Jason Hardy
Information Systems Lead
Product(s): iQ: International, iQ: Private Port
Industry: Technology, Services, Communications
Founded in 1999 and based in Redmond, Washington, RadioFrame Networks is the leading provider of complete radio access solutions for the worldwide wireless communications industry. The company’s strategy is to forge partnerships with major equipment makers and wireless operators to design and deploy carrier-grade solutions. RadioFrame has a reputation for quality manufacturing and continued process improvement.
Customer service
Service with Qwest is great. If we do have a problem--and problems do arise; I mean, nobody's perfect, but they're
more than willing to correct the mistake and make sure that they make good on what happened.
Why Qwest
Qwest ultimately was my number one decision, one, because of the relationship--knowing the people, knowing what
they could offer. But also knowing that they partnered with a company, British Telecom, who is a huge player in
this arena. They're a multinational company; they span all of--most of Europe, all or most of Asia. I mean, they
have a very large footprint. So knowing that Qwest is partnered with BT, and knowing what BT can offer through
Qwest--I mean, it became--the scale that we could go into on this became very apparent and very flexible.
The implementation/installation
I'm spoiled by Qwest. Qwest has been nothing but fantastic to us on the in-U.S. stuff that we've done with
them. When you start going international, you start seeing how international carriers treat customers, and even though I had Qwest on my back and they had my back--they made sure that what I needed was taken care of--it was
still a matter of fighting with some carriers to make sure that they did what they said they were going to do, when
they said they were going to do it.
Non-financial benefits
In working with Qwest, we've seen that, one, they make me look good. When I can say let's--We need this to work;
we need this to happen, they can come around and say Yeah, let's do that. No problem. We go from there. My
bosses look back to me and go Good job. Way to go. I'm saying Hey, that was my Qwest guys. I just said "Let's
do this and they made the magic happen. So that, to me, is worth more than its weight in gold, just the fact that
they're so flexible and that I have one person to call for anything--literally. "
Measurable benefits
When RadioFrame decided to really pull the trigger on going international, we engaged several telecom companies out
there to see what was offered. Just our due diligence; make sure that we got the best bang for our buck and really
went the right route. Seeing how their product compared to Qwest on a pricing level was incredible. Verizon, for
example--when they quoted us out, they were 30% higher than what Qwest had quoted us on an identical circuit going
to an identical location. Their install time would take much longer, which is a direct impact on RadioFrame and its
business needs--and its deadlines had been put on us. So from that standpoint, the return on investment has paid
for itself already just in being able to make deadlines and to get things turned up on time.
