids friends too) it seems and both devices let them do that quickly and easily.

But the issue with both the OnRelay and Broadsoft services are not in their capabilities, design or intent. It's in the distribution side of the house. Who sells it? Where can I get it? How can I put a company on it that doesn't have a full-time IT manager/phone manager to keep it up and running? Better yet, show me someone who has it running that matters, a point pal Dean Bubley made earlier this year. Additional digging led me to VoIP2Air, another company offering a hosted model of a Mobile PBX for users of Nokia N and E series phones or a Windows Mobile device, with what looks to be a UK market area, but their suite of services seems to be what the doctor is ordering, I just don't see a USA operator offering anything similar today though, and the dependence on 3G connectivity or WiFi also has me concerned a tad.

For a Mobile PBX to work right, it has to function where the customer won't have any real concerns. That means it will need to live within the carriers network (ala Centrex) at first simply to make the Enterprise or SMB IT folks happy, not be an over the top, early adopter play. Ergo why Verizon is doing what they are offering. Sure the solution from VoIP2Air will likely work, and work well most of the time, but the real test as Dean Bubley pointed out, is when the carriers/mobile operators themselves deploy their own version of Mobile PBX and start using it. Then, it will be ready for carriers prime time. For those of us who are daring, it means the over the top solutions will improve and improve, begin to gain some traction and act more and more like our mobile switchboard.....sort of like a GrandCentral station for calls.....

My guess is this. When Cisco, RIM, Apple, Nokia, Microsoft and a few others join hands with a few large mobile operators, form a standards cooperative of what a Mobile PBX is, then, we'll really see this. Until that happens, in the mobile world we'll have the FMC oriented Over the Top plays alive and kicking, and smart business operators finding them to use.

This video news report tells a very tragic story of how shortsighted companies have gotten in an era of staying connected.

While Quest and SkyWi may have a dispute over money, the customers of SkyWi likely paid their bills. To leave them stranded, without an option was shortsighted, and the New Mexico regulators had to step in. Thankfully.

Om call 2008 the year of Mediocrity.

Ted points to for whom the Bell tolls.

Let's start with the source of money closest to the hearts of the start ups. The VCs. Over the past 60 days I'm hearing the following "the VC's don't really have the money in the funds they represent. They have to go to the LP's (Limited Partners) to do a cash call. Some are having problems getting the money from their LPs so the deals aren't closing."

Translation-Dear Mr. Startup CEO. Yes we agreed and gave you a term sheet but we don't have the money so we can't fund you. Good luck.

Excuse me. I don't go to Nordtroms to buy a suit, try it on, have the salesman find the pants in my size, pick out a shirt, a tie, some nice cool socks, and have the tailor measure for cuffs, seat and waist alterations and then say, "oh, but I don't have the cash."

What is going on today? Hasn't anyone ever heard of bad faith negotiation? When I asked a VC I know about term sheets and deals. He said "not really" because a term sheet isn't a deal. Then I brought up the famed "no shop clause" and he said "then they'd (the VC) have a problem."

Now lets look at the Telco. They still are the "plumbers" that Ken Camp refers to in his post. As a matter of fact plumbers make a big living fixing the plumbing that's already there, but it's the pipe-fitters and steamfitters are really the ones who make the money laying new pipe under the direction of a general contractor in the big cities (and where unions remain.) Consider this scenario. The telcos commit to installing a T1 from a company like Speakeasy. But the Bell head installer is "delayed" on another job. When he does show up the "inside" guy back at the CO (Central Office) isn't around to do the "inside" test. So the install is rescheduled and that's before the SpeakEasy installer can do his part. Result the customer waits and waits. Business doesn't happen and work is slowed. But the customer still pays the same thing regardless of the install happening on the date promised or whenever the telcos got around to having the install happen. I didn't know we lived in Provence.

What ever happened to the simple fact of keeping your word?

One of the things I learned a long time ago was to say things like "no" or I'm not sure I can do that. Then I would go out and do it. Get it done and come back and say, "it's now done." In my business we do a lot of outreach. We don't promise anything. We make no guarantees. We just go out, and deliver what can be delivered. It's called underselling and over delivering. People hire us for our track record of delivering.

Om doesn't promise pageviews to his advertisers. He promises content to his readers. The readers come because the content isn't mediocre. It's good. In return the advertisers get pageviews. They buy GigaOm because the audience keeps coming back.

