“When a biased person gets to review your business plan, be prepared to get pissed on! ”

Last week, I took a novel approach in businessplanning. Since there are thousands – nay, hundreds of thousands- calling themselves an expert or even visionary in the field of telecom, I thought it would be nice to select 2 or 4 of them to “peer review” our UHBA NL 130+ page business plan.  I ended selecting 11 independent people, some of them who still have to deliver their piece of work. However, some did a great job of reviewing, and being reservedly enthusiastic about the opportunites ahead, complimenting us with the groundbreaking strategies proposed.

Two had already questions about upcoming regulatory issues with the local (Dutch), which we believe are too premature. Valid, but premature. We will try to incorporate their feedback in our updated document nonetheless. One reviewer, by profession an analyst, however, sent me a review which I then forwarded to my team, and which allowed us to have a great laugh.  He had some valid points, which we will follow up on. (I sent him a “Thank you” note.) But his bias was obvious. First, he is of the opinion that I should seek other ways to waste my time and most likely leave this industry entirely. Second, he knows everything much better.

So… here’s a bit of what he wrote about something that he really knows about. My answer will follow (and it is really short):

There is some confusion on the role of UHBA. It wants to be a network owner (passive layer), an operator (active layer) and a service provider. Isn’t this a bit too much? Reggefiber targets the passive layer only, and is retreating from the others (Reggefiber Wholesale and XMS are likely to pull out of the market, I believe).

My answer: Dear analyst, let me give you a few names of companies that do this too… a well forget it… check them out, they exist everywhere… from small local operators to the Verizons and the NTTs of this world.

I told my team that it would be a biased review, because I have had previous dealings with this analyst/ reporter. He was always talking about the big guys versus us small guys. Also, his employer and he are promoting a FTTH event in September, and guess who are confirmed speakers? You guessed it… Reggefiber and the incumbent, KPN.

My next post will be concerning some revolutionary approaches of iUHBA Networks, where local operating companies such as UHBA NL, UHBA USA and FBS licensed companies can benefit from.