CenturyLink Outage, Windstream Sale Highlight Weekly Wrap

Uncle Sam found himself in our news not once, but twice this week.

Our two most popular articles published during January’s first few days both involve federal regulators and their efforts to investigate large telecommunications companies. The Federal Communications Commission wields power to hold service providers accountable, but the current gridlock in Washington, D.C., has rendered the agency powerless.

The shutdown’s impact on channel partners and their customers appears minimal, but we’ll be keeping a wary eye on the evolving business impact. Well, our Edward Gately will keep an eye on it, but we’ll absolutely have his back.

For now, fret not and focus on your New Year’s resolutions. We’ve compiled the five most-read articles the past week for you – our dear readers – to catch all in one place.

5. 3 Tech Tips for Channel Pros in 2019

Two Cyxtera executives offered advice for partners that want to improve their businesses in the upcoming year.

Tina Gravel, senior vice president of global channels and alliances, and Tamara Prazak, director of channel strategy and marketing, penned a three-point guide that combines their career experiences and industry predictions. Gravel and Prazak underscored the importance of differentiating yourself, tackling hyperconverged infrastructure and making your customers’ stuff work faster.

The infrastructure company formed in 2017 when CenturyLink sold its data center and colocation units.

Take a look at their blog.

4. Windstream Sells Big Part of EarthLink Business

Windstream sold the consumer internet business that came with the company’s 2017 EarthLink acquisition.

A Dallas-based private equity firm purchased the unit for $330 million. The deal might benefit the channel, as Windstream considered consumer internet a “non-core” asset and kept its consumer business separate from the channel in the first place. The agreement highlights Windstream’s focus on UCaaS, which it bolstered with the EarthLink purchase two years ago.

Resident newshound Edward Gately has the scoop.

3. How to Create a Successful Channel Program

We already had one blog advising partners, but we gave vendors one as well.

J.P. Dundas, Fuze’s director of North America channel sales, laid out recommendations for how suppliers can keep their partners happy. The formula for a strong channel program is not complicated from a birds-eye view. Dundas said vendors must remember the most basic tenets of any relationship: mutual respect, trust and effort.

Read Dundas’ full article.

2. FCC Shutdown Could Delay Sprint-T-Mobile Merger Decision

The federal government ground to a halt Dec. 22, and the shenanigans (or lack thereof) continue.

But politicians’ game of chicken is spilling into the world of telecom. The shutdown affects most Federal Communications Commission (FCC) operations. One of the FCC’s delayed operations is to review T-Mobile’s merger with Sprint. The regulating agency is now paused on day 84 of its 180-day timeline to approve or deny the $26 billion transaction.

Read our analysis of the situation.

1. FCC Investigating Widespread CenturyLink Outage

The FCC was working to get to the bottom of another telco’s problem, before the government shutdown halted its progress on Jan. 3.

The Commission was investigating the Dec. 28 nationwide CenturyLink outage. The company fixed the problem by the next day, but the outage had interfered with 911 calls in different states.

Some Verizon customers also suffered during the outage.

Check out our article about the failure’s causes and consequences.