Ted doesn't promise crap in his work as an IT consultant. He promises the job will be done right and knows he won't get paid if it's not done right. His business grows because he gets the job done.

The changes that are needed to go from mediocre to good aren't hard to make, but I'll contend that most people really don't know the difference between great and good, let alone mediocre.

Think of it this way. Many people have bought Chryslers because the sales person said "this is a wonderful car for you, sir." If Chryslers were so wonderful would they have needed two bailouts in our lifetime? That's not mediocre. That's pathetic.

Many of the pundits are all basically saying the same thing about VoIP.

Some are calling it dead. Others are saying it's changing. I'm saying that things like VoIP, SIP, etc. are terms for what has become the foundation level building blocks for the 21st century communication.

Some call the notion of a discussion a rehash of things we've all be saying. I say, we're entering the era where communications as we know it begins to change and is also a needed change. We're wel beyond the era of POTS based mentality. For example, how many people use phone company supplied voice mail. I don't mean, have it take a message, which it does well. But for many of us, we use the number that was called and just return the call as we want real time interaction, not voice mail tag. For me, I get few voicemail messages. My calls are either a) scheduled b) triggered from an IM session c) a result of a Twitter exchange d) a result of an email exchange e) those that are random are screened first by either CallVantage, GrandCentral or Webley f) Caller ID has gotten to the point where I know whose calling. While this isn't everyone's behavior, for the connected types it is more and more the norm. Many people just don't listen to VM, but they use SimulScribe or SpinVox to text them the message also.

Next is the growing use of cell phones. People don't want to play tag so they give out their cell number as their primary reach me number. What's missing is the 2.0 services from the cell phone networks, not the interest. Instead of lock me in contracts, carriers need to offer "lock me in services." The kind of services that Alec and Jeff and Ken and Jon and everyone else loves to use, but we all have to go over the top to find them. I'm talking Speech based calling from Mobivox, WiFi based calling from Truphone, roaming services from MaxRoam and SIM4Travel, etc.

At home, I'd rather take a call over my desktop or laptop connected to a Polycom mini speakerphone or right on my Polycom desk phone. The call is higher quality because the HD technology is there. Services like HighDef Conferencing and Calliflower make the call not only sound better, but provide a richer group calling experience.

Marrying these kinds of services together is the era we're entering. It's not about VoIP or SIP or Skype, its about the experience, and that experience is going to be three types. Business, social and personal. Buzzspeak is VoIP, SIP, Skype.

To me, the winds of change are evident. Call me the Revalator, but it is time for a change.

For a company still at the angel round, Fonolo continues to garner the kind of attention that consumer brands crave to be awarded.

This time it was from trendspotting Springwise, an 8,000+ person early "things to watch, things to know about" organization.

With applications like Palringo, Truphone, Nimbuzz, Fring all available in the iPhone/iPod App Store seeing that the sales of iPod Touch devices being so strong, makes my heart a flutter.

I too bought two of these in the last few weeks, one for myself and one as a gift for my wife. I see the 2nd Generation iPod Touch as being the sleeper product of the year. It's capabilities rival the iphone, and since you can use almost all the apps (minus the GPS other than Palringo which works with WiFi locations too) the market for iPhone app sales just grew.

Over in Korea where WiMax has been up and running under the WiBro monicker, we read that a standard for voice services has been set up, and that KT (Korea Telecom) is gearing up to deploy it.

This news is excellent news for the Voice Service provider industry as it gives them a standard to follow and to work with. It also shows just how quickly WiMax is moving compared to WiFi which only this year has adopted and ratified a real VoIP protocol, something that slowed down the adoption of muni-WiFi.

By having a standard, and a giant in KT already embracing it, Voice over WiMax actually has a future. For Clear, here in the USA, it opens the doors to service providers who can offer a voice carrier something different a chance to sell something new.

In my mind, if I was looking to be different from the regular cellular based mobile operators I would be looking at IVR and Speech Recognition first. With the way the laws are going here in the USA it wouldn't be simply value added. It would be selling an essential service to a new market with a true difference. This is ideal for client Mobivox and their MobivoxPL platform.

You can tell a lot by the way a company behaves in the media. Cisco, is one of those companies which knows how to sing a tune.

