Smartphones

 

77% of American adults own a smartphone.

(Source: Pew Research Center)

The US smartphone use in 2018 places Americans at #8 on the global scale.

People read almost half (49.1%) of all emails on mobile devices.

(Source: 2018 Marketing Benchmark Report IBM & Watson)

This is an average percentage because smartphone ownership statistics show significantly lower use of smartphones in certain parts of the world.

YouTube was America’s’ favorite mobile app in 2018.

(Source: Statista)

Smartphone usage statistics define Youtube as the most used app with 81.9%, followed by Facebook with 75.7%. Next in line are Google search, FB messenger, Google maps, Gmail, and Google Play.

Well over half of American households are now wireless when it comes to phone service.  Of the other households, most of those have both wireless phones and landlines.   There are only a few – approximately 5% – who have a landline only.

History of the Smartphone:  On October 13, 1983, Ameritech Mobile Communications became the first company to launch a 1G phone network in the US, starting with Chicago. On March 13, 1984, the 2 pound Motorola DynaTAC 8000x went on sale—for $3,995.

But the true smartphone revolution didn’t start until Macworld 2007, when Steve Jobs revealed the first iPhone.  Previous phones relied on keypads and could only navigate a watered-down version of the internet. The iPhone’s large touchscreen could flip through websites just like a desktop computer, all while looking sleeker than anything consumers had ever seen before.

Smartphones

In 2018, there were around 1.56 billion smartphones sales worldwide.

(Source: Statista)

With the world’s population at over 7.691 billion, these smartphone numbers show approximately 20% of all people got a new smartphone last year.

There are 2.71 billion smartphone users in the world today (2019).

(Source: Statista)

Almost every third person worldwide owns a smartphone.

Over 50% of smartphone users are addicted to their phones.

(Source: TechJury)

Depending on how you define addicted this stat is a little scary.   But in any case smart phones have only been around in a big way since early 2000’s but it is clear that they are here to stay.

What is SIP Trunking?

What is SIP Trunking?

SIP trunking is provided by SIP providers, which are similar to traditional phone companies, except SIP providers give access to phone lines over the internet (and SIP service is significantly less expensive – sometimes as much as 75% less).

  • Costs less – Saves money on your business phone system
  • Scales easier – Makes it easy to scale your operation quickly

Many companies use VoIP within their phone system on the Local Area Network (LAN) to connect to IP phones.

SIP trunking also uses VoIP to take advantage of shared lines, such as a company’s internet connection, to allow more flexibility in communications.

SIP Trunking – How it Works

SIP (and SIP trunking) is the standard communications protocol for voice and video in a Unified Communications (UC) solution across a data network.

SIP Trunking eliminates the physical connection to a phone company. There is no hardware, wiring, or gateways to maintain for connection to the PSTN (phone service provider).

A SIP “trunk” is installed virtually over your business’s existing internet connection, therefore replacing the need for traditional analog phone lines.

Reducing multiple phone lines into a single point of entry has a huge impact to reduce charges for incoming lines and the IT cost associated with the maintenance of those lines.

Please note:  Many companies still need analog lines for things like fax machines and alarms.   In those cases gateways and dedicated PRI trunks will be needed.

Benefits of SIP Trunking

Cost Savings

Cost savings is probably the biggest advantage of SIP Trunking and they can be substantial. SIP trunking can:

  • Lower a company’s monthly phone bills
  • Reduce a company’s IT and maintenance fees
  • Remove constraints on the telecommunications technology

SIP trunking allows companies to only pay for the number of lines they need as opposed to getting locked into excess analog lines or partially-used T1s and PRIs. The savings are realized by purchasing only the necessary number of channels needed. This allows companies to make more efficient use of communications costs and reduce wasted resources.

Scalability

Because SIP trunking uses a virtual connection, adding lines or modifying service is relatively simple.

Speed

SIP trunking with VoIP allows a company telecom group to set up and expanded quickly.

Support costs

Less maintenance – Your IT group no longer had to maintain analog and IP infrastructure

SIP Trunking vs. PRI

Basically, PRI and SIP trunking are two different ways to “connect” your phone system to the outside world. On the most basic level, SIP Trunking uses your internet connection to make phone calls, while PRI uses a dedicated physical connection.

