John Linton
I attended the aftermath of yet another supplier Christmas 'thank you' lunch yesterday (aftermath = met our account manager at the bar where the 'stayers' were continuing to down the free booze provided by the supplier after they were kicked out of the restaurant). I have never accepted invitations to 'Christmas thank you for being our customer events' as, apart from the universally bad food and inferior alcohol, I've learned the hard way that business and alcohol don't mix and most of such events are unrelievedly boring.
On this occasion I was offered the opportunity of speaking directly with "the CEO" about the possibility of gaining gateway access to a carrier 3G network which was an irresistible opportunity to actually get a real feeling for if and when such an opportunity could exist for a sensible volume of business.
I was happy to see that the two people I was introduced to were drinking mineral water and appeared to have been doing that throughout their time at the 'event. Being grateful for the opportunity and understanding that they were probably bored witless at the inanities they had had to sit through for the past 3 hours or so, I briefly outlined Exetel's likely volumes and those of the two 'partners' we were involved with and asked my two simple questions to which I got immediate and unequivocal answers.
The first answer was not unexpected - we would need to offer significantly greater volumes than I'd suggested for them to consider making gateway access available.
The second answer was unexpected - they would make gateway access available if I could work out a deal with another company who had made a similar approach to them to 'joint venture' the gateway until either party's stand alone volumes reached a level that justified separate gateways.
Their follow up comment was even more unexpected. The CEO suggested that this could be made available by the carrier to such a joint venture on a 'turnkey and lease basis' undertaken by the carrier if a contract for a minimum of 48 months exclusive use of the carrier's network was contracted.
The whole conversation lasted less than 25 minutes and concluded with a promise of a three party meeting, after/if they had obtained agreement from the other company who wanted gateway access to be held early in the new year with the objective, if everything worked out, of piloting the scheme in mid 2008.
Of course, there are many dependencies but I thought it was the first real indication that I've seen in over 12 months of similar meetings/discussions/enquiries that Exetel might be able to find a data over 3G solution in the forseeable future.
Perhaps I need to reassess my 'policy' on attending 'business lunches'?