It's no coincidence that Cisco has two very interesting stories appear in different parts of the media today. It was planned. What's more if you look closely at both stories you can see that the story angles are not that different. That's called positioning, and when you read the words you see that the Cisco message for 2009 is really more about pulling more of their switches through the service providers by getting more end of the line (i.e. the consumer and the business user) dependent on IP based services and features.

The New York Times story takes a very consumer tone (of course) while the CXO Today story has a more inside the technology business world perspective. Both highlight many of the same initiatives that Cisco is embarking on and draw attention to why those efforts are so important to the publics, not only the company. That's called messaging.

While Cisco may have only made four acquisitions this past year, its clear that they have focus and their Linksys and Scientific Atlanta grabs from prior years are certainly now coming to the forefront.

My guess is that in 2009 Cisco makes some moves that expands their market share immensely. They are still a darling of what's left on Wall Street, they have sales and they are very focused.

Analyst Jon Arnold has written a killer piece this morning for TMC proclaiming that VoIP is not dead, and he's right. The acquisition of Sylantro by Broadsoft sure proves that, but Arnold goes much deeper.

In his well penned muse, the laser focused, hard charging Boston Red Sox fan points out that many are crying the blues, when there's growth and green ahead, calling attention to ten or so companies that are making a difference. (Note: Six of the ten are clients of my agency Comunicano so I'm very happy to see this kind of endorsement.)

Arnold is right on target when he refers to the service providers being the beneficiaries of VoIP. The consumer game is pretty much over. The cable guys are winning that battle Arnold pretty much admits, a point I've been making for a few years. As a result the companies he highlights are all well positioned and well poised to work with both the cable operators, VSP (Voice Service Providers), Mobile Operators and telcos to deliver next generation services, not simply dial-tone and call connection.

Let's face it, none of the service providers have been investing in new networks and new technology to power them to deliver the same old service.

In what was a classic example of a secret not being well kept, Broadsoft today finally announced the acquisition of Sylantro.

Doug Mohney of Fierce VoIP has been on the story and really provided the early reporting on the story first with his report on December 18, and then with the follow-up the next day where he pointed out how many employees were bitter with the outcome as it appears that the deal according to his sources was nothing more than an asset sale, plus assumption of debt. In stock market terms, the common shareholders got very little, and the investors likely walk away without any burden but not much more.

Unfortunately, the terms of the deal between two private companies were not made public, other than Sylantro customers being made comfortable.

Here's what I think:

1) This is a great move by Broadsoft.

2) Broadsoft takes one of their software based competitors off the map, and strengthen their position.

3) Broadsoft acquires a nice customer base including AT&T which has had Sylantro in their VoIP network for a few years.

4) Broadsoft gains Earthlink as a customer, as Earthlink's TruVoice service also. Sylantro is the applications server. The same holds true at AOL which is playing around with some VoIP with AIM but no one even notices (or really cares)

5) It's a very nice match up (not not MASH-UP) as Broadsoft was always looked as a softswitch with an applications layer, while Sylantro was viewed by insiders in the know as an Applications Server imitating a softswitch.

6) Broadsoft has been the flavor of choice for many VoIP 2.0 companies who now want to add more features. Sylantro offers a platform to put those features on.

7) For application developers, it means the Broadsoft Applications platform becomes an immediate place to be. No one more than Thomas Howe knows the value there as he was the Broadsoft Mashup champion in 2008.

All in all, this is a smart grab by a smart company, that positions Broadsoft for more growth. With Nortel having the blind staggers right now, this is Broadsoft's time to grow. My guess is integration will take four to six months, and it will be June or so before the fruits of the purchase start to show more than usual and customary sales.

Randall Stross of the New York Times has an excellent analysis and shows some very good reporting around the SMS industry and to what lengths the carriers will go to preserve what they have.

In many ways this makes me think of Twitter and the value it would bring to a mobile operator, much the same way that Plaxo will bring value to Comcast. Loyalty and usage fees from that usage are my first thoughts.

Let's face it. Twitter is sticky. It's addictive. It's messaging. It conforms length wise to SMS very well. Most of all, people are already using various clients on mobile devices already to Twitter back and forth.

I say, some smart mobile operator will bag Twitter in 2009 simply to be in control of it. Heck, maybe even a group of them will buy it up.

Network World questions if the AT&T break up 25 years ago had any real impact on innovation saying that other countries didn't force divestiture and are in the same place.

I would contend that other than Russia and China, no country covers the kind of geography that the USA does, and as such comparison's are out the window.