Pros – PRI:

  • Quality of Service is guaranteed
  • It works with older phones that aren’t compatible with VoIP

Pros – SIP

  • Usually more cost-effective for businesses
  • Scalability – quickly and easily modify  service
  • Connections are virtual, so no physical connection

Cons – PRI

  • Typically more expensive than SIP
  • Connections are physical and new lines have to be installed when your company grows
  • Require in-house IT staff to maintenance

Cons – SIP

  • Quality of Service is not guaranteed, as internet connections can introduce lag and delay if not configured correctly or there is insufficient bandwidth.
  • Does not work easily with older analog technology deployed at a business location

President’s Piece

10 Year Company Anniversary!

I am very happy to report that this May 2019 will be our 10th year in business.   It is with tremendous pride that I can say that the great people we have at First American Business, and those within our partner network, have made it possible for us to not only grow but to prosper in the very competitive telecom landscape.   We have had year after year of increasing sales due to our teams quality and reliable service to the customers we serve.

I want to thank our customers for their dedication and for trusting us to manage and evolve their networks.   We have many small and large customers but to us they are all important and we look forward to serving them as their businesses evolve and continue to grow.

president's piece

As we embark on the start of our second decade I see huge opportunities as we expand our portfolio to Cloud and other technologies.

Trade Shows

2019 has started much like prior years with our participation in various partner trade shows.  For the first half of the year we attended, or will soon be attending, the following amazing events:

  • Avaya Engage Users Group – Jan
  • Converge1 Sales Conference – Feb
  • Enterprise Connect conference – March
  • Ribbon Sales Conference – Apr
  • Alliance-IT Sales Conference – June

We had a booth at C1 and Avaya Engage and are active participants in the others.

Ticketing System

The launch of our newly designed First American Business Ticketing System!   This new ticking system will allow our customers to more easily open and track a ticket with us.   Internally it will allow us to update and report key metrics to allow improvements in our delivery.

Staff Expansion

At First American we continue to attract top talent.  I’m proud to announce the addition of another new full time Avaya Engineer on staff.

Team Retreat

Our second team retreat will be held this year in Clearwater Florida May 7th-May 9th. With a virtual structured business model many of our team members talk daily on the phone but never have a chance to meet their colleagues face to face. Last years team retreat was a huge success, we look forward to our second team session. The team retreat consists of team introductions, success stories, new opportunities, new business strategies and the state of the business plus a little team building exercise.

Thanks to you, our customers– we look forward to supporting you in 2019 and for the next 10 years!

Sincerely,

Mark

Owner, Managing Partner

mark.morningstar@firstamericanbusiness.com

FABCloudUC™ Hosted Voice

First American Business has an exciting new Voice and Contact Center cloud service!

  • FABCloudUC™delivers carrier-class cloud PBX and hosted business phone services with all the features organizations expect from a traditional phone system — plus unified communications. Services such as instant messaging, mobile apps, video conferencing and more.

Get Quote

  • FABCloudUC™takes all of the guesswork away by offering a cost- effective, pay-as-you-grow, service. It is a reliable service with all the features you expect carrier-class phone and UC system.  Innovations and updates are built in – you never have to worry about future updates – ever.   We do that.

The Value of FABCloudUC™
Traditional phone systems and PBXs are expensive to maintain and require a large capital investment to update or replace.

  • FABCloudUCremoves capital expenditures and long-term operating costs for hardware, maintenance and installation.
  • FABCloudUC does not require organizations to have dedicated systems engineers and support staff to keep their phone system up and running.
  • FABCloudUC’s pay-as-you-go pricing lets organizations pay for what they use and add more services when needed.
  • FABCloudUC can integrate with an organization’s existing phone system, helping protect their existing investments while layering on new services and features.

Key Benefits

Flexibility
Time – it’s you and your team’s most important resource. FABCloudUC™ is designed to make users more productive wherever they need to work. In the office, in a home office, a hotel room, an airport or a coffee shop, FABCloudUC™ keeps users connected.

Mobility
Imagine a unified communications solutions that allows one phone number to follow users wherever they go— accessible from their desk, their smartphone, their tablet, or on their laptop; from anywhere with an Internet connection. This is FABCloudUC™ – your mobile office.

Expandability
With traditional on-premises solutions, you often have to plan and pay for future growth long before you even need it. FABCloudUC™ lets you pay for what you need; adding, changing, moving users as needed. With FABCloudUC™ Cloud UC, there are no hidden one-time product or upgrade costs.

Why Choose First American Business Cloud?

