By Peter Gilligan

The COMPTEL Plus Spring Convention traveled to Nashville this year and was held at the impressive Gaylord Opryland Resort. Around 2,500 telecom folk from network providers, service providers, telecom and regulatory consulting firms, BSS/OSS vendors, hardware vendors and interested onlookers converged for the show – COMPTEL’s best attended show so far. Three of the four days focused on a wide range of topics of interest to the COMPTEL community – Tier 2/Tier 3 Telecom operators and their vendors. The last day was dedicated to the obligatory discussion of the ever-present boogieman - the regulatory situation.

Overall impressions were that attendees are generally upbeat about the industry and their prospects. Clearly, that did not extend to everyone, as pressure on companies with not-so-good balance sheets continues, placing them in vulnerable positions. There was, however, a sense of “been there, done that” regarding the current economic climate. The scars earned through the crash of 2001 may twinge in this economic environment, but the sentiment is: we made it through that and will certainly make it through this cycle. In fact, for some companies these conditions are being viewed as an opportunity to grow through the acquisition of troubled businesses at bargain prices.

The themes running through the show included:

• Technology movements particularly in IP and Wireless;
• Market Consolidation both in the LEC’s and T2 and T3 markets;
• Cooperation amongst COMPTEL members;
• Current economic conditions, including the “R” word.

A topic obvious by its absence was BSS/OSS. Sure, there were a bunch of systems vendors on the Trade Expo floor but the topic did not feature in discussions elsewhere. Perhaps