Podcasts about alltel

Galatians 3:15-17 Thanks to everyone who supports TMBH at patreon.com/thetmbhpodcast You're the reason we can all do this together! Discuss the episode here Music by Jeff Foote

It was not the first time John Gronen addressed the staffing company's board — but it was very likely the most consequential. At the time, Gronen was vice president of finance, responsible for assessing acquisitions and analyzing their outcomes. The company operated two businesses: one generating about $30 million in EBITDA, while the other incurred annual losses of roughly $10 million. Gronen proposed a strategy to merge the two operations, consolidating efforts to increase profitability.Once the board approved the plan, Gronen led efforts to align sales teams and streamline processes. In just a few days, he and the leadership team developed a plan to reduce overlapping costs and improve operational efficiency. The merger cut $10 million in expenses, turning the combined business into a more profitable operation that was ultimately sold to a public company.This experience shaped Gronen's career, reinforcing his commitment to taking on complex challenges and thinking beyond traditional finance roles. Looking back, Gronen tells us his involvment with M&A began during his time at Alltel, where he contributed to a number of M&A transactions. Subsequent roles at Technosource and VPay expanded his skills into operations, sales, and human resources, giving him the well-rounded experience necessary for senior leadership.Now serving as CFO of Yooz, Gronen draws on this experience to focus on scaling the company through automation, AI-driven processes, and product expansion.

Fresh off of the Lunar Eclipse in Libra, we must now come face-to-face with Chiron as it conjuncts the Solar Eclipse in Aries on April 8th. The nature of Chiron, the wounded healer, in Aries is an incurable pain point that is often associated with feeling unwanted and self-sufficient to a fault. This week, Christopher talks us through what can expect out of Chiron in the midst of this conjunction and how our own wounds will be tested.

It's that time of year— you've now entered the eclipse portal!

In today's episode, THE MENTORS RADIO Host Dan Hesse talks with John Stanton, one of the creators of the wireless industry, the founder of multiple companies including T-Mobile USA, and now Chairman and CEO of the Seattle Mariners and Chairman of Trilogy Partnerships. He also serves on the Boards of Directors of Costco and Microsoft, which today is considered to be one of the world's most valuable companies. Learn the evolution of the wireless industry and why fans are driving changes to the most traditional of games—America's national pastime—baseball. John is truly a wireless pioneer, co-founding three of the top 10 wireless operators in the U.S. during the last 40 years. John helped found McCaw Cellular where he was Chief Operating Officer and Vice Chairman, which became the largest wireless operator in the U.S. and which was sold to AT&T to become AT&T Wireless. He then founded Western Wireless where he served as Chairman and CEO until it was acquired by Alltel, and he founded Voicestream, where he served as Chairman and CEO, selling it to Deutsche Telecom in 2001 for $50.7 billion. Deutsche Telecom renamed the company T-Mobile USA and it remains headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. John also served as Chairman of Clearwire until it was sold to Sprint in 2013. John is a member of the Wireless Hall of Fame. Listen to episode below, or on ANY PODCAST PLATFORM here. BE SURE TO LEAVE US A GREAT REVIEW on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share with friends and colleagues! SHOW NOTES: JOHN STANTON: BIO: BIO: John W. Stanton BOOK: Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution, by James B. Murray, Jr. ARTICLES: New Mariners CEO John Stanton is baseball-loving billionaire with World Series goal, The Seattle Times In His Own Words: John Stanton

Analysts Don Kellogg and Roger Entner discuss the latest news in telecom, media, and technology.0:27: DISH recently hit an important milestone.1:55: VONR is difficult to set up - is DISH living up to its commitment to the government?4:00: The problems DISH is facing with this buildout.7:55: How the small carrier buyouts have changed - and looking closer at T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint.9:30: DISH seems to have a distribution problem, could it become successful like Mint?12:40: The allure of building what DISH is building out and will the numbers work out for them?Tags: telecom, telecommunications, business, wireless, cellular phone, cellular service, Recon Analytics, Don Kellogg, Roger Entner, DISH, 5G, VONR, VOLTE, T-Mobile, Genesis network, HPEA, DOJ, FCC, BOOST, ALLTEL, Amazon, Walmart, Mint, GoogleFi,

NEW! 5-Week Course "HOW I READ A CHART" with RENOWNED AUTHOR & ASTROLOGER CHRISTOPHER RENSTROM!  SIGN UP BEFORE JUNE 30TH AND PAY AS LOW AS $5 A CLASS! CHOOSE YOUR TUITION RATE FOR A LIMITED TIME! This course is designed for students of Astrology who can see the pieces of a chart but don't know how to put them together in a reading.  Beginning with the Sun sign and concluding with the transits, Christopher will show you how to construct and shape a reading for a client so that it's true to the horoscope and your interpretation of it.  This course is meant to encourage and enhance your voice as an astrologer. These lessons are based on Christopher's books Ruling Planets, The Cosmic Calendar, and Rise and Shine: An Astrological Guide to How You Show Up in the World. You don't need to have read these books, but they would be helpful if you so choose. Renstrom has been a practicing astrologer since 1985. Renstrom currently writes the daily horoscopes for the San Francisco Chronicle (replacing Jeanne Dixon) and SFGate.com. He created the horoscope column for ALLURE magazine (Conde Nast publications), his “Renstrom's Horoscopes” were carried on Verizon, Sprint, and AllTel, and he conceived and developed Ask the Astrologer for LifetimeTV.com.   Renstrom was voted Best Astrologer by City Weekly's Best of Utah 2012 and then again in 2013. Renstrom also lectures about the history of Astrology in America from pre-Revolutionary to modern times, which is his specialty, and runs Ruling Planet workshops around the country.  Schedule 1. Always Begin with The Sun 2. Add the Ascendant & Moon 3. Working with The Planets 4. Patterns and Priorities 5.  Transits Visit his website https://www.rulingplanets.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rulingplanets/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopherrenstrom/ NEW! 5-Week Course "HOW I READ A CHART" with RENOWNED AUTHOR & ASTROLOGER CHRISTOPHER RENSTROM!  SIGN UP BEFORE JUNE 30TH AND PAY AS LOW AS $5 A CLASS! CHOOSE YOUR TUITION RATE FOR A LIMITED TIME! Learn more and sign up now at https://www.synchronicityuniversity.com