  • Enterprise Level Security
  • Global Footprint
  • High Availability data center design
  • Disaster Recovery
  • SLAs
  • Flexible Support Options – choose the support tier you need!

First American Business Wins UCaaS “Hosted PBX Cloud” Deal

Organizations of all sizes are moving their business-critical applications, including Phone systems, to the cloud because of it flexibility and cost-effectiveness.  Customers are choosing First American Business!  First American Business takes all the worry out of offering cloud-based voice services.   We handle implementation and on-going support including working with your existing carriers and suppliers. We support our clients 7×24 for complete offer.   Here is only one of our many customers:

Hosted PBX Cloud

Hello Destination Management are “Meeting experts” charged with a myriad of responsibilities when planning meetings in far-away places. Ultimately, Hello provides outstanding experiences for their guests. At Hello! Destination Management, their purpose is to deliver outstanding guest experiences. “Outstanding” may be exciting, inspirational, educational or just serene. Their formula for success is simple; extraordinary people with local expertise and a passion for designing and delivering superior events. And they like to have fun along the way!

Hosted PBX Cloud

Offering a fully hosted SIP base phone service, First American Business provides Voice Plus level of support which includes phone service with over 200 features including unlimited long distances services.   Hello! Destination’s San Francisco office was up and running in a matter of weeks!   Their workers had a choice of hard phones or softphones or mobile phones – any option to meet their needs.   No pbx hardware on-site and no unnecessary upgrades and maintenance.   First American Business all of that in our geo redundant Cloud.   Working with our partner Ribbon Communications, First American Business delivers full Unified Communications to the employees and Hello! Destination Management.

5G is here (Almost)

It has been nearly a decade in the making, but 5G is finally becoming a reality. Carriers started rolling out fixed 5G to select cities in 2018

5G, which stands for “fifth generation,” is an upcoming standard for mobile telecommunications service that promises to be significantly faster than today’s 4G technology. It will allow users to browse the internet, upload or download videos, and use data-intensive apps much more quickly than is possible now.

Latency, or the time it takes devices to communicate with each other wireless networks, will also drastically decrease.

5G technology

When it arrives, 5G technology will utilize a higher-frequency band of the wireless spectrum that allows data to be transferred much more rapidly than the lower-frequency bands today. The downside is that 5G wave signals don’t travel as far: The new 5G networks will require many more antennas spaced closer together than previous wireless generations.

Some industry analysts estimate there will be over 15 billion internet-connected devices by the year 2020, more than three times as many as there were in 2016. That figure include phones, tablets, computers – and the Internet of Things.

How much better?

According to Gizmodo, 5G networks will have the capacity for transfer speeds 10 times those of 4G networks.   But a lot is unknown right now so the speeds could be faster or slower.

One big reason for those discrepancies is that 5G hardware standards haven’t yet been agreed upon by the telecommunications industry. The carriers are still developing several versions of the technology.

When will it be available?

Most likely mid-2020. Both AT&T and Verizon have already begun testing their 5G technologies, but in very limited trials.  This is an upgrade that will require a big infrastructure deployment, plus new technology inside your phone, so it’s expected to be several years before 5G becomes widely available to consumers.

The five generations of mobile technology:

  • The first generation (1G) is the original cellular networks in the early 1990s.
  • The second generation (2G) began with text messaging being added.
  • The third generation (3G) added the ability to access the internet on mobile devices.
  • The fourth generation (4G) was mainly increased speed.

5G Uses:

Improved broadband

Carriers are running out of 4G LTE capacity in many major metropolitan areas. In some cities, users are already experiencing slowdowns during busy times of the day. 5G adds huge amounts of spectrum in bands that have not been used for commercial broadband traffic.

Autonomous vehicles

Autonomous vehicles are likely to rise at the same rate that 5G is deployed across the U.S. In the future, your vehicle will be able to communicate with other vehicles on the road, provide information to other cars about road conditions, and provide performance information to drivers and automakers.

Public safety and infrastructure

5G will allow cities and other municipalities to operate more efficiently. Utility companies will be able to track usage remotely, sensors can notify public works departments when drains flood or street lights go out.

Remote device control

Since 5G has remarkably low latency, remote control of heavy machinery will become a reality. While the primary aim is to reduce risk in hazardous environments, it will also allow technicians with specialized skills to control machinery from anywhere.