I'll also contend that what we have today with cable and wireless companies is the Bell System put back together if you look at the map.

For example, AT&T and Verizon are still the most dominant forces in landlines, followed by Quest.

In Mobile AT&T and Verizon are one and two. Sprint is what Sprint was in alternative long distance and T-Mobile is the MCI of the wireless world. Other players like Cricket, Metro PCS and Boost are next rung, just like there were other Alternative Long Distance Players back in the 80s.

When it comes to landlines, the cable guys are picking off subscribers to the point where both AT&T and Verizon, as well as Quest, are finally saying, "we've had enough" and are rolling out the big guns with UVerse and FIOS as a countermeasure. In turn, CableVision counters locally with WiFi, while Cox begins to play with Mobile phone service. Time Warner and Comcast look to WiMax as their out of market play and even a mobile in-market play, as WiMax becomes the 21st century equal to the mobile phone play of the 80's and 90s.

So did divestiture spur innovation? No. It spurred on a type of competition where the people who had imagination saw opportunity to make money by making it easier for new competitors to enter the market plain and simple.

Ken Camp has one of his better posts in a very long time, where he muses off of Rich's post about the impact of Siemens alleged bribery efforts. In the post Ken connected three different thoughts, but all with a central theme. In turn it got me thinking.

First, I feel the Siemens debacle is an example of what Ayn Rand dubbed "Anti-Greed" in Atlas Shrugged. It is not the Wall Street "greed is good" line at play but rather what can we do so no one else makes money.

Second Ken, in pointing to Rich's post, draws out the fact that this is likely the tip of the iceberg, and is why you will see companies now documenting things more or being like WalMart, where every sample left has to go through the purchasing team where it's logged.

Third, the Siemens matter, where they "settled" will mean that globally the anti-corruption forces will tag team more, as we're in such a crazy state now where money flows across borders as fast or faster than email, that the rise of the global economy police via the UN and Interpol will come about.

We're no longer, and haven't been for a very long time, living in a nation state world. Borders are simply there for geographic and tax reasons. Multi-national organizations, both civil and criminal exist, and anyone who thinks the local crack dealer isn't part of a global "company" without knowing it is on drugs themselves. What the Siemens folks allegedly did was an example of how old school business works. It was about keeping everyone happy. Other companies in other industries likely do the same thing. The question is which will be the next target for the investigators.

Ted Wallingford's comment about the SMB space got me thinking.

If more companies now have an in house VoIP maven, doesn't that mean there's more opportunities to sell VoIP related hardware, software and services?

The key becomes finding those people. Since many of the job holders have been found via recruiters, that means the smart VoIP sales organization will align themselves with the head-hunting and job placement firms, turn those recently hired into prospects and start selling to them.

Now, how one learns who's hiring and who just hired is an art form, but the smart and savvy make money off of being artful.

I am working hard at not going on the road as much in 2009 as the last 20 months have been rather exhausting. Between the planning of my two wedding events in 2007, the two events, one in Montpeyroux France and the other in San Francisco, plus the extended renovations in my community to 90 homes, plus my own home's expansion, those months have been an enormous toll on my body, and my mind.

In many ways, it has been a learning experience. First, I truly do work from anywhere. My business has grown dramatically in scope and size. Our work output only goes from great to greater heights and the time I spend away from home allows me to pursue my other passion, wine and food as I can always find a great place to find both.

But with 2009 only a few days away, it's time to take stock of what the first quarter has in store:

January 4-8 San Francisco for MacWorld

January 8-11 Las Vegas for CES

January 25 a trip to New York City for meetings

February 2-4 Miami Florida TMC's Internet Telephony and 4G Conferences

February 10-11 New York City Jeff Pulver's Social Media Summit

February 15-19 Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress*

March 3-5 Burlingame, CA for eComm 2009

March 15-21 Decouverte du Rhone, Rhone Valley, France (and likely a few more days on both ends)

So much for traveling less... :-(

I have to wonder what the SF Examiner would have said if they had either Verizon's FIOS or SureWest's FTTH connectivity.

In areas where AT&T is the only option to the cable company, AT&T's UVerse is looking like a pretty good home or workplace upgrade to DSL. I mean, in some areas they are promising 18 megs down, but only a paltry 1.5 megs up.

The cable guys are moving up the ladder with Docsis 3.0 already, with promises of 100 megs down and significant upload speeds that vary per market and system operator.

