The wireline industry segment continues to migrate away from being a provider of just voice service to an integrated provider of IP-based broadband residential and business services.
Unlike the old regulated telephony-only days when AT&T held a monopoly over both service and the network equipment that carried services, wireline operators are facing a growing host of savvy competitors and growing pains related to the migration away from TDM to IP-based services, service providers have to continue developing new innovative products to stay competitive.
Driven by a host of traditional telcos, competitive providers and cable MSOs, this service drive includes a host of IP-based consumer (IPTV and VoIP), business services (Ethernet, managed services and cloud) and increasingly wholesale services targeting the wireless industry needs for higher speed and flexible backhaul services.
With these services in mind, I would like call your attention to our second annual Rising Stars in Wireline. In this feature we are saluting the innovative nature of the individuals who often are not only in charge of maintaining network uptime, but also developing new products to create new top line revenue.
We considered all of these factors in coming up with this year's rising stars list:
- Eric Bozich, VP of Product Management, Qwest--Rising stars in wireline
- Clint Heiden, Senior VP and President of National Accounts and Fiber Services, PAETEC--Rising stars in wireline
- Dennis Huber, EVP, Network and Information Technology, CenturyLink--Rising stars in wireline
- Phil Meeks, senior vice president of Cox Business--Rising stars in wireline
- Ken Paker, vice president of network services, TDS Telecom--Rising stars in wireline
These are the five people we believe will play a big role in advancing the wireline industry in 2011.--Sean
P.S. Make sure to also check out my colleague Sue Marek, Editor in Chief of FierceWireless, and her Rising Stars of Wireless.