Insights

In the traditional world of auctions, no matter what’s up for bid—art, memorabilia, cars, jewelry—there can only be one winner, one successful bidder. Everyone else in the room is, by definition, a loser. When it comes to telecom contract negotiations, e-sourcing (AKA reverse auctions) works much the same way with one exception: There is still only one winner, but it’s always the same winner—the telecom providers.

If you’ve been in the telecommunications industry for a while, it is likely that you understand that most SLAs are not worth the paper they are written on. Beginning with the fact that most SLAs apply only to the “core network” and therefore have little to do with an end user’s actual experience, and ending with a list of exclusions that is typically so broad it is laughable, there is little good that one can find to say about standard SLAs in telecommunications.