Telco Relationships

CF: I’m interested in your perspectives on the telco world. Cato would not call itself a telco provider, but it has nevertheless become a bit of a telco killer. How do you see Cato positioning itself in reference to that market?

FR: The market is really dynamic. If you look at Telefonica, if you look at Orange, BT, AT&T, Verizon, etc., what are they? Are they telcos, service providers or integrators? I would probably say all three. Technology is always disruptive. I don’t think we’re competing against MPLS directly. I think we’re offering a different path to be able to get there. It would be foolish for us to not be able to leverage people that really understand the last mile and understand some of that business. Again, it’s too early for me to tell you exactly what that’s going to look like, but I can guarantee you that we will be having those discussions, not only at my level, but certainly at Shlomo’s, Alon’s and those people I’m working for. Maybe I’m naive – I don’t think I am – but I think it’s going to be more collaborative than competitive.