NEW! 5-Week Course "HOW I READ A CHART" with RENOWNED AUTHOR & ASTROLOGER CHRISTOPHER RENSTROM!  SIGN UP BEFORE JUNE 30TH AND PAY AS LOW AS $5 A CLASS! CHOOSE YOUR TUITION RATE FOR A LIMITED TIME! Learn more and sign up now at https://www.synchronicityuniversity.com This course is designed for students of Astrology who can see the pieces of a chart but don't know how to put them together in a reading.  Beginning with the Sun sign and concluding with the transits, Christopher will show you how to construct and shape a reading for a client so that it's true to the horoscope and your interpretation of it.  This course is meant to encourage and enhance your voice as an astrologer. These lessons are based on Christopher's books Ruling Planets, The Cosmic Calendar, and Rise and Shine: An Astrological Guide to How You Show Up in the World. You don't need to have read these books, but they would be helpful if you so choose. Renstrom has been a practicing astrologer since 1985. Renstrom currently writes the daily horoscopes for the San Francisco Chronicle (replacing Jeanne Dixon) and SFGate.com. He created the horoscope column for ALLURE magazine (Conde Nast publications), his “Renstrom's Horoscopes” were carried on Verizon, Sprint, and AllTel, and he conceived and developed Ask the Astrologer for LifetimeTV.com.   Renstrom was voted Best Astrologer by City Weekly's Best of Utah 2012 and then again in 2013. Renstrom also lectures about the history of Astrology in America from pre-Revolutionary to modern times, which is his specialty, and runs Ruling Planet workshops around the country.  Schedule 1. Always Begin with The Sun 2. Add the Ascendant & Moon 3. Working with The Planets 4. Patterns and Priorities 5.  Transits Visit his website https://www.rulingplanets.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rulingplanets/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopherrenstrom/ SIGN UP BEFORE JUNE 30TH AND PAY AS LOW AS $5 A CLASS! CHOOSE YOUR TUITION RATE FOR A LIMITED TIME! Learn more and sign up now at https://www.synchronicityuniversity.com

This episode features an interview with Jeff Newman, Manager of Customer Care for Porsche North America. He works to provide Porsche car customers with a best-in-class experience that aligns with Porsche's 75-year history of brand excellence. In this episode, Jeff shares his leadership philosophy, and what he's seen work over the course of his career. He also explains what makes a customer experience program successful, and how he's built the program at Porsche.Quotes“I think that being an effective leader… it's the same arrows in the quiver, if you will. So whether it's in retail, whether it's in contact centers, or sales or service or tech support, you can still be a great leader. The same things that helped me be successful on the retail side was no different once I came over to the contact centers.”“It's difficult to say that something is or isn't working if everybody's doing it in many different ways. So to me, one of the things I always like to do in a new role is asking if we have standard processes in place for a good 80% of what we do. So let's standardize what we're doing, and then we can go back and simply measure and say, is this working or is this not working?”“I am a huge proponent of quality assurance. It's something I am extremely passionate about. It's something I'm trying to finish a book on. But quality assurance in human behavior skills is something that I will never, ever, ever dictate with scripts.”“People can typically handle when changes are made, when they're being informed why. And so while I started out in the field, I always promised that if I ever became a corporate guy, that I would never be that person that's sitting in the ivory tower, sort of doing the regal wave to everybody. I'm never gonna be that person that's gonna let things happen to people without them being part of the process.”“To me, when you have a well-oiled quality program set up, a huge component of that is knowing the individuals. Everybody is a unique individual and you have to treat them as such.  It's the only way you're gonna be successful.”“[I have] this mantra, like everything that we do, whether it's building customer experience programs or agent programs or anything: how are we showing that we value your time?”Time Stamps[04:47] How Jeff got to where he is today[07:50] Jeff's leadership philosophy[08:34] The importance of data[10:28] Standardizing customer service[17:26] Running a well-oiled program[20:48] How Jeff coaches[22:36] A customer field study[27:59] The importance of a purpose-driven brand[37:32] Jeff's futureBioJeffrey Newman is Manager of Customer Care for Porsche Cars North America. He's been with the company for 8 years, having started in April of 2015. Before Porsche, he served as Director of Customer Service for the Northeast Region for American Express. He has also held leadership roles at Windstream Communications, Alltel and Walmart. He has a B.S. in Marketing from Rochester Institute of Technology.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. HGS is a digital customer experience leader dedicated to delivering winning customer interactions at scale that are prompt, personal, and positive. We continuously transform, optimize, and grow enterprises to exceed ever-rising customer expectations. HGS provides our clients with the right talent and technologies needed to champion every moment. Learn more at hgs.cx.LinksConnect with Jeffrey on LinkedInLearn more about PCNAConnect with Larry on LinkedInCheck out HGS

Perry Carpenter, Chief Evangelist and Strategy Officer at KnowBe4 and host of the 8th Layer Insights podcast, sits down to share his story trying different paths, before ultimately switching over to the cyber industry. After trying to go down the paths of music and law and finding neither were what he wanted to do, he decided to take an internship to get more into computer programming. That led him to getting his first job. After his first job, he moved onto other big name companies like Walmart, Alltel, and Gartner, and landing finally with KnowBe4. He compares his work to working with music, when he initially wanted to begin making music early in his career. He says "I think for me, when it was the kind of the connection between music and computing is that whenever you're kind of joining things together or at a, a musical scale to make chords, or whenever you're adding different, um, instruments and octaves together or timbers together to get some kind of bigger result." We thank Perry for sharing his story.

Perry Carpenter, Chief Evangelist and Strategy Officer at KnowBe4 and host of the 8th Layer Insights podcast, sits down to share his story trying different paths, before ultimately switching over to the cyber industry. After trying to go down the paths of music and law and finding neither were what he wanted to do, he decided to take an internship to get more into computer programming. That led him to getting his first job. After his first job, he moved onto other big name companies like Walmart, Alltel, and Gartner, and landing finally with KnowBe4. He compares his work to working with music, when he initially wanted to begin making music early in his career. He says "I think for me, when it was the kind of the connection between music and computing is that whenever you're kind of joining things together or at a, a musical scale to make chords, or whenever you're adding different, um, instruments and octaves together or timbers together to get some kind of bigger result." We thank Perry for sharing his story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode, Larry Griffith shares why hiring a corporate chaplain is one of the best things you can do for your company and its people.  Larry Griffith serves as CEO of Corporate Chaplains of America, which provides chaplain care to over 500,000 employees and their families nationwide. After graduating college, he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. Larry then spent most of his career at a Fortune 250 company, Alltel, as the Area President-South Operations. Before coming to Corporate Chaplains of America, he returned to his alma mater and served Geneva College as their EVP and COO. Christianity in Business is the show that helps Christian business leaders to integrate biblical values into business. | Entrepreneurship | Marketing | Nonprofit | Church | Author | Startups | Marketplace | Ministry | Business as Mission | Faith and Work | Faith | Success | Leadership | www.ChristianityInBusiness.com

On this episode, Larry Griffith shares why hiring a corporate chaplain is one of the best things you can do for your company and its people.  Larry Griffith serves as CEO of Corporate Chaplains of America, which provides chaplain care to over 500,000 employees and their families nationwide. After graduating college, he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. Larry then spent most of his career at a Fortune 250 company, Alltel, as the Area President-South Operations. Before coming to Corporate Chaplains of America, he returned to his alma mater and served Geneva College as their EVP and COO. Christianity in Business is the show that helps Christian business leaders to integrate biblical values into business. | Entrepreneurship | Marketing | Nonprofit | Church | Author | Startups | Marketplace | Ministry | Business as Mission | Faith and Work | Faith | Success | Leadership | www.ChristianityInBusiness.com

