What I Do - Telecommunications Procurement

I joined AT&T in 1992 and did statistical forecasting of industry aggregates like voice traffic measured in minutes of use. That experience informed my view that big companies are necessary evils - necessary in that network economies of scale are real, but evil in the sense that governance by consensus results in mediocrity. I eventually ended up doing Layer 1 capcity sales agency work for Tyco Submarine's own network which was eventually sold to Tata Communications. Under Eric Gutshall's tutelage I learned the fundamental of sales including 'quick and accurate quotes' and never losing on price unless the rate of return was too low. Later I worked for him at Hibernia Atlantic whose network is depicted below. Today these five cables are part of EXA Infrastructure and really their crown jewels. 

I am not a reseller. If you accept a network capacity proposal, your contract and service is with the underlying network operator who typically owns fibre or IRUs on fibre or in the case of a subsea cable consortium a share of lit capacity. I always take you to the source - wholesale fibre optic networks with Big Bandwidth and great pricing. My value-added is that I take everything into consideration such as latency, resiliency, the operator's network design, commercial flexibility, physical diversity, and provisioning. For international circuits I think in terms of subsea cables, not service providers. It is physical infrastructure that determines which carriers are the best fit. It is a physical asset approach which leads to superior results for both buyers and sellers. The buyers get a better deal and service. The sellers get a higher win rate on their price quotes and offers because the request fits their network strengths. The network operator pays me a commission just like they would pay their saleman.