The Site > Old Forums > New Edge Networks > New Reach ATM Product!

reply to shockademus

Re: NorVergence GOOD BAD OR UGLY?

reply to norv411
Is it possible you can e-mail me in reference to the position at Norvergence? I've got some questions.

jamaal.thomas3@verizon.net

Hope to here from you soon.

reply to J
Honestly I thought the same thing- that it was too good to be true. They signed my hardware distribution shop up in Hoboken about a month ago. SO far so god. My toll charges were completely gone on Verizon Local and LD. I got a T1 line for internet, plus they replaced all my cellphones and I don't have to process invoices... they seem to have a lot of solid telecom connections. I can't complain.

reply to J
Hey Everyone:
I'm a facilities engineer with NorVergence in their Baltimore/Washington office. If anyone has any questions I can answer for them, feel free to call me at 301-474-5930 or email me at jeffrey.carlson@norvergence.com. I assure you we are not a scam or basement business! 17 offices nationwide, 800 employees and growing.
Yes, we do save customers 20-60% on their telecom spending, giving them a fixed cost per month and unlimited local, long distance, 800 number and cellular calling and high-speed Internet access. (Your savings really depend, among other factors, on how good a deal you're getting from your carrier currently.) The cellular service portion of our solution is a billing arrangement only, and no cellular traffic travels through our box.
The technology is ATM-based; our product is basically an ATM switch. It's the same basic technology used by several of the carriers to backhaul calls across their networks: we took the step of moving the switch into the customer premise, eliminating origination costs. Internet connectivity is across the same circuit, bandwidth being dynamically allocated as voice calls come up and down.
Customers who are credit approved get a T1 circuit into their facility and rent our box on a 60 month lease. A circuit rental is also part of the monthly expense. This price will not go up for the 60 months, but can be reduced by the customer finding competitive pricing which we will match.
We are looking for experienced salespeople and sales engineers for offices in Orlando, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, San Jose and Oakland (our next five offices, all opening by early September). We are also looking for good salespeople in our current offices: Newark, Manhattan, Boston, Detroit, Washington/Baltimore, Miami, Atlanta, Detroit and Chicago. Check us out on Monster.com.

Best regards,
Jeff Carlson
July 21, 2003

Jeff,
I am glad you offered to answer questions, as I have a few. First, why the reverse sales tactic and purported limited availability ? Second, if you guys firmly believe in your product why the memorized script ? Third,why if they are strategic alliance partners or investors is there no mention of Norvergence on either Nortels or Qwest's web sites ? Fourth, why can't you guys give an actual answer as to the cost of the MATRIX box ? Fifth, how if this solution is for small to medium sized business' did NORV411 (a Norvergence employee) sign up many of his family members ? I am OK with the technology side of things, it's the sales tactics employed and the lack of information about your company that are putting me and I think many others off.
Thanks,
Scott

reply to J
This forum sounds like a bunch of telecom sales reps trying to position themselves to sell against the Norvergence matrix solution. I have it and its great. Cells are unlimited at $42.00 month for 4 phones, and no LD on my busniess lines whatsoever. And who to know best than a telephone system vendor which is what we are. We are going to start promoting it to our clients.
Funny how when something new and better comes out how people are skeptical. Have fun...

Htowntexans probably works for NORVERGENCE...

Im sure they have better engineers and equipment then AT&T and Verizon and thats why you are the only one to date that has said he has them up and running

Joe

reply to J
I can answer your questions about it. It's a very easy solution to understand, which someone earlier explained on this forum. The ILECS have been using this technology for years, eliminating all of thier per minute costs. Now people can have it on thier premise to eliminate thier per minute costs.
5 year too long? For what, 0 cents per minute? You mean some company may start paying us to use thier service? I don't see 0 cents being beat anytime soon.
What other questions?

reply to J
I can answer your questions: Norvergence is hardly going out of business anytime. They will be in 40 markets by January, and still growing.
But so what anyway, once you have the matrix box- your on an unlimited calling circuit from Qwest and a local loop from your local provider. You pay your local loop to whomever @ 160 whatever, and pay your rental of the matrix and go on down the road. Norvergence only qualified your company for it and provisioned the services.
I bought a Dell laptop, but if they go out of business I can still use it I suppose.
Everyones concerned about thier affiliation with the big guys. Nortel networks engineered the solution, and Qwest provides the unlimited calling circuit for outbound traffic. Both are the largest in thier respected fields, and fortune 500. The alliance of Norvergence with these companies are on a level of lateral reciprocation which does not warrant a banner on thier websites, or a mention as you say.
Did you know that SBC owns Cingular? Wonder why they do not sell Cingular wireless on the SBC website? Corporate affiliation do not always affiliate themselves on a consumer level.

Re: NorVergence Reseeler for Verizen

reply to nyctechnobab

Re: NorVergence GOOD BAD OR UGLY?

reply to kcserv
sorry for the misunderstanding, when I said I have family members signed up, I meant family members who are business owners, i have cousins who signed up with Norv who run Printing Companies and some close friends who are business owners.... And I fully support Norvergence, I would definitely have not had my family business owners consider Norvergence if I felt it was deceptive....They would have beaten me down, bad!!