My second home in Sacramento has SureWest which offers triple play, and 50 Megs up and down, and some of the best customer support around. (They answer fast, fix things faster and basically you don't need much from them)

The great thing about SureWest is I have an open pipe to the Internet. Some FIOS users tell me that they are stuck using Verizon's DNS and SMTP. That's the same way some cable operators are with using their SMTP vs. your own, by blocking port 25. I'm not sure how UVerse handles that, but it is an issue for those who work at home and want to use their own office mail servers.

Bottom line, if the Examiner thinks UVerse is the Product of the Year, all they need to do is go 90 miles east and see what a real Product of the Year is like. Go East Young Man and get SureWest.

Back in 2005 client Iotum went to Demo, captured a Demo god award for Pronto, a conference all and calendar mashup that brought intelligence to the conference calling arena.

Last year client ifByPhone rolled out what Professor Mashup Thomas Howe calls one of the easiest to use Voice API platforms around.

Now I see Ringful has emerged on the scene with a platform that looks so Deja Vu.

They even have the Alias calling that TalkPlus tried back in 2007.

Give me something new (and useful) please. There has to be more than conference calling and Facebook VoiceMail (as if we want another FB VM app)

For companies that sell their services solely based on VoIP in the middle, this move by Optus isn't good news.

In essence what Optus is doing and saying to their customers is if you're their contractee, all calls go over the Optus network and the Optus long distance network. No dialing around. No call backs, no VoIP in the middle. No cheap calling.

Well with three other carriers in Australia not behaving like Optus the answer is simple. Do the math. Figure out the break even point. Terminate the contract at that point, then switch and keep using the discount calling services with another carrier.

History always repeats. No question about that.

First media form to grow big was the newspaper. Chains emerged. Profits soared. The most powerful force in any community was the newspaper. Think about it, every major comic strip from SuperMan, to the Green Hornet to Spiderman had the newspaper as a center piece of the story line.

Perry White, Clark Kent, Lois Lane. Brett Reed. Peter Parker. J. Jonah Jamison.

They were the characters that were the stars of the strips, and later the TV series' and eventually the movies in the case of Superman and Spiderman. The newspaper publisher, editor, reporter and photographer were the king.

City halls created "press rooms." Public Information Officer positions in city government and within agencies were plum assignments, as the access to the media from those jobs was unduplicated. The print reporters deadlines were what set the stage for the news. They made the agenda and set the stage for everything the public knew.

Radio started big time in the late 1920s, but it was really in the 30's and 40s that it took off and through the 90s was responsible for profits as record growth, more people in cars, FM carry static free since the 70s and of course the concept of the format. Radio was never hurt by TV, not the way the printed word was hurt by the Internet, as it was very hard to take TV with you, so radio was the portable "media" of choice for those on the go.

But just as print is for the most part dead, so too is radio as we knew it. Put bluntly, mass media is a thing of the past. All hail personal media.

This seismic shift that occurred is and will be borne as a result of the Internet arrival and from the start some in radio thought they could control the net. They didn't and they can't, so while print was suffering the radio groups made a killing, consolidation, market saturation and domination by a few very well funded groups. But radio has killed off the concept of the music station. It's all corporate programming, without any personality. Sure the best music in radio is over satellite for the masses, but the arrival of the Internet and now it's explosive growth fueled by broadband and cheap 3G access means that personal music is the next horizon.

The media companies that catch on and realize that the radio airwaves were the broadband pipe of the 20th century and embrace the personalization model of content delivery will be the winners.

Radio may be around, but just like the newspaper conglomerates, the large broadcasting consortiums will either embrace a new model, sell off or become the dinosaurs of the 21st century.

Update--> TechCrunch refers to a Pew Research Center report that the net is more popular as a source for news than newspapers. DUH. But the world is moving away from text to audio, and yes Gracie, Video. Think about it. The keyboard on the iPhone is nothing great. The new Verizon Storm, made by RIM, is hardly a touch typists dream come true, and even the Android, despite its more Blackberry like tactile keyboard is only passable for typing.

No, we're moving towards a new form of radio, where the on air talent moves past the folks who write, and where the media moguls control networks not tabloids.

You see, history always repeats.

Update # 2--> Now I read that the NY Times is going to exit their investment in the Boston Red Sox and sell off some other non-core assets. SMART. They still have some of the best reporting and are likely going to gear up for even more media consolidation.