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Bobby Franklin, the President and CEO of the National Venture Capital Association (@nvca) and Board Chair of Venture Forward. Since 2013, Bobby Franklin has led the venture community's preeminent trade association focused on empowering the next generation of transformative American companies. As president and CEO of NVCA, he champions public policy that supports the American entrepreneurial ecosystem, making NVCA the dominant voice of the U.S startup ecosystem.In 2020, Franklin led the launch of Venture Forward, NVCA's connected organization which drives the industry's human capital by promoting a strong, diverse, and inclusive venture community that will fuel the economy of tomorrow. Through its VC University program, Venture Forward has educated more than 1500 aspiring and early career VCs, many from historically underrepresented communities.In 2022, he started hosting NVCA's first-ever podcast called Venture Capitol. The show provides listeners a unique look at public policy through the eyes of America's venture capitalists who are investing in the high growth companies of tomorrow. The podcast brings together VCs, policymakers, and policy influencers to discuss and debate issues that impact our nation's economic future.Prior to joining NVCA, Franklin spent ten years at CTIA, representing the entire wireless industry. Before CTIA, he served as Vice President, Federal Government Affairs and head of Alltel's Washington, D.C. office. Franklin began his professional career with eight years of experience on Capitol Hill working for Senator David Pryor (D-AR). Franklin earned his B.S.B.A. in Finance and Banking from the University of Arkansas. He and his wife, Julia, have three young adults and reside in Arlington, VA. Websites: NVCA & Venture ForwardNVCA's Podcast hosted by Bobby: Venture CapitolLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bfranklindc/Twitter: @nvca  Show Notes: NVCA: lobbyists for the entrepreneurial ecosystem Recent policy trends and updates affecting the VC/startup ecosystem and the potential impact they'll have NVCA membership as a resource for keeping up with VC policy changes How NVCA determines which policies to prioritize and the balance between playing offensively and defensively in policymaking Where NVCA is currently focusing their energy and what changes Bobby wants to see in the industry How Venture Forward is diversifying the industry by democratizing access to information and education about being a VC The 2022 VC Human Capital Survey as the definitive resource on VC demographics Bobby's thoughts on the LP-GP dynamic and the long game nature of the industry The challenge of policy-makers' disconnect from the VC industry Bobby's observations from a decade in VC policy What can be done to advance the industry beyond the JOBS Act Industry trends Bobby is excited about Why you need to pay attention to and engage with VC policy-making More about the show:The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 400+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. More about us:Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.The Vitalize Team:Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVCCaroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

There are a lot of broken hearts and troubled minds in the workplace. Fortunately, folks from Corporate Chaplains of America are deployed in workplaces all over the country every day. In this episode of True North Business, CEO Larry Griffith shares how chaplains touch lives and improve workplaces in the process. He firmly believes there is no secular/sacred divide and offers hope and encouragement for Christian business leaders. Toward the end of the episode, Larry Griffith made an offer of a free gift, and fulfilling that PROMISE...here is a link to the free e-book Discovering the Promises of God.   About our guest: Larry Griffith, CEO of Corporate Chaplains of America (CCA), loves God, people, and business. Larry has walked with Christ since his childhood and brings more than three decades of leadership experience at a Fortune 250 firm, in the non-profit sphere, and as a Naval officer. At the pinnacle of his business career with ALLTEL, he led more than three thousand employees, serving 2.6 million customers, with annual P&L responsibility exceeding $1.5B. Larry and his wife have been married for over 30 years and have four children. They are based in Wake Forest, NC.   About the host: Following a successful career as CEO, Bobby sold his business to a publicly-traded company.  In what he calls his "second half of life", Bobby seeks to pour Biblically-based principles into growth-minded business leaders.   Through Values-Driven Leadership, Bobby serves as an Executive Coach and Training Consultant for organizations.  He shares many of his principles and practices through a weekly blog, the True North Business podcast, and through three books he has authored: Principled Profits: Outward Success Is an Inside Job, True North Business: A Leader's Guide to Extraordinary Growth and Impact, and The Freedom Paradox: Is Unbridled Freedom Dividing America? Find out more at BobbyAlbert.com