IoT – Internet of Things

One of the most exciting and crucial aspects of 5G is its effect on the Internet of Things. While we currently have sensors that can communicate with each other, they tend to require a lot of resources and are quickly depleting LTE data capacity.

With 5G speeds and low latencies, the IoT will be powered by communications among sensors and smart devices. Compared to current smart devices on the market, these newer devices will require fewer resources, since large numbers of devices can connect to a single base station, making them much more efficient.

Local Site Survey and Transition

Local Site Survey and Transition
First American Business is a leading provider of local site survey work and transition deployments of new telecom systems.  Our team follows a rigorous process and will complete all planning activities and complete transition activities for a customer’s deployment.   Installation and transition activities are documented in our proven First AB Ops Guide.  Details of the First AB activities include:

  • Schedule
  • Transition Plan
  • Transition Team Personnel
  • Transition Activities
  • Post-Cutover
  • De-installation

SCHEDULE

One of the key activities that is initiated when the First AB PMO receives the written approval by the customer to coordinate the site(s) for the transition phase is our detailed schedule.  Our team acknowledges the transition timeframes for installation and cutover criteria for the various type of sites detailed in contract.  First AB acknowledges that the Transition will occur on a phased roll out in conjunction with the data centers being operational

TRANSITION PLAN

A second key activity linked is a Site Survey and Report that is the development of the site-specific Transition Plan document.  The document will be prepared using a First AB template based on the size and type of the facility to be transitioned.  The Transition Plan will provide details on the transition process, associated activities and other information necessary to ensure a smooth cutover to the new system.

The development of the Transition Plan will contain design details such as a list of DID numbers to be deployed provided by the customer.

The First AB PMO will submit the completed Transition Plan to the customer for review and approval within 10 days of receipt. The First AB team will review the Transition Plan throughout the transition phase to ensure conformance with the systems design and update as required.

TRANSITION TEAM PERSONNEL

The goal of the First AB PMO is to utilize the same 2-person team that conducted the site survey for the transition.  This approach will increase efficiencies due to the team’s familiarity of the site and the customer’s on-site team members.  The core survey team is comprised of a software specialist/trainer and technician.  The core team for larger sites will be augmented by additional trainers and/or technicians.

TRANSITION ACTIVITIES

Following customer approval of the First AB Transition Plan the field location will be scheduled for transition.  Our transition team will execute the Transition Plan following the typical weekly installation and transition schedule described in First AB Ops Guide.

Our on-site team will complete the following site transition tasks:

  • Unpack and inventory all equipment, telephones and wireless headsets (as applicable)
  • Check all new DID numbers;
  • Install equipment and place telephone sets – reuse existing LAN cable infrastructure
  • Install and terminate new cabling as identified in the Transition Plan;
  • Identify/label LEC circuit cross connects and termination blocks with permanent labels
  • Prepare connectivity to existing paging, fax and other analog devices and/or circuits.

Post-installation Testing:

Prior to the cutover of each field location, the First AB team will perform an end-to-end voice quality assessment under load conditions after hours. Testing will be conducted using a Test Plan listing the following tests and desired outcomes.  The completed Test Plan document will be used to develop the Voice Quality Report for submittal to the customer for review.

  • E911
  • UC functionality
  • Contact Center application (if applicable)
  • An end-to-end voice quality test that measures one-way latency;
  • Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) score;
  • Mapping of PESQ to Mean Opinion Score-Listening Quality Analysis (MOS-LQO) score;

Training:

Our team will deliver the appropriate end-user, site admin and telephone coordinator site-specific training.  Training will be delivered in a classroom setting with sufficient walk-around training provided following the cutover.

Cutover:

Our transition team will conduct all cutover activities after normal business hours.  Activities during this event will include:

  • Transition traffic from legacy equipment to new system;
  • Connect fax machines, overhead paging systems and other analog devices to new system;
  • Connect new telephone sets;
  • Remove all legacy telephones;
  • Place test calls to verify call flows

POST CUTOVER:

Our transition team will remain on-site for two days following cutover to address training questions from the end-users, and site admin personnel.  In addition, the team will troubleshoot any inoperable device that may surface.

Within 72 hours following the cutover, the transition team will certify that the First AB system is operational and free of defect after meeting with the local Site Manager. Our team will provide documentation to support that:

  • The system meets all capability and performance requirements as outlined in the Transition Plan;
  • Site specific call flows have been implemented and tested;
  • Site training has been satisfactorily conducted.