I have not heard one negative comment from any of them in regards to utilizing Norvergence. True Zero cents per minute calling to anywhere in the US, Unlimited calling on cellular with no roaming charges, and some went from Dial Up to T1, they are the most excited....

And remember, all this for 20-60% less than what they were spending monthly before Norvergence came into the picture.

Thanks

And all of this talk about NorVergence has WHAT to do with New Edge Networks?

Please drop the subject or go create your own forum.

Sam

reply to J
Scott,

No one likes a salesman. The process of selling leaves a bad taste in most people's mouth, because there is usually pressure involved. We don't have "salespeople", we have screening managers. If a prospect does not want to apply, we move on. You call it reverse selling...the fact is applicants are not SOLD a product, they apply for a solution. We only take applications from applicants who show a high level of interest and who can qualify for credit.

Let's take your questions one at a time.

*"First, why the reverse sales tactic and purported limited availability" ? I'm not in charge of the way the product is marketed, so I can't tell you why we do things the way we do. However, our product IS limited in availability. Not everyone can get this. We only take the highest credit preferred companies, and we can not always engineer a circuit to a given site. For those reasons, only a fraction of the companies from whom we take applications get accepted.

*"Second, if you guys firmly believe in your product why the memorized script" ? How is belief in the product related to a script memorization? I don't see the connection. Screening managers are taught what to say so they deliver the message correctly and consistently.

*"Third, why if they are strategic alliance partners or investors is there no mention of Norvergence on either Nortel's or Qwest's web sites" ? No idea on that one. I know the partnerships exist, though.

*"Fourth, why can't you guys give an actual answer as to the cost of the MATRIX box" ? We DO give an actual answer, every time. Every customer has different pricing...we do a bill analysis of what they have and what they need. Number of lines needed, services needed, number of cell phones, and other factors all go into the proposal.

*"Fifth, how if this solution is for small to medium sized business' did NORV411 (a Norvergence employee) sign up many of his family members" ? No idea, but I would guess his family members have businesses. Individuals can apply as well, but they have to go through the same approval process as a company.

I hope this was helpful for you. And if you are applying for the solution...good luck; I hope you get it.

Jeff Carlson
Facilities Engineer
Baltimore/Washington Office
NorVergence, Inc.

reply to J
NorVergence approached us claiming to be partners with Quest and Nortel. I called Quest's PR department and spoke to a Mr. Dale Tucker who said that NorVergence has not been a business Partner for quite awhile.

A customer of ours was approached by NorVergence. The Company that he works for does a lot of Telco with Nortel so he checked with them and here is a copy of part of the email that Nortel sent him.

""From the Nortel Qwest Channel Management team, there is no commercial partnership between Nortel and Norvergence. It is very possible that Norvergence is using Nortel equipment to provide their services but this seems to be where the Nortel involvement in Norvergence ends.
Norvergence appears to be an independent LD company trying to break into the NYC market""

jim doughten
It manager
Evergreen Printing and publishing

reply to J
Nortel designed the Matrix hardware that Norvergence installs, Qwest supplies the "Voice as Unlimited Data" tranfer over their ATM network, as does all ILECS.

Norvergence is not a service provider in anyway, and doesn't want to be. Norvergence provides the hardware and screens business' for the solution, only.

Your existing carriers remain resident, switch to whomever you wish when you are utlizing the Matrix solution. The matrix box doesn't care whose lines it makes o cents per minute or unlimited.

Y'all are making it harder than it is to understand. Hey, I was skeptical of the fax machine when it came out, until everyone else had one and wanted to send me a fax!

This is what I have uncovered about NorVergence. Like any new company they seem to be going through some growing pains but that is par for the course in start up land. The telecommunications industry has been going through a downturn that has seen the loss of over 500,000 jobs, so a new company like NorVergence can have the pick of the litter in selecting new employees with experience in telecommunications.

The MATRIX does not look like any Nortel device that I know of but it sure looks like a
IAD (Intergrated Access Device) made by a company called Adtran, they call it the Total Access 850-VoDSL. The IAD is not magic; it simply puts voice and data into packets with the voice packets given priority over data. Telephone companies have been using the same technology for years in the core of there networks.

I have heard that NorVergence only uses T1’s and not xDSL because of the undependability of xDSL. Almost all new T1’s use a form of DSL called HDSL anyway that can use 2 wires to get 1.54MBPS both directions. Most T1’s are used with 24 time slots dedicated to 24 voice channels. This is a very inefficient use of bandwidth because if the time slot (Voice Channel) is not in use then the bandwidth is wasted when it could be used for data. This technology is not new but the incumbent telephone companies make a boatload of cash from under utilized T1’s even though they use the same technology in there backbones.

How NorVergence can sale a T1 for low cost is simple, they are probably using Quest as a CLEC that gets unbundled local loops from the incumbent telephone company.

Sometimes it takes a company like NorVergence to come into a market to shake things up. I remember a company that did the same thing a while back when they promised to cut long distance rates up to 30% and people said they must be on drugs. That company was MCI.

reply to tfbnet

Re: New Reach ATM Product!