James Carbary is the bestselling author of Content-Based Networking: How to Instantly Connect with Anyone You Want to Know. He's also the founder of Sweet Fish Media, a podcast-first media company. He's been a contributor for the Huffington Post & Business Insider, and he also co-hosts the B2B Growth Show (a top ranked podcast according to Forbes).Follow James on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamescarbary/Learn more about Sweet Fish Media here: https://sweetfishmedia.com/Did you ever do any podcasts in person at, at any point in time? So we have, but I don't... To me, the benefit of being able to interview somebody from wherever you are in the world, without the limitation of having to be in-person, has always been so much more attractive to me. And the thing about in-person interviews, it accelerates the friendship a lot faster, and I'm big on that. Like using podcasting as a way to generate, or not generate, but like cultivate really genuine relationships with people. So when you're in person, obviously being in person, you can, you just have a different level of intimacy with the person there. But, no, I haven't done a lot of in person interviews. I think maybe a handful. Yeah. And as someone who's done as much as many podcasts as you have, I do, because I have a second podcast called mile high Mentors, which is all local community, Colorado base, Colorado guests, everything. It really brings a different dynamic doing it in person. I just, I can't wait for the day where we can be in virtual reality and literally feel like we're in the same room, do a podcast that way. We're on the the way there, hopefully. You know what I mean? Your local podcast idea, man... I'm convinced that there are people in real estate, people that own like... The people that own marketing agencies that focus on the local market, like there are so many industries that if they just started like the Denver Entrepreneurs Show or like whatever, like going local like that, it would position you so well to build all the right relationships. Dude, the niche show has been so underutilized, because that was my first podcast. B2B Mentors was a little more recent. And when I first wanted it to get into podcasting. I'm like, whoa, there's a lot of podcasts out there, and you know, what do I want to do that's unique? And I know Colorado's got this big ecosystem that in 10 years from now is going to be on the global stage, which are a kind of already is. And so I decided to do it on all local niche. And it's been total trampoline, I think because of the focus that literally when you really start getting in touch with your local community and understanding all the influence that's there... We're only one degree connected from everywhere else in the world. So I can only speak to that. It's been a blessing having that and starting it that way, just out of serendipity. Like, I wanted to do it in person. It was actually going to be a TV show when we first started. Okay. Yeah. The other piece, you can level up your video when you're in person. You can do a video, obviously, digitally like what we're doing right now, but just having a zoom background or whatever the office of the other person that you're talking to, it's a little bit limiting. Where, when you're doing in person interviews, you can have a couple cameras set up and you can do a little bit more stuff in post that, that creates a little bit, I dunno, just a higher level of production and depending on how you're repurposing the content, it can end up going really well for you. In the energy, there's a huge difference in energy doing that stuff in person. Just being able to read each other's social cues a little bit differently. So, it's been a little disheartening going back to zoom all the way, but it's still good. And you're still able to get good convo in everything. You just gotta be extra, extra thoughtful in how you're going about it. Yeah. So what, what was it for you, man, that you had this local podcast. Why then start another one? Why start B2B Mentors? Mile High Mentors, the formatting of the show is a little different and I love sales and marketing and like nerding out about sales and marketing and business development and strategy, more specifically. So, I found a lot of my podcasts- I kind of started inking a lot of these shows. They are kind of started bleeding into Mile High Mentors a bit like. I'm like, I would really like a separate show that's all focused set on leadership, business development. And I can, I can do this more on the global stage and have guests from, you know, Israel, and UK and anywhere in the world. There is a yin and yang to it. There's a yin and yang to having a local Show. I still run it. And it still well, well worth having those separate, but that was why I kind of went in one direction over the other. So this is a good question. Now my question for you, it's not maybe not as good of a question, but why Cherry Coke? Why not Cherry Pepsi? Cherry Pepsi doesn't live up to your standard? Bro, like I just hate Pepsi. I don't know if it tastes too water down to me, but I like, I will legitimately leave a restaurant if they're a Pepsi shop. I was going to be like, sorry, like I have to go next door. I don't know when that happened. I think it was like my late twenties when I started just developing this incredibly bad taste for Pepsi for some reason. And so our team jokes around about it all the time, like one of the questions we ask our new employees: are you Team Coke or are you Team Pepsi?And a it's, it's how I, how I know whether they're going to be on my good side from the get or not. You won't hire them if they're Pepsi? You're just discriminating against people who are Pepsi fans. Oh, I'll end up in, ah, in, in jail at some point for my discrimination toward Pepsi lovers. But for now you're moving, you're shaking. You're doing business. Just for those that are listening, please brag about yourself. Give, but yeah, man, give just a background 60 second synopsis on what lead you to where you're at, in your career today and some of the major wins along the way. Yeah. So, I won a sweepstakes back in 2008, I didn't actually it. My roommate's brother-in-law won this sweepstakes through a phone company called Alltel. And it was one of those deals where you, like, text football to 1-800-ALL-TEL. And you can win an all expense trip to a professional football game of your choice with nine of your friends. And so I was one of the friends that got to go on this trip. Took a private jet to New York city, got to go all around the city in a private, like, limo bus with a police escort. Got to watch the Giants-Cowboys game in a suite right next to Jerry Jones. It was like this is unreal experience. And there's a guy that was leading all of, kind of, the logistics for the trip. His name was Jeff and he was waiting there for us as soon as we got off the private jet that morning. He was in the limo bus with us, coordinating with a police escort. And so he was with us the entire day and I just ended up hitting it off at this guy and didn't really think anything of it. I just thought, "Oh, he's probably some low level employee with Alltel." I didn't really think in any of it. But we talk about faith. We talked about family, business... And by the end of the day, I found out that he's actually the CEO of this global logistics company that Alltel hired. And he just really likes New York. And so he happened to be on the trip himself. And so we ended up swapping contact information. I didn't think anything is going to happen from it. So I'm not really thinking anything at all about this interaction. And about a year and a half later, he calls me and asks me to move across the country. I was living in Oklahoma at the time. He asked me to move to Orlando to help him run the helicopter division of his logistics company. And so, prayed about it and decided to say yes, moved across the country and at helicopter logistics for NASCAR, actually, for three years. And the reason I like telling that part of my story is because it's segued really nicely into what we do now in the world of podcasting. I actually don't care much about podcasting like, I think it's cool. I think it's nice. But what I really care about is relationships and how can you reverse engineer, genuine relationships with the exact people that you want to know? Because the relationship with Jeff that I built in 2008 was completely serendipitous. It happened by accident. There was no strategy or purpose in meeting Jeff. I just happened in to that. And I think so many of us just stumble into these life changing relationships, but what I have found with podcasting or with really any sort of content collaboration, I've built the business around podcasting because I think its the easiest form of content collaboration. But what I loved so much about it, what we helped other companies do, is try to figure out like how, how can I reverse engineer relationships with the exact people that I need to know to move my business forward? And when you have a podcast. So for us, we work with a lot of VPs of marketing at B2B SaaS companies. So, our Show B2B growth. We literally go to VPs of marketing at B2B SaaS companies and ask them to be a guest on our show. And most of the time we don't end up doing business with them. But a lot of times we do. And through that collaborative process of creating an episode with them, we actually get to know them. We build this meaningful relationship with this human on the other end of the Zoom call, and through that collaboration, sometimes they end up referring us to people. Sometimes they end up becoming our customer, but regardless at the end of the day, we've developed a friendship with that person. Listen in for the full episode!

Tom and Cody Vanderholm discuss Drones and SureSpeed. Dragonfish from Alltel is beyond cool, but is it useful for your operation? You bet it is! Crop Scouting is a breeze with level of cameras on this fixed wing drone. SureSpeed from AgLeader allows accuracy at higher speed. Cost of Ownership? AgLeader took that into consideration in designing SureSpeed. Compared to other systems, you'll love it. Contact us at 800-741-3305 online at HTSAG.com and follow us on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Jeff Gardner joined me on the Accelerate Show to discuss what he's been doing as the new President and CEO of CalAmp, a local company that has always been a pioneer in IoT and connecting the mobile economy. He’s been on their Board for over 5 years, so he knows the company well and has a strong vision for its future.   Through their hardware and software they have enabled others to track, trace and manage their assets more effectively, such as vehicles in a fleet.  One of the brands that you may recognize that they own is LoJack, which has helped many people recover stolen cars over the years.  They have over a million customers and track over 20 million products where they are installed. We talked about their roots, innovation and solutions today and into the future. Prior to CalAmp, Jeff was the President and CEO of Brinks Home Security, a well-known national company home security solutions.  He was also President and CEO at Windstream for 10 years, a multi-billion dollar telecommunications company, which had been a part of Alltel, where he was the CFO. He’s also been heavily involved in M&A and technology throughout his career. I did my best not to hold it against him as Jeff graduated from my college rival, Purdue.  It's great to now have him in the area, accelerating a leading technology company!

Larry Griffith, CEO of Corporate Chaplains of America (CCA), loves God, people, and business. Larry has walked with Christ since his childhood and brings more than three decades of leadership experience at a Fortune 250 firm, in the non-profit sphere, and as a Naval officer. At the pinnacle of his business career with ALLTEL, he led more than a thousand employees with annual P&L responsibility exceeding $1.5B. He considers his role at CCA as the magnum opus of his life, and is energized by their quest to see 6,000 people a year come to Christ through their Chaplains building caring relationships in the workplace.