DEINSTALLATION:

Following the successful cutover of the new system our team will commence the de-installation phase.  All legacy telephone systems and ancillary equipment will be removed, inventoried and packaged for shipment to the agreed upon facility for the appropriate disposition in accordance with all applicable regulations.  The team will remove all hard drives and other storage devices from removed switching equipment and deliver to the local customer field manager.

Critical Alarms & Spares

Critical Alarms & Spares
Critical Alarms

Within 15 minutes after an alarm is generated on the affected system monitored by First American Business Outpost monitoring server, an email notification will be sent to distribution list and acknowledged by First AB. Once this alarm has been received, the First AB NOC support team will acknowledge the alarm in Outpost by changing the alarm to assigned status and began troubleshooting.

If the alarm is an Alarm Escalation, a ticket will be created in the First AB Ticketing System – FABhelpDesk.com and will be created after the alarm is acknowledged in Outpost. An Alarm Escalation takes place when the alarm does not clear by itself.

  1. After receiving the Alarm notification, FABs verifies in Outpost and acknowledge the Alarm by assigning to the remote tier III NOC engineer
  2. Contacting the First AB Tier III remote engineer by phone and notify them of the Alarm Escalation.

If alarm cannot be closed remotely then:

  • Our NOC will call the end-customer (contact list will be provided to First AB)
  • Ask the customer if they require an on-site dispatch
  • If yes, contact a local tech for dispatch & spare part

Spares Coverage

First AB provides critical spare parts for the telephony systems we manage.  Spare parts replacement coverage for our customers works as follows:

  • Parts coverage will provide for replacement of any covered part First American Business determines to be inoperative. Replacement parts may be new, factory reconditioned, refurbished, re-manufactured or functionally equivalent depending on availability of the part to be replaced.
  • First AB will confirm if the replacement part is a critical component and replace if necessary.   Non-critical components will be replaced at Customer’s request.
  • First AB may ship or hand deliver replacement parts as required to meet the Service Levels.
  • A First AB engineer or the Customer (with direction from First AB), will follow Manufacture’s maintenance instructions to replace the Spare part component/device.

NBD:  Next Business Day coverage.   If requested and covered parts replacement request received by 3:00 p.m. EST, part(s) shall be delivered to the local site the following business day (M-F) between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. local time

24×7:  If requested and covered parts replacement request is validated, spare part shall be delivered to the local site all days of the week within 24 hours.

PBX Market and Move to the Cloud

PBX Market and Move to the Cloud

PBX Snapshot

Cisco and Avaya may still hold dominant positions in the PBX market segment, but as enterprises put off spending and move to cloud-based service options, the on-premises PBX segment continues to struggle.

IHS Markit noted in its recent report that a decline in on-premises PBX licenses drove the global market to decline 8% in 2017 from 2016, to $5.7 billion.

Likewise, total PBX lines were down 9% year over year in 2017, with the research firm noting that every segment took a hit.

“Many businesses are holding off on upgrades and new purchases, and the move to cloud services is having an impact,” said Diane Myers, senior research director for VoIP, UC and IMS at IHS Markit, in a new research report. “Underscoring the declines are not just slowing business purchases, but competitive pricing and the move to recurring expense models, which has resulted in market swings.”

Enterprise UC and voice equipment market highlights

  • Although enterprise spending is healthy, businesses are giving low priority to telephony upgrades and expansion on the premises side;
  • Enterprises continue to migrate to IP—to pure IP PBXs in particular—but the segment remains smaller than hybrid systems; hybrid IP PBXs represented 64 percent of all lines shipped in 2017
  • Demand for unified communications (UC) has been erratic over the past four years, but the segment was showing revenue up 5 percent from the prior year;
  • On the vendor front, Microsoft led in UC global revenue market share with 67 percent in 2017, trailed by Cisco and Avaya
  • For IP phones (IP deskphones and softphones), Cisco was the frontrunner with 35 percent of units shipped in 2017; Avaya was second with 14 percent, followed by Yealink with 10 percent

PBX Snapshot

Cloud Snapshot

Market Research Future published a research report on “Global Cloud for PBX Market Research Report- Forecast 2023”:

The global The Cloud PBX Market is expected to grow at USD ~13.2% of CAGR between 2017 and 2023.

