AI Bandwidth Commitments Are the New Migration Circuits
A 2021 contract in a 2026 market. The deployment modernized. The billing didn’t. AI Bandwidth Commitments Are the New Migration Circuits By Bill Henrichs Founder & President, Bearstone LLC | Former Head of Telecommunications, Simon Property Group When I ran telecommunications at Simon Property Group, we provisioned a great deal of bandwidth we never fully […]
The SD-WAN Hangover
A 2021 contract in a 2026 market. The deployment modernized. The billing didn’t. Your SD-WAN Deployment Was the Right Call in 2021 The Contract Is Still Billing Like It’s 2021. By Bill Henrichs Founder & President, Bearstone LLC | Former Head of Telecommunications, Simon Property Group When I ran telecommunications at Simon Property Group, the […]
Your Carrier Offered a Fiber Upgrade. Read the First Invoice Like a Contract.
THE UPGRADE WAS REAL. THE INVOICE WASN’T. A carrier-initiated upgrade is a billing event. Treat it like one. By Bill Henrichs Founder & President, Bearstone LLC | Former Head of Telecommunications, Simon Property Group When I ran telecommunications for Simon Property Group, I learned to be careful with good news that arrives by phone. A […]
Your Carrier Offered a Fiber Upgrade. Treat the First Invoice Like a New Contract.
Your Carrier Offered a Fiber Upgrade. Treat the First Invoice Like a New Contract. The call comes from your account team. Better fiber, better speed, better rate. You sign. The upgrade is real. Three weeks later, the first post-upgrade invoice arrives — and it includes line items that were not in the quote. Some are […]
Your SASE Architecture Is Live. Your MPLS Contracts Are Still Billing.
Your SASE Architecture Is Live. Your MPLS Contracts Are Still Billing. When I was Head of Telecommunications at Simon Property Group, we ran an MPLS network that touched every property in the portfolio. The architecture made sense for the time: predictable performance, contractual SLAs, a known vendor footprint. The invoices reflected that — and so […]
AI Bandwidth Commitments Are the New Migration Circuits
AI Bandwidth Commitments Are the New Migration Circuits Networking teams across enterprise IT are provisioning bandwidth right now — committing to carrier circuits, cloud interconnects, and data center cross-connects — for AI workloads that do not yet exist at production scale. The provisioning is happening before the workloads are deployed. The contracts are being signed […]
If You Closed a Store in 2023, You Might Still Be Paying for It
If You Closed a Store in 2023, You Might Still Be Paying for It You know exactly which locations you closed. Facilities knows. Real estate knows. HR processed the last transfers. The lease is terminated. The keys are returned. But the telecom circuits at that location? There’s a good chance they’re still active. The carrier […]
The Charter-Cox 90-Day Window Hasn’t Opened Yet. That’s Your Advantage.
The Charter-Cox 90-Day Window Hasn’t Opened Yet. That’s Your Advantage. When major carrier consolidations closed during my tenure as Head of Telecommunications at Simon Property Group, the pattern was always the same. The account team would call and say, “Nothing changes for you.” The portal login would update. The invoice format would shift slightly. And […]
Your Carrier Is Watching the Tariff Situation. You Should Be Watching Your Contract.
Your Carrier Is Watching the Tariff Situation. You Should Be Watching Your Contract. The tariff environment has shifted faster than most enterprise IT teams can track. The average effective U.S. tariff rate now sits above 25% — the highest since 1909. Juniper Research has flagged that carriers will pass network upgrade costs to enterprise customers. […]
Your Cloud Migration Optimized the Workloads. Nobody’s Governing the Circuits That Connect Them
Your Cloud Migration Optimized the Workloads. Nobody’s Governing the Circuits That Connect Them. When I was Head of Telecommunications at Simon Property Group, we managed a telecom footprint that touched every property in the portfolio. Hundreds of locations. Dozens of vendors. Invoices that ran to thousands of line items a month. The carriers counted on […]