When it comes to turning great businesses into philanthropic legacies, there are two Ford families of note — the one from Detroit, and the one from Little Rock. It was Joe Ford, and later his son, Scott, who built a little telephone company in Sheridan, Arkansas — population 1,338 in the 1940 Census — into a $30-billion player in wireless — Alltel. After selling Alltel to Verizon, Scott Ford started Westrock Coffee and the Rwanda Trading Company as an exercise in capitalism. By paying Rwandan farmers fair value, creating a two-year training program for those farmers in agribusiness, and launching a new U.S. market for that coffee, Westrock already has put over $100 million into the pockets of Rwandan coffee farmers, and Westrock is just getting up to speed.   Key Takeaways: [1:21] Scott is of ‘the poor Fords, from Arkansas.’ Scott’s grandfather Ford was a school administrator. Scott’s father, Joe, got advice from Jack Stephens. Hugh Willbourn, Scott’s maternal grandfather, bought a telephone company from the Stephens brothers and it became Alltel. Scott sold it in 2009 as the country’s fifth-largest wireless business. [3:26] The little telephone company that grew into Alltel started when Witt Stephens contracted with the nearest local telephone business to build a line out to Sheridan, to his mother’s home, so she could have a telephone. [3:43] If Witt and Jack Stephens hadn’t been willing to extend 100% credit without collateral to contractor Hugh Willbourn to buy their phone company, none of the rest of this story would have happened. Hugh was the contractor who set up the poles. [4:23] When people ask Scott why he’s involved in Rwandan coffee, he tells them that his father was the one survivor of three children in Depression-era rural Arkansas, and he relates to mothers in Rwanda struggling to provide life’s necessities for their children. [5:14] Scott saw that two Swiss investors were buying Rwandan coffee at as low a price as they could, maintaining poverty. In a moment of rage, Scott committed to start a coffee business and buy the coffee for as much as he could pay the farmer, and still make a profit. This was before he even knew if coffee grew on a tree or on a plant. [5:47] This was made possible by the sale of Alltel. Scott had succeeded Joe Ford as CEO in 2002. In 2005, he spun off the wireline business to concentrate on wireless. Scott details the history of the changing business and its success, including focusing on wireless growth. Funding was the challenge that ate most of Scott’s time in that period. [7:27] Scott recalls doing 100 transactions in that first 11 years, just to reposition the business to being a nationally competitive wireless company. [7:37] Scott comments on the light-touch approach the FCC had toward wireless at that time. If Alltel had had to work under the approach that later administrations brought to bear on wireless companies, or even at that time on the wired part of the industry, they might never have started their growth plan, which was to supply service to rural areas. [8:57] If Scott had not built up Alltel into a major wireless provider, he would not have been free later to buy an abandoned coffee mill in Kigali, Rwanda. [9:12] In 2004 or 2005, while CEO of Alltel, Scott, his wife, and another couple visited an orphanage they had been supporting. The President of Rwanda, looking for wireless networks for his country, invited the Fords and their children to dinner. [10:10] The Rwandan president and the Fords talked about the three freedoms of Western civilization that allow people to get out of poverty — religious, political, and economic freedoms. The President had aspirations of guiding his people out of poverty and even sharing these advances with other East African nations. He told of his vision. [11:19] The Rwandan president told Scott if he ever had the chance to help people learn how to make money, that’s what he would ask of Scott. Not charity, but education how to manage capital and make a profit. With that knowledge, the poorest of the poor would taste the benefits of capitalism and they would change that part of the world. [11:50] Scott kept that vision. Five years later, with capital from the sale of Alltel, Scott went to Rwanda to find someone to teach the principles of capitalism. On that trip, Scott created the coffee business. [12:13] Westrock has a mission of going beyond Fair Trade. Scott comments on Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance. When Westrock Coffee started, they weren’t thinking of those principles. They were trying to get the most money for the farmers, meaning they had to get the most for the coffee in the commercial marketplace. Scott tells how he did that. [13:46] Westrock Coffee is on every farm with every farmer annually, educating and training in agronomy, bookkeeping, pruning, and fertilization. This has given the Rwandan farmers the fastest growing income stream at a farmgate price, of any agricultural commodity anywhere. Sustainability equals profitability. [15:11] Without profit in the core trading business, all the benefits wash away. Farmers take the benefit of their profit and invest it in the infrastructure of their community. Scott talks about how running a wireless business applied to helping him run a coffee business. [17:04] After nine years, Scott looks to double the business again in the next five years. He sees that as getting up to fighting weight.   Mentioned in This Episode: Joe T. Ford Scott Ford Jack Stephens Alltel Verizon Westrock Coffee Company The Rwandan Trading Company

Ray Hoffman interviews Warren Stephens about the history of Stephens Inc., and Northwest Arkansas. The difficult effects of the Great Depression on a rural community sparked the rise of tough entrepreneurs who became the industrialists of the area, and brought prosperity to replace poverty. Many of the great Arkansas companies were helped along the way by the Stephens family. Listen in to learn more.   Key Takeaways: [:25] Arkansas has produced a disproportionate number of major companies, such as Wal-Mart, and the investment banking firm, Stephens, Inc., that helps companies like Walmart to grow and prosper. Stephens, Inc. has been led by Warren Stephens since 1986. Warren’s father and siblings grew up picking cotton on the farm. [1:49] There is something in Arkansas that encourages leadership in individuals, such as Sam Walton, Charles Murphy, Bill Dillard, J.B. Hunt, and the Tyson family. Matt Waller, Dean of the Walton Business School at the University of Arkansas speculates that it’s a toughness and a belief that “We can do this. We can make our lives better.” [2:42] Albert Stephens, Warren’s grandfather, lived off of selling pieces of the farm, until there wasn’t much left to sell and they had to farm it. Warren’s uncle made it his life’s mission to piece back together all the land that had once been in the family. Today, Warren’s cousins own about 3,000 acres. [3:40] Warren’s uncle, Witt Stephens was in the belt buckle and Bible business, and was really good at it. His father advised him to go into the bond business, when Arkansas bonds were trading at $.10 on the dollar in 1933. [4:21] Uncle Witt took a bank loan of either $15,000 or $25,000 — no one remembers which — and started buying bonds at $.10. He sold them to customers, and kept some. By 1940, they were trading at par, which was a great return for him and his clients. As Sir John Templeton once said, “Buy when there’s blood running in the streets.” [5:06] Witt, and Warren’s father, Jack, started investing in natural gas, and other businesses all around the state. Witt gave credit to one of FDR’s programs, the Rural Electrification Program, that was designed to bring electricity to poor regions. [5:54] Witt bought the Sheridan telephone exchange to run a phone line to his parent’s home. Witt sold it to the Wilbourn family, who started Allied Telephone, and built enormous numbers of land lines across the state. Allied later became Alltel. [6:56] In college, Warren worked summers at Stephens, Inc. at the trading desk. With an MBA, Warren started full-time in 1981. Witt and Jack owned the company, and Warren picked their brains a lot. [7:39] Warren’s dad told him, “I wanted to be in business the next day.” He also said, “You can’t ever take a risk - if you lose it all, you endanger the ability of the firm to survive.” Everything can go wrong at once. When it does, in investments, it’s ugly. [8:54] In the 1960s, Stephens moved into private equities. In 1968, they started a bank data processing company. They also had a life insurance company, and it loaned money to Sam Walton to build his first stores. In 1970, Stephens, with White Weld, managed the Walmart IPO. It was one of the best things to happen for Stephens. [10:54] Warren discusses capitalism. After this last crisis, people wonder if the capitalist system is really the right system. Warren suggests the average consumer does not understand the many profitable layers that contribute to their ability to purchase the product they want, when they want it. Young people don’t see the connection. [12:31] The cell phone wasn’t created by government. Warren noted in a WSJ editorial that young people reject capitalism and the free market, but celebrate entrepreneurism and free enterprise! He doesn’t think they understand what capitalism is. Warren says that the youth didn’t see Eastern Europe collapse under communist socialism. [13:48] Warren suggests education on capitalism would help eliminate the disconnect between popular views and the facts. The This is Capitalism series is an effort to educate about successful capitalist entrepreneurs, past and present, and to show the impact they have had on communities and employees. [14:19] Warren talks about the development of Northwest Arkansas through capitalism, from Walmart, to J.B. Hunt, to the University of Arkansas and more. The Waltons have given generously to the University. Alice Walton has built an incredible art museum. Warren compares 1960s Northwest Arkansas with the same area today. It is thriving.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens Inc, Stephens Viewpoints: Podcasts.com/podcasts Warren A. Stephens The Great Depression Walmart Dillard Tyson Murphy Oil J.B. Hunt Alltel Acxiom “Why Do the Young Reject Capitalism?,” by Warren A. Stephens for the Wall Street Journal The Rural Electrification Act The Great Recession of 2008-2009 Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport This Is Capitalism   This is Capitalism CEO Stories is brought to you by Stephens Inc., Member NYSE, SIPC. For much more information, please visit www.stephens.com or www.thisiscapitalism.com. This podcast should not be copied, distributed, published, or reproduced, in whole, or in part. The information contained in this podcast is not financial research, nor a product of Stephens Research. Stephens does not make any representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the statements or any information contained in this podcast, and any liability therefore is expressly disclaimed. The views expressed in this podcast are not necessarily those of Stephens, and Stephens is not providing any investment, financial, economic, legal, accounting, or tax advice, or recommendations in this podcast. In addition, the downloading of this podcast by any listener does not make that listener a client of Stephens.  