Key Players

The prominent players in the Cloud for PBX Market are – Microsoft Corporation(Skype) (U.S), Nextiva Inc.(U.S), RingCentral Inc.(U.S), , Avaya Inc.(U.S), , Vonage America Inc.(U.S), Cisco system Inc.(U.S), D-Link System Inc. (Taiwan), Mitel Networks Inc. (Canada), NEC Corporation (Japan) and Ribbon/Kandy (U.S) among others

New research from Eastern Management Group values 2017 UCaaS sales at 18% of all PBX sales.

The hosted/cloud PBX market launched about a decade ago on an appeal to cash-strapped small businesses: Get a new PBX for $15 a month, per seat, compared to a new premises-based PBX at $800 for the same seat. That hosted promise has never evaporated. And now the hosted PBX market will close out 2017 having captured 18% of all PBX sales for the year.

Hosted PBX sales have rocketed from 4% of the total PBX market in 2010, to 18% this year. Looking at the numbers, in 2017 new hosted PBX sales were $5 billion. That’s only 3% of the dollar value of all installed PBXs. Today, customers replace PBXs with predictable frequency, which means there’s decades of sales opportunity in front of all hosted UC vendors in just selling PBX replacements.

First American Business Offers Cloud Based UC Services.

As a gold partner of Ribbon communication First American Business supports legacy PBX systems, on premise IP and Contact center systems and also Cloud Based UCaaS through our UCFlex offer.
Cloud Snapshot
We have large enterprise UCaaS (telephony) services using the geo redundant architecture of Ribbon’s Kandy technology solution.   We also provide SMB (small enterprise) hosted solutions leveraging our partnership with eMetroTel.

President’s Piece

staffing updates

Staffing Updates

I’m pleased to introduce you to Michael Brown – First American Business’ new NOC Team Leader.   First American Business continues to grow and it is important that we bring in top talent as we continue to refine our customer focused operational support model.
Michael (who resides in Allen TX) will lead and manage:

  • Our Tier III engineering team and will be the escalation point for outages and trouble
  • Staffing needs and training development for technical skill requirements in Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, Ribbon and other key technologies
  • The 24×7 Alarm monitoring and trouble ticket management production systems
  • Development of our formal NOC and support center process including the new First American on-line ticketing system – www.FABHelpDesk.com
  • RFP responses to new opportunities

I am also pleased to announce a new addition to our team focused on our government line of business under First American Business Solutions.   Tim Delong has joined our team effective last month as a Government Consultant.   Tim has over 30 years of experience in various government support roles including Avaya Government Solutions before retiring from AT&T.

At First American Business Solutions Tim will be focused on new business solution including formal RFP and bid development.   First ABS has seen greater activity in the government space this year and wants to continue to capture our share.   These government bids require particular focus on compliance – both technical and price – and Tim’s background adds complementary skills to our existing team.   Tim resides in Northwood OH.

Won Projects

On a final note we had some exciting new contract wins over the past few months working with and supporting our valued Partners.  Some of these include contracts through ConvergeOne and Alliance-IT.  We also renewed several direct longstanding agreements with Georgia Pacific, Mears Transportation and Hello Destination Management.

Giving Back

Hurricane Michael was the strongest storm in terms of maximum sustained wind speed to strike the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992.  In addition, it was the strongest storm on record in the Florida Panhandle.  October 9, 2018 the storm peaked as a high-end Category 4 hurricane. Approaching the Florida Panhandle, Michael attained winds of 155 mph as it made landfall near Mexico Beach Florida, becoming the first to do so in the region as a Category 4 hurricane.   By October 28, at least 60 deaths had been attributed to the storm. Hurricane Michael caused over $11 billion in damages.

First American Business is Florida headquartered.  Our priority is to give back to communities where we operate and Hurricane Michael clearly impacted so many of our Florida neighbors.  As a result we contributed to several relief efforts including food and shelter drives in the aftermath.

Firefighters sacrifice a tremendous amount for our country and communities.   Monroe County is home to one of our largest clients and we wanted to show our appreciation to the men and women who have given the greatest sacrifice – the fallen firefighters.  We feel honored to be a sponsor to the annual dinner and fundraiser held each year in Rochester in honor of these firefighters.   This is our 3rd year in a row supporting this very worthwhile cause.

In closing I would like to thank our customers – we continue to be successful as a business because of you.  And we are very proud to have Michael and Tim join our team as we continue to provide telecom services to our Channel Partners and our end customers.

Sincerely,

Mark

Mark Morningstar
markm@firstabs.com
Owner, Managing Partner