Geoff Wilbur -- Telecom and Technology Industry Career
My 20-plus year high-tech career has included more than 15 years working in the telecom industry. In addition to more than 8 years working for telecom carriers, I have consulted in a variety of telecom markets including FTTH, CLECs, ILECs, Wi-Fi, Fixed Wireless, and cable television. I have performed a variety of quantitative and qualitative analyses -- market research, market analysis, financial/cost/economic analysis, etc.
Even before my career began, I studied telecom at Michigan State University (before adding an MBA from Boston University).
I worked for 6 1/2 years for the Michigan Exchange Carriers Association, reaching the title of Director of Cost Analysis. While I was there, in addition to managing access revenues and Lifeline, we created and spun off a CLEC, worked on universal service issues, and handled a variety of analyses and negotiations for our member companies.
I then spent 4-plus years as an Industry Analyst for KMI Research, studying the fiberoptics market -- especially fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), fiber deployment by CLECs and ILECs, but also other areas of the market (fiber deployment by utilities, remote fiberoptic test systems, the high speed optics and dark fiber markets, rights-of-way trends, fiberoptic cable deployment methods, fiber deployment in Brazil, etc.) as needed. (KMI moved from Newport, RI to Providence, RI while I worked there. It has since become part of the CRU Group.)
After that, I spent about ten months attempting to establish my own consulting firm. Though open to work in all of my areas of expertise, I was focusing on "last mile" technologies. I researched and began following the Wi-Fi industry in addition to the fiber-based last mile markets (especially FTTH) I had previously followed. I had no trouble finding interested parties -- former colleagues, prior business contacts/customers who had found my analysis invaluable in the past, etc. -- and bid as a subcontractor with my former employer KMI on one or two occasions, but budgets remained constrained by the depth of the recession, and interest was too slow in turning to income, so that led me to my next position.
Then I spent more than 2 years as a Senior Economic Analyst at CenturyTel. I did some really interesting work -- developed models, performed pricing and cost analysis, worked on some interesting initiatives, and was part of a fantastic team -- but my wife was unable to advance her career in Monroe, LA, so...
In late 2005, I left CenturyTel to join New Paradigm Resources Group as a Telecom Industry Analyst. There, I rose to the position of Director of NPRG's Industry Analysis Group. I performed industry analysis of various telecom market segments. I authored the Fixed Wireless Carriers Report, completed in Spring 2006. After that, I led the teams that wrote the 2nd Edition of the Cable Broadband & Telephony Report, the Metro Ethernet Report, and the 21st Edition of NPRG's Competitive Carrier Report. I also wrote articles about a variety of telecom industry topics, including broadband power line technology, Ethernet over bonded copper, overviews of GlobalComm 2006 and NXTCOMM 2007, a review of the cable industry's advances in on-demand technology, discussion of broadband wireless and fixed wireless technologies, and more. In addition, I co-wrote an article about the competitive carrier industry that appeared in Xchange Magazine.
In the second half of 2007, I joined International Planning and Research, where I perform global market sizing and opportunity analysis, primarily in the computer/IT industry, but also in the global financial services industry and others. This move was an opportunity to explore an adjacent high-tech industry and rejoin a couple of friends and former coworkers back in New England.
My Telecom Blog:
In August 2012, I started a telecom industry blog to give me a place to share articles and opinions on the many segments of the telecom industry in which I've gained expertise and keep abreast of new developments.
Click here to check out Geoff Wilbur's Telecom (and Technology) Blog.
Resume:
For a look at my telecom background in greater detail, please click here to see my resume.
In the News:
While with KMI Research, I was quoted several times in the media. Click here for links to online publications in which I have been quoted.
On that page, you'll also see links to some of my writing that's available online, much of which is from my time at NPRG.
Conferences:
Throughout my career, I have attended various industry conferences.
Click here for a list of industry conferences I have attended, including those at which I have presented.
Telecom Jobs:
If you're searching for employment -- for whatever reason -- please feel free to use my telecommunications industry job search links. I developed quite an extensive list many years ago, so I thought I'd make them available to help anyone who needs them. I periodically updated the links, most recently several years ago; hopefully at least some of the links are still valid and helpful.