In our latest podcast, Rich Balot, Chairman and Co-CEO of a $750 million company, discusses how he brought his company back from the brink of disaster and turned it into a juggernaut. Rich's business almost went belly up a few years ago when Verizon Wireless bought Alltel and the industry shifted to the iPhone. At the time, Rich's company was Alltel's largest agent. Overnight, he went from king of the hill at Alltel to a nobody at Verizon. In today's episode, you'll learn: The three steps Rich took that led to his remarkable turnaround. How one statement from Rich's coach, Mark Moses, caused Rich to up his game and “start acting like a CEO.” Why “hire slow, fire fast” is one of the most important management ideas you can implement. The 5 keys things every CEO should focus on and how they lead to top-line growth and increased profitability.  

In this episode Wayne interviews Tamara Glynn who was an actor in Halloween 5. She shares some of her experiences in the movie as well as the vast amount of work she is doing in the next year.  Tamara Glynn: Was discovered by a Los Angeles talent agent as youngster Tamara, a native of Arkansas moved to Los Angeles, to pursue an acting career. In Hollywood she starred and co-starred in such Motion Pictures as "Halloween 5" and Television Series like "Miami Vice". Some of her Television Credits include: Knots Landing, Growing Pains, Miami Vice, Life on the Flipside, Brand New Life and Nightmare on Elm Street (the series), Rags to Riches and more… Some of Tamara's numerous Feature Film credits include Halloween 5, Daddy and Them and The Portrait just to name a few. Tamara has continued an active career in front of the camera as well as behind the camera working with Federal Express, Alltel, Back Yard Burger, Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield, UAMS, Sears, Magic Springs and many more… Tamara is the Executive Producer for Cinevue Entertainment. She is involved in producing television documentaries film and video projects.For more information on Tamara's upcoming projects,visit Tamara Glynn on Facebook. Click here for Big Bear Horrorfest!

Christopher Renstrom has been a practicing astrologer since 1985. Renstrom currently writes the daily horoscopes for the San Francisco Chronicle (replacing Jeanne Dixon) and SFGate.com. Now the exclusive astrologer for Patti Stanger (the Millionaire Matchmaker) his forecasts appear weekly on Pattiknows.com. Most recently he was voted Best Astrologer by City Weekly's Best of Utah 2012. He also created the horoscope column for ALLURE magazine (Conde Nast publications), his “Renstrom's Horoscopes” were carried on Verizon, Sprint, and AllTel, and he conceived and developed Ask the Astrologer for lifetimetv.com. Rulingplanets.com is Christopher Renstrom's vision of an on-line, subscription-based, interactive Astrology Magazine. It is based on his book Ruling Planets, which was published by HarperCollins in 2002 and has sold out its print run.

Rulingplanets.com is Christopher Renstrom's vision of an on-line, subscription-based, interactive Astrology Magazine. It is based on his book Ruling Planets, which was published by HarperCollins in 2002 and has sold out its print run. Renstrom has been a practicing astrologer since 1985. Renstrom currently writes the daily horoscopes for the San Francisco Chronicle (replacing Jeanne Dixon) and SFGate.com. Now the exclusive astrologer for Patti Stanger (the Millionaire Matchmaker) his forecasts appear weekly on Pattiknows.com. Most recently he was voted Best Astrologer by City Weekly's Best of Utah 2012. He also created the horoscope column for ALLURE magazine (Conde Nast publications), his Renstrom's Horoscopes were carried on Verizon, Sprint, and AllTel, and he conceived and developed Ask the Astrologer for lifetimetv.com. Renstrom regularly appears on radio and television. He also lectures about the history of Astrology in America, and runs Ruling Planet workshops around the country.

Christopher Renstrom has been a practicing astrologer since 1985. He created the horoscope column for ALLURE magazine (Conde Nast publications), his Renstrom's Horoscopes were carried on Verizon, Sprint, and AllTel, and he conceived and developed Ask the Astrologer for LifetimeTV.com. Rulingplanets.com is Christopher vision of an on-line, interactive Astrology Magazine. It is based on his book Ruling Planets which was first published by HarperCollins in 2002 and has sold over 50,000 copies to date. Renstrom currently writes the daily horoscopes for the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com and his Ask the Astrologer feature now appears in CATALYST magazine as well as on Rulingplanets.com.

Rulingplanets.com is Christopher Renstrom's vision of an on-line, subscription-based, interactive Astrology Magazine. It is based on his book Ruling Planets, which was published by HarperCollins in 2002 and has sold out its print run. Renstrom has been a practicing astrologer since 1985. He created the horoscope column for ALLURE magazine (Conde Nast publications), his Renstrom's Horoscopes were carried on Verizon, Sprint, and AllTel, and he conceived and developed Ask the Astrologer for LifetimeTV.com. Renstrom currently writes the daily horoscopes for the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com. Renstrom regularly appears on radio and television. He also lectures about the history of astrology in America, and runs Ruling Planet workshops around the country.

Rulingplanets.com is Christopher Renstrom's vision of an on-line, interactive Astrology Magazine. It is based on his book Ruling Planets which was first published by HarperCollins in 2002 and has sold over 50,000 copies to date. Renstrom has been a practicing astrologer since 1985. He created the horoscope column for ALLURE magazine (Conde Nast publications), his “Renstrom's Horoscopes” were carried on Verizon, Sprint, and AllTel, and he conceived and developed Ask the Astrologer for LifetimeTV.com. Renstrom currently writes the daily horoscopes for the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com and his Ask the Astrologer feature now appears in CATALYST magazine as well as on Rulingplanets.com. Renstrom regularly appears on radio and television and lectures around the country.

Rulingplanets.com is Christopher Renstrom's vision of an on-line, interactive Astrology Magazine. It is based on his book Ruling Planets which was first published by HarperCollins in 2002 and has sold over 50,000 copies to date. Renstrom has been a practicing astrologer since 1985. He created the horoscope column for ALLURE magazine (Conde Nast publications), his “Renstrom's Horoscopes” were carried on Verizon, Sprint, and AllTel, and he conceived and developed Ask the Astrologer for LifetimeTV.com. Renstrom currently writes the daily horoscopes for the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com and his Ask the Astrologer feature now appears in CATALYST magazine as well as on Rulingplanets.com. Renstrom regularly appears on radio and television and lectures around the country.

Rulingplanets.com is Christopher Renstrom's vision of an on-line, interactive Astrology Magazine. It is based on his book Ruling Planets which was first published by HarperCollins in 2002 and has sold over 50,000 copies to date. Renstrom has been a practicing astrologer since 1985. He created the horoscope column for ALLURE magazine (Conde Nast publications), his “Renstrom's Horoscopes” were carried on Verizon, Sprint, and AllTel, and he conceived and developed Ask the Astrologer for LifetimeTV.com. Renstrom currently writes the daily horoscopes for the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com and his Ask the Astrologer feature now appears in CATALYST magazine as well as on Rulingplanets.com.

Rulingplanets.com is Christopher Renstrom's vision of an on-line, interactive Astrology Magazine. It is based on his book Ruling Planets which was first published by HarperCollins in 2002 and has sold over 50,000 copies to date. Renstrom has been a practicing astrologer since 1985. He created the horoscope column for ALLURE magazine (Conde Nast publications), his “Renstrom's Horoscopes” were carried on Verizon, Sprint, and AllTel, and he conceived and developed Ask the Astrologer for LifetimeTV.com. Renstrom currently writes the daily horoscopes for the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com and his Ask the Astrologer feature now appears in CATALYST magazine as well as on Rulingplanets.com.

About Christopher: Rulingplanets.com is Christopher Renstrom's vision of an on-line, interactive Astrology Magazine. It is based on his book Ruling Planets which was first published by HarperCollins in 2002 and has sold over 50,000 copies to date. Renstrom has been a practicing astrologer since 1985. He created the horoscope column for ALLURE magazine (Conde Nast publications), his “Renstrom's Horoscopes” were carried on Verizon, Sprint, and AllTel, and he conceived and developed Ask the Astrologer for LifetimeTV.com. Renstrom currently writes the daily horoscopes for the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com and his Ask the Astrologer feature now appears in CATALYST magazine as well as on Rulingplanets.com. Renstrom regularly appears on radio and television and lectures around the country

#saleschart { border: 0px solid #333; border-collapse: collapse; } #saleschart td { padding: 7px; border-bottom: 0px solid #ccc; vertical-align: top; margin: 0; line-height: 1. 3em; font-size: 100%;} #saleschart th. bottomrow { border-right: 1px solid #333; } #saleschart tr. features1 { border-top: 1px solid #333; } #saleschart td. bottomrow2 { border-right: 1px solid #333;} #saleschart th { font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold; text-align: left; padding: 4px; background: #f3f3f3; border-top: 1px solid #333; } . Firefox 3. 5 arrives . Mozilla is saying its new browser is more than two times faster than Firefox 3, but what has us more excited is the support for plugin-free "open codec" video and audio playback. Wii MotionPlus impressions: it works, but so far the games aren't worth the fuss . At first glance it's a little difficult to understand the necessity of another motion-sensing add-on. Pirate Bay acquired by Global Gaming Factory, going legit like Napster . We'll have to wait and see how this pans out but it certainly smacks of a Napster v2 like situation at first blush. Other news of import. Verizon's BlackBerry Tour coming July 12th, pre-order page now live . Microsoft outs educational, inspirational Windows 7 tour videos . NVIDIA Tegra smartphone due from a "top five" manufacturer before 2010? . Sony placing PS3 slim manufacturing orders for delivery in July? . Top ten rationales for illegally downloading HDTV shows . We're not saying we've ever downloaded anything off the internet that wasn't 100% on the up and up, or that we're here to judge those who have. Video: Palm Pre caught playing with GSM SIM in Vietnam . Having the Palm Pre on Sprint might be good for Americans driving their pick 'em up trucks down the CDMA data highway, but it doesn't do Europeans (or Palm's bottom line) any good over in the Old World. 2009 British Open broadcast confirmed in standard def on TNT & ABC . Oppo BDP-83 pre-orders now open for all (in North America) . Nokia N97 getting firmware 1. 1 on July 1 . BlackBerry Tour emerges in Alltel livery for those non-Sprint, non-Verizon types . The Daily Roundup: here's what you might've missed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments .

The Cell Phone Junkie Show #127 55:55Show NotesThe DOJ approves Verizons acquisition of Alltel, the BB Bold is available if you're willing to pay the price, and iPhone 2.2 firware rumors.

The Cell Phone Junkie Show #113 1:22:00Show NotesWe've got our hands on the Treo 800w, the winner of our Zune 4GB giveaway and an Interview with Alltel.

The Cell Phone Junkie Show #106 1:24:05 Show Notes Verizon announces it's aquiring Alltel, T-Mobile steps up their unlimited offerings, and for all your Symbian junkies out there, we've got Steve Litchfield joining us to talk about all things Symbian.

This week, Uwe Boll goes 'Postal' over walkout, the Alltel wizard can't defend against a 29 billion damage fireball, and Crazy Jack is banished to the deeps.

Pinacle makes it easy to watch HD television on your computer and record programs, too. In warning someone about a problem with AOL, I'm told that I disrespected the service. A couple of unrelated spams caused a bit of mirth. In Nerdly News, Acer starts to push Linux and Verizon plans to acquire Alltel.

The FCC 700 MHz Spectrum AuctionIntro: In this podcast we discuss the in-progress FCC 700 MHz spectrum auction.Gordon: Mike, you are the reigning Global Wireless Education Consortium Educator of the year so you know about this stuff - what exactly is this spectrum the FCC is auctioning and where did it come from?Back in 2005 Congress passed a law that requires all U.S. TV stations to convert to all digital broadcasts and give up analog spectrum in the 700 MHz frequency band. This law will free up 62 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band and effectively eliminate channels between 52 and 69. This conversion, which has a deadline of February 18, 2009, has freed up spectrum that is being split up by the FCC into five blocks.Gordon: What so interesting about this block of spectrum?Cell coverage, required cell-site density and cost (total network cost and cost per customer).I understand each spectrum block in the 700 MHz auction, except for the national public safely D-Block, has been assigned an area designation by the FCC. Could you describe those areas included in the 700 MHz auction using FCC definitions.Economic AreasBoth the A-Block (12 MHz) and the E-Block (6 MHz) are being auctioned using the Economic Area (BEA) service areas established by the Regional Economic Analysis Division, Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce. Included are Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Gulf of Mexico. There are a total of 176 Economic Area service areas designated by the FCC.BEA services include General Wireless Communications Service (GWCS), Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) and Location and Monitoring Service (LMS). Cellular Market AreasThe B-Block (12 MHz) is being auctioned using the Cellular Market Area (CMA) service areas. The 734 CMAs are broken down as follows: Areas 1-305: Created from the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) defined by the Office of Management and Budget (1-305) Area 306: The Gulf of MexicoAreas 307-734: Rural Service Areas (RSAs) established by the FCC which do not cross state borders including parts of Puerto Rico not already in an MSA (723-729), U.S. Virgin Islands (730-731), Guam (732), American Samoa (733), and Northern Mariana Islands (734).CMA Services include Cellular Radiotelephone Service and Interactive Video and Data Service (IVDS) Regional Economic Areas The C-Block (22 MHz) is being auctioned using the 12 Regional Economic Areas (REAs) created by the FCC. The REAs are an aggregation of the 52 Major Economic Areas (MEAs) defined by the FCC. REA Services include Wireless Communications Service (WCS)All FCC areas, along with names, county lists, maps and map info data can be found on the Commission's website linked here. Mike: How is the auction being conducted? On their website, the Federal Communications Commission has  a public notice titled Auction of 700 MHZ Band Licenses. This document describes the bidding procedure for the 214 companies that have qualified for the auction, which will be handled by the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB). The WTB is one of seven FCC Bureaus and is responsible for all FCC domestic wireless telecommunications programs and policies.Here's a summary outline of the procedure pulled from the 12 page FCC document: Bidding in Auction 73 started on Thursday, January 24, 2008.Each qualified bidder received prior to January 24: At least two RSA SecurID tokens An Integrated Spectrum Auction System (ISAS) Bidder’s Guide A FCC Auction Bidder Line phone number The FCC will conduct the auction over the Internet and telephonic bidding will also be available. In either case, each authorized bidder must have his or her own SecurID token. There will be a minimum opening bid amount for each license and package and the minimum opening bid amount is subject to reduction at the discretion of the WTB. The WTB will not entertain requests to lower minimum opening bid amounts. The WTB has established the following block-specific aggregate reserve prices for Auction 73: Block A, $1.807380 billion;Block B, $1.374426 billion;Block C, $4.637854 billion;Block D, $1.330000 billion;Block E, $0.903690 billion. Mike: It's interesting the range of reserve prices - is it safe to say that these correlate to the "value" the FCC sees with each?If, at the close of bidding in Auction 73, the aggregate reserve price for the A, B, C and/or E Blocks has not been met, the WTB will issue an announcement that bidding in Auction 73 is closed and set a date for commencement of Auction 76. Round results will be available approximately 10 minutes after the close of each round. and two types of reports will be available to bidders: (a) publicly available information, and (b) bidder-specific information available only to that bidder when logged in to the FCC Auction System. Each qualified bidder will have a default watchlist that contains every license and packages of licenses selected on the bidder’s short-form application. Qualified bidders may also create custom watchlists. On Tuesday, January 22, the WTB conducted a mock auction, which will allow qualified bidders to familiarize themselves with the FCC Auction System. Only qualified bidders will be permitted to participate in the mock auction. Once winning bids are announced (either after Auction 73 or Auction 76) and winning bidders are announced, winning bidders will have 10 business days to file a long-form application (FCC Form 601) and make down payments for all of the licenses it won. Mike: Who are some of the major bidders? USA Today has published an interesting article titled Google could cause a stir in FCC's airwaves auction and, in the article, some of the leading bidders and their likely strategies are listed.Let's take a quick look at some of the major bidders (in alphabetical order) and their expected bidding strategies. For additional detail be sure to read the USA Today Article.AT&T AT&T already has more spectrum than any other carrier so bidding on the 700 MHz band will be used for further build-out. Many experts are speculating AT&T will focus primarily on the D-Block public-safety spectrum.Mike: Why is AT&T going after public-safety spectrum? Am I missing something?Cablevision, Cox, Advance/Newhouse, BresnanThese cable companies are interested in spectrum to provide wireless services and compete with the large providers. Most experts believe they will be bidding on A-Block regional licenses in their service areas.EchoStarEchoStar is a satellite TV provider that is interested in using spectrum to provide wireless broadband access to its customers. Most experts do not feel EchoStar has the money to compete with companies like Google, At&T and Verizon in the auction.GoogleGoogle is the heavyweight here. The company wants to further expand into the cellular smartphone market and has the money to compete with the big providers. The company is expected to bid the $4.6 Billion minimum for the C-Block spectrum.Mike: Is this National Spectrum? As opposed to regional?Leap, MetroPCS,, AlltelLike the cable companies (Cablevision, Cox, etc), these regional wireless companies will likely be bidding on A-Block regional licenses in their service areas. Experts also are speculating Alltel will bid on the public safety D-Block spectrum.Paul Allen and VulcanPaul Allen's (co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates) investment company, Vulcan, already owns spectrum in Washington and Oregon.Vulcan may be bidding on some of the C-Block regional licenses or smaller A or B-Block regional licenses.QualcommThe California based wireless manufacturer is looking for spectrum for its MediaFlo smartphone video service. Qualcomm will likely be bidding on E-Block regional licenses.VerizonVerizon will likely be bidding big on C-Block spectrum with plans to open their network to any (hardware and software) devices.Mike: Can you give us some background on the auction to date?The 26th round finished yesterday (Friday - Feb. 1, 2008) afternoon - here's a quick update from the FCC auction site: Bidding Rounds to Date: 26Bid totals to Date: $18,554,080,600The A and B-Blocks have been getting most of the attention lately:The Los Angeles A-Block leads the A's with a current bid of $580,268,000.The Chicago B-Block leads the B's with a current bid of $892,400,000. There has not been a C-Block bid since it passed the FCC reserve price on Thursday. The current C-Block bid is $4,713,823,000.The public safety D-Block has not had a bid in 25 consecutive rounds and is stuck at $472,042,000, well below the $1.3 Billion reserve price set by the FCC.E-Block bidding has been slow with the New York City E-Block leading at $178,897,000.23 licenses had not registered a bid at the end of round 26, 19 of these 23 are in the E-Block. Mike: Any personal observations and opinions on the auction?It looks (to me anyways) like the C-Block bidding may be done. Since the FCC reserve price of $4.6 Billion has been passed, the open-access that Google wanted is assured. We won't know who the winning bidders are until after the auctions have closed but I'd say Google is the current leading C-Block bidder.Right now it does not look like the D-Block will meet the $1.3 Billion reserve price and will end up being re-auctioned by the FCC.A number of E-Block licenses will not meet minimum bids and will also be re-auctioned.The FCC had set an original goal of $10 Billion for the auction. With current bids totaling over $18 Billion, it appears the auction (from the FCC's perspective) will be a success. Bidding is closed for the weekend with round 27 starting Monday (Feb. 4, 2008) morning.Mike: What's the best way to stay updated?If you want to stay updated - the FCC Auction 73: 700 MHz Auction Summary page lists, among other things, results of the auction after each round. You can also watch my blog!Mike: When will we know the winners?The auction will likely last a couple of months so we won't know the winners until then. We should start to see products from the winning bidders that use the spectrum sometime next year.

The Cell Phone Junkie Podcast #17 50:11 Show Notes:Congrats to David Ciccone on being featured in the New York Times!  We talk about the Pearl keys sucking, trading your contract, and buying a phone from a vending machine.  Also, nice new Nokia phones, KRZR coming to Alltel and MVNOs.